The Bittern - Welcome
Hello
again!
An
eternal question for all county ornithological societies is ‘Where are the next
generation of birdwatchers coming from?’ Looking around the table at SOS
committee meetings, it’s immediately obvious that the average age is higher than
any of us would like (personally, I suspect, as well as looking to the future
of the Society). Any initiative which encourages young birders is therefore
definitely a good thing. So it is great to carry a report in this issue of the
inaugural Camp Avalon, to which several SOS members
gave their time, and which appears to have been a great success. It is the
brainchild of Mya-Rose Craig (aka Birdgirl), who you may know from the BBC4
documentary Twitchers: A Very British Obsession. Now a few years older, though
still only 13, Mya has not only built up an impressive world list, but also
takes nature conservation (both here and abroad) and getting young people
interested in birdwatching and all other aspects of nature very seriously
indeed. Sounds good to me.
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Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig, Camp Avalon
Photograph taken by and copyright Helena Craig |
Camp Avalon 2015
Mya-Rose
Craig reports on a new birding camp for young people In February, I was looking
longingly at the details of Camp Colorado and Camp Avocet
organised by the American Birding Association (ABA) for teenage birders. The
idea is that over a week away on camp, young birders learn from experienced,
well-known ones as well as making new friends and most of all enjoying
themselves.
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| Camp Colorado, USA |
There was nothing here aimed just at teenagers and so I decided to
organise a camp, Camp
Avalon. Mum and Dad [Helena
and Chris Craig] said they would help and I felt sure that some Somerset birders would
help too. However, it would be just for a weekend and cheap, so that it was
accessible. The Avalon Marshes Centre agreed that we could use their site for
free, I found a campsite nearby, and lots of birders with a wide range of
skills and experience agreed to give their time unpaid. I then read an article
by David Lindo in ABA Magazine, where he talked about ‘opening the door’ to
nature to inner city or ethnic minority teenagers. Camp Avalon
needed to be inclusive. I talked to people in Bristol and tried to overcome the barriers to
these young people connecting with nature or coming on a camp like this.
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| David Lindo, 'The Urban Birder' |
The
camp was over the weekend of 19–21 June and we had 14 attend, including keen
young birders Ben Bond, Dan Burrows, Tom and Mia Carpendale, Tom Gale, Aiden
Gregory, Lewis Mitchell, Thomas Weston and myself. Also five black or Asian
teenage boys from Central Bristol came, none
of whom had ever camped.
On the Friday evening, we met up at the campsite,
helped get all the tents up and cooked dinner. Moni-e (pronounced mon-e-a) was
the first person I had met from St Paul's and was amazing. He luckily took over
cooking from Mum and so we got to eat before going out mothing at Shapwick
Heath with Bill Urwin. A few people were scared of moths but bravely stuck
around.
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Moni-ee Blackwood age 15, Nabil Khandker age 15 and Rashan Salman McCormack age 14
Photograph taken by and copyright Helena Craig |
On Saturday, we all started early with a walk on Ham Wall RSPB reserve
with brilliant Somerset
birders Julian Thomas and Chris Griffin. It was fantastic to see so many
species including 2 Marsh Harriers, 2 Bitterns, Cuckoo heard, and 2 Bearded
Tits seen by Thomas. Back at the centre, we had sessions on world birding and
conservation from Andy Mears, keeping good records and fieldcraft from Somerset
Recorder Brian Gibbs, photography from Chris Griffin, Brian Gibbs and James
Packer, sketching birds from artist John Gale, and after dinner Nightjars at
Stockhill with Chris Craig, which were only seen by a few because of the
breeze.
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Julian Thomas, Rashan Salman McCormack age 14, Moni-ee Blackwood age 15 and Chris Griffin
Photograph taken by and copyright Helena Craig |
On Sunday morning, we started the day with Mike Bailey, Chris Craig and
myself giving a ringing demonstration, with Mike then giving a presentation.
Everyone was really interested in this session and I hope that those from the
city will never forget holding a bird in their hands and letting it go. One of
the loudest boys was scared of holding the birds but still had a go. After
lunch, I gave a talk on World Shorebirds Day and saving the Spoon-billed
Sandpiper followed by a really instructive bird ID walk on Shapwick Heath with
Keith Vinicombe.
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Mia Carpendale age 12, Ringing, Camp Avalon
Photograph taken by and copyright Helena Craig |
I had an amazing weekend along with all the young birders, but
I hope everyone got something out of it that they will never forget. Thank you
to all who helped.
Next year Camp
Avalon will take place on
8–10 July and hopefully we will be able to make it bigger and better with lots
more people helping with sessions as well as behind the scenes.
The Avalon Marshes Newsletter also published an article about Camp Avalon in their Apr-Jun 15 Newsletter:
We were joined on our biobliz by a group of teenagers organised by Mya-Rose Craig AKA Birdgirl on a young people's birding and wildlife weekend called Camp Avalon. Camping at a local campsite and using the Avalon Marshes Centre as a base, as well as joining us for some of our activities, the children took part in sessions on bird recording and fieldcraft, bird ringing, photography, wildlife sketching and listened to talks on world birding and conservation.
The camp was attended by a wide range of teenagers from some of our Young Wardens who are experienced birders and mothers to teenagers from inner city Bristol who had never visited the countryside before. The event was a great success and we were very proud to support them and welcome new visitors to Shapwick.
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Camp Avalon
Photograph taken by and copyright Helena Craig |
About the Writer
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Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig on Scilly
Photograph taken by and copyright Chris Craig
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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.
