birdgirl: July 2016

Wednesday, 20 July 2016

WWT's Plan for Nature Report Launch in London

On 20 July 2016, I travelled to London after school and had a brilliant evening attending Wildfowl and Wetland Trust's launch of their Rich in Nature Report #planfornature at the Houses of Parliament, hearing some inspiring speakers and meeting lots of interesting speakers.

The report is really important in terms of setting out what the Government's 25 year Plan for Nature should include.

Speakers included Stanley Johnson, Caroline Lucas, Rachael Maskell and Prof Georgina Mace who all urged the new Environment Secretary to make the Government’s proposed “25 year plan for nature” a priority, and they welcomed WWT’s suggestion that the Government be held to account through an annual statement to Parliament on the state of natural wealth.

It was really interesting to hear the speakers and talk to attendees from many of the nature and environmental charities afterwards.

Young conservationist Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig and Dr Richard Benwell, WWT
Photograph copyright WWT

Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig
Photograph copyright Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig

Martin Spray, WWT

Dr Richard Benwell, WWT

Caroline Lucas

Professor Georgina Mace

Stanley Johnson

Rachael Maskell

This is the link to the WWT article http://www.wwt.org.uk/news/all-news/2016/07/wwt-news/60888/

Green Party MP Caroline Lucas said:

“Unfortunately a year into this Parliament there is no sign of a 25 year plan and the promise has been weakened along the way.

“In the post-EU world it’s more important than ever that we have a strong environmental plan for 25 years and that we have signposts along the way to that, like this wonderful new report from WWT which rightly calls for targets to set our direction and Parliamentary culpability to make sure that we achieve our goals.”

This was one section from the WWT article, which made me smile:

The evening was attended by 80 guests including environmental charities, land managers, businesses, academics and environment communicators including ‘urban birder’ David Lindo and ‘bird girl’ Mya-Rose Craig.

About the Author

Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig in Antarctica
Photograph copyright Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig

Mya-Rose Craig is a 14 year old young British Bangladeshi birder, naturalist, conservationist, environmentalist, activist, 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 Penguins in Antarctica over Christmas 2015, her 7th continent.

Mya-Rose was a Bristol European Green Capital Ambassador along with Kevin McCloud, Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, Tony Juniper, Simon King, Miranda Krestovnikoff and Shaun the Sheep! See the full list of Bristol 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. She organised a conference in June 2016 aiming to increase the ethnic diversity in nature. Please connect with her on LinkedIn (Mya-Rose Birdgirl Craig) so that she can invite you to join the Race Equality in Nature LinkedIn Group and be part of the change. Please like her Birdgirl Facebook Page and follow her on Birdgirl Twitter

Sunday, 17 July 2016

Camp Avalon 2016

Last weekend was Camp Avalon, my camp for young people interested in birds, nature or from inner city Bristol wanting to connect with nature. We had 17 attendees with another two visiting and 50% were from an ethnic minority background.

We had an amazing time, birding, mothing. ringing, trying out wildlife magazine journalism and wildlife photography. Thank you to Ben Hoare (features editor from BBC Wildlife Magazine) and nature photographer Paul Collins as well as the Avalon Marshes Centre.

The camp was successful in engaging everyone at the camp and connecting them to nature. It was amazing to watch.

We also saw some brilliant birds including Bittern, Little Bittern, Great White Egret, Glossy Ibis, Bearded Tit, Nightjar and some great moths.

Next year Camp Avalon 17 will be running Friday 30 June to Sunday 2 July and will be open for those age 12 - 18. Please get in touch if you would like to come.

About the Author

Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig in Antarctica
Photograph copyright Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig

Tuesday, 5 July 2016

American White-winged Scoter, Murcar, Aberdeenshire

Sometimes we do a long distance twitch that is really fun, just because of the madness of the trip. That was what this twitch was like.

I had an inset day on Tuesday 5th July 2016. That's when school is closed for teacher training.

So rather than have a lazy day at home, we left home after school and Dad drove us to the Lake District. My Gran has a caravan here and it's the perfect place to stay over and get a few hours sleep.

Early morning of the 5th July, we set out for North Eastern Scotland. It was 9 am when we arrived at Murcar, Aberdeenshire. We were looking for an American White-winged Scoter, which had been around a while. However, we soon found out that it had not been seen that morning. Had it gone? The next few hours were spent looking through the telescope, out into the sea, which was hard to do as it was difficult picking up the birds and identifying them.

Young Birder Mya-Rose Craig at American White-winger Scoter Twitch

After 1-2 hours, Dad eventually found the Scoter and we got reasonable views but not good enough to digiscope photos. It was a really amazing bird to see, all the way across the Atlantic. It was another new bird for for my British and World List.

After watching it for an hour, we had to leave and head home, via a quick stop at the caravan, where Dad got a have a power nap.

About the Author

Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig in Antarctica
Photograph copyright Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig