AFON
AFON goes to BirdFair – Max Hellicar
The British Birdwatching Fair – ‘the birdwatcher’s Glastonbury’ – is an annual event held at Rutland Water, where ornithologists and nature enthusiasts travel from all over the world to attend. Birdfair 2016 was the 28th annual event to be held, after starting in 1989, and was only the second time I had attended the event.
In 2015 I only visited for one day, which wasn’t really long enough to explore the event and meet everyone, let alone enjoy the birding at Rutland Water, so this year I attended for all three days. It was great to catch up with everyone, and the wildlife wasn’t bad either with some nice bird species such as Long-tailed Duck and Great White Egret being seen.
Members of AFON were once again involved in talks and events throughout this year’s Birdfair, with Lucy McRobert, Tom Mason, Josie Hewitt, Jack Perks, Georgia Locock, Beth Aucott, Megan Shersby and Stephen Le Quesne (please let me know if I’ve forgotten anyone) all doing a fantastic job featuring in various events on a range of subjects over the weekend.
A Question Of Stork, featuring Josie Hewitt and Beth Aucott
On Saturday afternoon, some of the younger members of AFON went on a walk around Rutland Water nature reserve, splitting into two teams for a bird race which, by the sound of it, was very successful with Wood Sandpiper and Great White Egret seen.
Wood Sandpiper (Max Hellicar)
https://twitter.com/_BTO/status/767082028865118209
Another feature of Birdfair 2016 was the children’s art mural, managed by A Focus On Nature members for the fourth year running. Once again, this was a great success with lots of wildlife-related artwork and doodles filling the entire mural.
The finished mural – an explosion of colours! (Beth Aucott)
Saturday evening saw the annual AFON gathering by the Kids’ Art Mural, where members of AFON and NGB meet up to socialise and discuss current affairs with each other. Events such as Birdfair are the only chance we all really get to meet up on a large scale, so it’s a great opportunity to catch up with friends and make new ones, and it’s great to be a part of this large community of like-minded people.
AFON group photo 2016 (AFON)
Before I joined social media just a few years ago, I didn’t know of AFON. I didn’t even know if there were any other young conservationists in existence. In fact, A Focus On Nature was a relatively new group at this time. Skip two or three years ahead to the present day and AFON is a very well known organisation and network for young naturalists, providing a platform for us to communicate with each other, as well as arranging trips and events. At the time of writing, AFON has 1742 Facebook group members, fast approaching 2000. At Birdfair 2016, AFON seemed to be an ever present force, with young naturalists to be seen everywhere I looked which was fantastic. This year was a great success for us, and it seems we may even be more involved with similar events in the future!
