A Young Birder inspiring children
I have been going to as many events for Young Wardens down on the Somerset levels as possible.
They also run family days for younger children to come to with their families. I thought that it would be good to go along with my little niece Laila who is 6 years old, and help with the children. I think it's really important to inspire younger children and act as a role model.
Many of these events take place in the school holidays when we are away birding.
On 18th April 2015, there was finally a perfect event. A session focussed on bird watching on a date I was free. The Avalon Marshes Centre advertised the event with me as the "celebrity" helping as a leader, which was fantastic.
Although my big sister Ayesha had been big twitcher before having children, now she didn't have the time or money to go out. Laila had started telling her that birding was boring and so she was desperate for us to take her out, and liking birds again.
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| Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig, Ham Wall RSPB, Somerset Levels Photograph taken by and copyright Helena Craig |
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Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig, Ham Wall RSPB, Somerset Levels
Photograph taken by and copyright Helena Craig
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Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig and Laila Price, Ham Wall RSPB, Somerset Levels
Photograph taken by and copyright Helena Craig
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Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig and Laila Price, Ham Wall RSPB, Somerset Levels
Photograph taken by and copyright Helena Craig
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Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig and Laila Price, Ham Wall RSPB, Somerset Levels
Photograph taken by and copyright Helena Craig
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It was a small group of young children with mums, but perfect for spending time with each on a one to one. There was a boy call Rufus who was the same age as Laila, who shared his sticker books with her.
Don't get me going on sticker books, they are the very best thing for young children. They love sticking things in and will do anything for the next sticker.
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Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig and Laila Price, Ham Wall RSPB, Somerset Levels
Photograph taken by and copyright Helena Craig
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| Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig and Laila Price, Ham Wall RSPB, Somerset Levels Photograph taken by and copyright Helena Craig |
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Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig and Laila Price, Ham Wall RSPB, Somerset Levels
Photograph taken by and copyright Helena Craig
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Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig and Laila Price, Ham Wall RSPB, Somerset Levels
Photograph taken by and copyright Helena Craig
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We met at the new Ham Wall RSPB car park, walking all along looking for otter tracks before focusing on the singing birds and trying to see them. Dad has an app on his phone, so he could show them pictures of the birds we saw.
We saw four Great White Egret, Chiffchaff, Cetti's Warbler as well as an enormous grass snake in a ream, looking for baby water voles to eat.
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Grass Snake, Ham Wall RSPB, Somerset Levels
Photograph taken by and Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig
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We also heard a couple of Bittern Booming which was a bonus.
It was a great afternoon which I think the children really enjoyed. They kept coming up to me and asking me questions and wanting to walk alongside me. I think that it's really important for children to have role models and for them to think birding is cool because someone they think is cool wants to do it.
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Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig and Laila Price, Ham Wall RSPB, Somerset Levels
Photograph taken by and copyright Helena Craig
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Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig and Laila Price, Ham Wall RSPB, Somerset Levels
Photograph taken by and copyright Helena Craig
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Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig and Laila Price, Ham Wall RSPB, Somerset Levels
Photograph taken by and copyright Helena Craig
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| Chris Craig, Laila Price, Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig, Rufus' mum, Rufus, Ham Wall RSPB, Somerset Levels
Photograph taken by and copyright Helena Craig
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Chris Craig, Laila Price, Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig, Rufus' mum, Rufus,
Ham Wall RSPB, Somerset Levels
Photograph taken by and copyright Helena Craig
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Mary Scott, Chris Craig, Laila Price, Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig, Rufus' mum, Rufus,
Ham Wall RSPB, Somerset Levels
Photograph taken by and copyright Helena Craig
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Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig, Rufus' mum
Ham Wall RSPB, Somerset Levels
Photograph taken by and copyright Helena Craig
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Laila Price and Rufus, Ham Wall RSPB, Somerset Levels
Photograph taken by and copyright Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig
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Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig, Laila Price and Rufus, Ham Wall RSPB, Somerset Levels
Photograph taken by and copyright Helena Craig
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Laila Price, Rufus and Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig, Ham Wall RSPB, Somerset Levels
Photograph taken by and copyright Helena Craig
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Laila Price, Rufus and Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig, Ham Wall RSPB, Somerset Levels
Photograph taken by and copyright Helena Craig
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Laila Price, Rufus and Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig, Ham Wall RSPB, Somerset Levels
Photograph taken by and copyright Helena Craig
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About the writer
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Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig on Scilly
Photograph taken by and copyright Chris Craig |
Mya-Rose Craig is a 12 year old young birder, conservationist, writer and speaker. She is based near Bristol and writes the successful Birdgirl Blog, with posts about birding and conservation from around the world. She was the youngest person to see 3,000 birds in 2013 and she hopes to see her 4,000th bird in Antarctica, her 7th continent, in 2015. She has recently been listed with the singer songwriter George Ezra and actress Maisie Williams from Game of Thrones as one of Bristol's most influential young people. Please like her Birdgirl Facebook Page and follow her on Birdgirl Twitter
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