What a Great Time we all had!

So the 24th British Birdwatching Fair has drawn to a close.  Many congratulations to organisers Tim Appleton, Martin Davies and all their staff and volunteers for making it possible after dreadful weather building up to the event and some rain on the first day.  In a year when many other major events were cancelled BirdFair pulled through.



The Grand Opening of the 2012 BirdFair

 The event was as exciting as usual with a number of large marquees stacked with exhibitors selling everything necessary for following our pursuit of watching wildlife.  I was particularly impressed with a stand for Incognito which was selling a mosquito repellant made of natural constituents and containing no deet.  I bought a supply and cannot wait to try it out.  I caught with many old friends over my two days and no doubt missed a few others in the crowds.



Sunshine at BirdFair 2012

On Saturday I did my bit on stage appearing in a Question of Stork.  This was a quiz based of course on Question of Sport and our team of Dr Rod Lambert, TV presenter Nick Baker and myself saw off the opposition of David Attenborough cameraman Rod Smith, Urban Birder David Lindo and One-show naturalist Mike Dilger.  An amusing part of that event was that there was a whole round on identifying bird's eggs and both teams were completely flummoxed.  Either this was because quite rightly nobody looks at eggs anymore or everyone was terrified of being arrested by the RSPB if they got them all correct.



Andy Clements of the BTO stops for a chat with Bill Oddie

It really is a great weekend and you can almost everyone involved in nature conservation and birding.  Delegates and exhibitors come from wide and far.  I met people from Trinidad & Tobago, Ecuador, Costa Rica, India, Poland, France, Spain, South Africa and Malaysia.  A great event which will raise thousands of pounds for conservation of the migration flyways of Asia.