Speaking at Teaching Unions' Conferences 2016

Young birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig taking part in RSPB Big School Birdwatch
Photograph copyright Chew Valley School

A while ago, I wrote two blog posts which were open letters to BBC Wildlife Magasine about my thoughts on getting children into nature:

http://birdgirluk.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/letter-to-bbc-wildlife-magazine.html

http://birdgirluk.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/second-open-letter-to-bbc-wildlife.html

Young birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig taking part in Camp Avalon

Photograph taken by and copyright Helena Craig 

Since then, I have been speaking to science and geography teachers’ Unions and will be talking at both their annual conferences about conservation and environmentalism being taught consistently in science and geography lessons, as well as in English and other broader subjects. I will be speaking about how this is really important for our future.

The message I plan to get across is that at the moment, I don't think teenagers know or care about nature, environmental and conservation issues. They are the future and so if we want to save our planet and everything on it, this needs to change. You can't care about something you don't know about. I feel that even without these topics specifically being added to the national curriculum, geography and science teachers have a lot of scope for including them into their lessons. I appreciate that many teachers are already trying to do this.


Geographer's Association - 9/4/16 Manchester

Title - Educating our young people to be environmentalists and conservationists

Summary

13 year old Mya-Rose Craig is a writer, blogger and speaker. She is passionate about saving our planet and everything on it but realizes that most teenagers don’t know or care about these issues. She believes that as young people are the future, unless we can interest them, we have no hope. Hear her thoughts on essential topics to teach such as re-wilding, fracking and palm oil plantations and engaging your students so that they care.

http://www.geography.org.uk/cpdevents/annualconference/ 

Young birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig taking part in a school trip

Photograph copyright Chew Valley School

Young birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig taking part in a school trip

Photograph copyright Chew Valley School

ASE (The Association for Science Education) Union – 10/01/2016 Birmingham

Title - Educating our future environmentalists

Summary
13 year old Mya-Rose Craig is a young conservationist, environmentalist and activist and writes the successful birdgirl blog. Hear from her why you should teach your pupils about wildlife and conservation issues. How can our next generation care about nature and the environment if they do not know about it?

http://www.ase.org.uk/conferences/annual-conference/

Young birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig taking part in Camp Avalon

Photograph taken by and copyright Helena Craig 

Young birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig taking part in Camp Avalon

Photograph taken by and copyright Helena Craig 

About the Writer

Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig on Scilly
Photograph taken by and copyright Chris Craig

Mya-Rose Craig is a 13 year old birder, naturalist, conservationist, environmentalist, writer and speaker. She is based near Bristol and writes the successful Birdgirl Blog, with posts about nature and conservation from around the world. She loved seeing Mountain Gorillas in East Africa and is looking forward to watching Penguins in Antarctica in December 2015, which will be her 7th continent.

Mya-Rose is a Bristol European Green Capital 2015 Ambassador along with Kevin McCloud, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Tony Juniper, Simon King, Miranda Krestovnikoff and Shaun the Sheep! See the full list of Bristol 2015 Ambassadors. She has also 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

World Shorebirds Day - 4, 5, 6 Sept 2015 - How the day went

As well as being a young birder and conservationist, I am also Ambassador for World Shorebirds Day.

I have chosen to champion World Shorebirds Day because it is an organisation that each September celebrates waders (shorebirds) and those trying to conserve them. Waders often migrate long distances along nine flyways worldwide. They stop off to rest in different places along the flyways, making them vulnerable. World Shorebirds Day has been set up to show how important bird surveying is so that people who don’t normally count birds can improve and that the number involved worldwide increases.

Young Birder Mya-Rose on Sonadia Island, Bangladesh looking at waders
Photograph taken by and copyright Helena Craig

I have a real connection and love of waders. They are my dad’s favorite bird groups and through years of watching and studying them, he is amazing at identifying them. That love for waders has rubbed off on me.

On Sunday 6 September 2015, World Shorebirds Day, I had woken up in a hotel in Derbyshire.  We had been in Cambridge the day before, for the Oriental Bird Club AGM. After dinner with a few other people, we set off driving north. We had trouble finding anywhere to stay and I thought we might end up sleeping in the car again (that's a whole other story!).  

In the morning, Dad drove us to Spurn, where we looked for a Black Stork that had been there a few weeks.  As we had been away in East Africa, this was my first chance to try and see it.  That would be a new British bird for me and if I saw it, would be my 450th.  However, it was not to be and by 1 pm we arrived at the Spurn Migfest.  I didn't bump into any Next Generation Birders (NGB) there, who had been around, but did get brilliant views of a Barred Warbler and more importantly, we saw it within 2 minutes of coming out of the barn.

Then it was time for me to do my wader count for World Shorebird Day.  I checked out a couple of pools and my wader count  was the following, of which the Ruff was my favourate:

• 1 Greenshank
• 890 Redshank
• 1 Green Sandpiper
• 200 Dunlin
• 2 Black-tailed Godwit
• 16 Lapwing
• 1 Turnstone
• 2 Ringed Plover
• 1 Ruff

It would be really great if we can increase the numbers taking part and make it the first huge global birding event.

World Shorebird Day Project, South Korea
Photograph taken by and copyright Eugene Cheah

World Shorebird Day Project, South Korea
Photograph taken by and copyright Eugene Cheah

In Bangladesh they made it into a huge events, involving lots of school children and t-shirts for everyone.  In a poor country like Bangladesh, new t-shirts are sought after and I'm sure they will be worn a lot, reminding the children of the day and the importance of looking after waders.

World Shorebird Day Project, Bangladesh
Photograph taken by and copyright Mohsin Kabir Miron

The events in Bangladesh were inspiring and it would be great if they could be replicated next year across the globe. First we need to raise money for t-shirts and people to get enthused about the project, maybe through the Neotropic, African and Oriental Bird Clubs.

World Shorebird Day Project, Bangladesh
Photograph taken by and copyright Mohsin Kabir Miron

This is another report from the USA
http://www.goldenrod.org/blog/world-shorebirds-day-field-trip-results

Read my first blog on the World Shorebirds Day website, http://bit.ly/18UVWu4 and register to take part, where ever you live in the world.

About the Author

Young Birder Mya-Rose Craig on Scilly
Photograph taken by and copyright Chris Craig

Mya-Rose Craig is a 13 year old young birder, naturalist, conservationist, environmentalist, 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 loved seeing Mountain Gorillas in East Africa and is looking forward to watching Penguins in Antarctica in December 2015, which will be her 7th continent. 

Mya-Rose is a Bristol European Green Capital 2015 Ambassador along with Kevin McCloud, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Tony Juniper, Simon King, Miranda Krestovnikoff and Shaun the Sheep! See the full list of Bristol 2015 Ambassadors. She has also 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

Oriental Bird Club. - AGM 5th Sept 2015

On 5th September 2015, I spoke about Spoon-billed Sandpiper in Bangladesh and World Shorebird Day, who I'm an Ambassador for at the OBC AGM.  

Advert for OBC AGM in OBC Magazine Birding Asia, June 2015

I talked about my trip to Bangladesh in February, where I did a Spoon-billed Sandpiper survey (19 birds recorded) and how as a British Bangladeshi I managed to get the top Bangladeshi Newspapers and TV Stations to report on my visit and the importance of these birds to Bangladesh.

Young birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig
Photograph taken by and copyright Tim Losebury

The Oriental Bird Club (OBC) is a UK based organisation with members around the world. Their main aim is to help conserve birds in Asia. They help with funding of projects, like this grant for training young Bangladesh Bird Club Members to ring (with the emphasis on waders so that in the future they can ring Spoon billed Sandpipers) http://orientalbirdclub.org/bertram-smythies/

This year's OBC AGM took place in Cambridge on Saturday 5th September 2015.

Young birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig
Photograph taken by and copyright Tim Losebury, OBC

The programme also included:

China’s Grippers – a talk on the most sought-after birds of China by Pete Morris (Birdquest Leader)

Baer’s Pochard: responding to a critical situation by Dr Debbie Pain, Director of Conservation, WWT

In search of the endemic birds of Taiwan - by Andy Walker

Restoration of Indonesian rainforest – sustainable model or Government whim? by Andrew Impey, Head of Global Habitats, RSPB

Videoing around the Philippines by Keith Blomerley



The programme looked really interesting, especially the conservation talks.

I was particularly interested in the Baer's Pochard talk, as the WWT's Nigel Jarrett had already asked me to get involved, which I hope to do in 2016.  It is close to my heart as they used to winter in Tangua Hoar, Sunamgonj, Sylhet, Bangladesh.  My grandfather is from Sunamganj and I have a great-aunt who lives in Tangua.  Apparently, he used to tell my big sister how beautiful it was there.  My Mum and Dad saw 6 Baer's Pochard there in Dec 2000 and I would like to see them back there again.

I loved hearing about trips and was interested in the restoration of rainforest on Sumatra, as I was keen to find out what can be done to overcome the issue of palm oil plantations.

As well as me, there were three young boys watching their dad who was one of the speakers and Andrew Walker who it was good to meet finally and who was under 40.

Andrew Walker's talk and slides are on this link

http://awbirder.blogspot.co.uk/2015/09/in-search-of-endemic-birds-of-taiwan.html

Last year the AGM was in London and a group of Next Generation Birders (under 25) came.  This year they were involved in the Spurn MigFest the same weekend, so couldn't come.  It would be good to get some younger people to attend next year, so that they can get involved in Asian conservation projects.

About the Writer

Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig on Scilly
Photograph taken by and copyright Chris Craig

Mya-Rose Craig is a 13 year old young birder, naturalist, conservationist, environmentalist, 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 loved seeing Mountain Gorillas in East Africa and is looking forward to watching Penguins in Antarctica in December 2015, which will be her 7th continent. 

Mya-Rose is a Bristol European Green Capital 2015 Ambassador along with Kevin McCloud, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Tony Juniper, Simon King, Miranda Krestovnikoff and Shaun the Sheep! See the full list of Bristol 2015 Ambassadors. She has also 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

Wader poem for Wader Quest

In July I wrote a poem about waders for Wader Quest.   This is an extract from their July 2015 Newsletter.

Wader Quest - Newsletter July 2015

Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig at Hudsonian Godwit twitch
Photograph taken by and copyright Helena Craig

Waders : A poem by Mya-Rose “Birdgirl” Craig


Long legs
lots of different colours:
brown, grey, black
many species of waders.

They wade into the water
for bugs in the muddy marshes.
The beetles are their favourite!
Beady black eyes,
long bills,
pointy bills,
curly bills,
to probe the mud for lunch!

Long, thin or fat bodies,
waders vary,
their call is theirs
no sound bite to copy.

Humans drain the wet
lands to reclaim
land for themselves.
So your habitat is in danger, waders 

Yes, you are endangered! 

Dedicated to Wader Quest By Mya-Rose Craig, Birdgirl In collaboration with Ita O'Donnell

Hudsonian Godwit, Meare Heath, Somerset Levels
Photograph taken by and copyright Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig

Postscript

7-8 November 2015 was Wader Conservation World Watch, which I took part in seeing a Purple Sandpiper. These are a couple a pages out of the Wader Quest special Newsletter:

About the Writer

Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig on Scilly
Photograph taken by and copyright Chris Craig 

Mya-Rose Craig is a 13 year old young birder, naturalist, conservationist, environmentalist, 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 loved seeing Mountain Gorillas in East Africa and is looking forward to watching Penguins in Antarctica in December 2015, which will be her 7th continent. 

Mya-Rose is a Bristol European Green Capital 2015 Ambassador along with Kevin McCloud, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Tony Juniper, Simon King, Miranda Krestovnikoff and Shaun the Sheep! See the full list of Bristol 2015 Ambassadors. She has also 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