It’s amazing how much you can pack into three days at the British Birdwatching Fair. It was non-stop working and socialising from dawn until the wee small hours. Sleep was an optional extra which we somehow missed out on, isn’t Red Bull wonderful, or an even better new discovery for us, a low-cal high-octane brew called Kick. Iain Campbell from Tropical Birding managed to consume 3 litres of this, just on Day 1. No wonder he was hyper for the whole fair. We were a little more reserved with our caffeine intake but somehow managed to keep going, and even stay upright for our 2 talks. Saturday afternoon saw us presenting to a full house in the Events Marquee, with standing room only at the back, spilling out of the tent into the field.
It was great to catch up with old friends and birding contacts: Marcia from Caiman Lodge in the Pantanal, Brazil; Alec Earnshaw who’d helped us bird the Ceibas region in Argentina; Tim and Janet who’d shared our adventure at Sacha Lodge in Ecuador; Owen and Glynis over to enjoy the UK sunshine as a break from their home in Cyprus; Peter Lobo, bearing gifts of Darjeeling Tea, who’d given us such an amazing tour in India; Hannu Jannes who helped organise the Finland leg of The Biggest Twitch; and of course, Iain and Keith Barnes from Tropical Birding, without whom our Birdfair experience just wouldn’t be the same.
It was so busy, in fact Friday was the busiest day ever recorded, that we had little time to escape our duties on the stand to explore much of the Fair itself, but we did make time to visit Maria at the Country Innovation stand, and pick up a copy of their latest catalogue – check out their new models! We also dropped in on Steve Cale, our bird guide friend and artist, for a quick chat, and grabbed a word with Nick Baker and Mike Dilger, both much in demand. The forecast heavy rain never really materialised so the wellies stayed in the boot, unused. If only we’d brought a portable fan to cope with the heat and humidity in the marquee – it was just like being back in the heat and the humidity of the tropics, though perhaps without the lifers!
Food featured quite highly too. Nigel Redman from A&C Black, and the publisher of our forthcoming book, introduced us to the lovely pub called The George at Stamford, somewhere we’ll definitely be going back to next year. Together with Rob Robinson and Dick Ashford from the American Birding Association who were over here on a fact-finding trip about the Birdfair, we also enjoyed the great food at the Admiral Hornblower in Oakham, while one night we sneaked away for a quiet but delicious supper at Nick’s Restaurant also in Oakham.
As always, the Birdfair was visited by every type of birdwatcher imaginable and people-watching from the stand was highly entertaining as everyone passed by, from the young to the old and from all parts of the world, though sadly one of our perennial favourites, Camo Man, who dresses literally from head to foot in camouflage gear, was nowhere to be seen. Or was his camouflage just even more effective this year?!