birdgirl: February 2018

Thursday, 15 February 2018

Mya-Rose Birdigirl Craig Interview on ITV West News age 11 year old

When I was 11 years old, I saw my 3000th bird species in the world. It was a stunning Regent Bowerbird which I saw on my second day in Queensland, Australia at Lamington National Park in July 2013.

I had spent 6 months in South America in 2012 on during the last few days in Peru, our guide Gunnar desperately tried to find me the last few bird species to get me to 3000, but it just wasnt to be.

In January 2014, a blog appeared about the birds I had seen. This led to some articles locally and in the national press.

http://www.bathmercury.com/chew-valley-school-pupil-hits-3000-twitches/

That in turn led to an invite on ITV local news, to be interviewed about my birding. At the time, I felt really calm and not nervous at all. Looking back now, it is incredible how calm I appear. We had arrived really late, just mum as usual. She has throught it was a recorded interview for the following evening and told me that if I went wrong, I should just say could I do that again. Apparaently, as soon as we were ushered into the studio, mum realised it was a live interview but did not have the opportunity to tell me. That might have been the reason why I was so relaxed on live TV!

About the Author

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

Mya-Rose Craig is a 15-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. She is looking forward to visiting Guatamala, Tanzania, Kenya and Madagasca birding in 2018 and hopes to see her 5000th bird species in the world.

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 is an Ambassador for World Shorebirds Day, See It Her Way and a Charter Champion for The Charter for Woods, Trees and People. She has given over 50 talks, speaking at conferences such as being on a panel with George Monbiot and Caroline Lucas on Sustainability and the Future of Cities. She has also appeared on TV an dis particularly proud of being in Silent Roars, a short film whihc was part of Listen to Britain 2017 https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-the-silent-roars-2017-online. She organised a conference, Race Equality in Nature, in June 2016 aiming to increase the ethnic diversity in nature and plans to run her fifth Camp Avalon camp in 2018. She has also set up Black2Nature with the aim of working with organisations to increase the access to nature of Black Asian Minority Ethnic people. 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. She has been awarded the Bath and West Show Environmental Youth Award 2017 for Bristol for her Black2Nature work EYA 2017. Please also like her Birdgirl Facebook Page and follow her on Birdgirl Twitter.

Wednesday, 14 February 2018

An art project that directly greenifies the planet by artist Margarita Mitrovic

Make 100 Trees is the latest project by London-based designer-artist Margarita Mitrovic. The concept of the project is to make 100 artworks of trees, which will directly fund the

planting of 100 real trees. By depicting each tree in a different style and technique, the artist aims to demonstrate their uniqueness, individuality and most importantly their value to our lives and planet. The artist explains: “There is superfluous to say that each tree is unique. In my eyes trees are live magic creatures which have their hands - branches, legs - roots, skin - bark and hair - leaves, but they also have a soul. In my career I have mainly focused on human portraits as a means to represent individual personalities through simple brushstrokes, colour and medium. In this project, I am creating “portraits” of trees through which I want to demonstrate their uniqueness and remind people how beautiful those enormous giants are! I use pens, pencils and markers to show the shape of branches and the incredible surface and texture of tree bark. On the other hand I use paint, ink and brushes to represent their density and volume when they are blooming and blossoming.”

The project joins two of Margarita’s greatest passions - Art and Nature, as her favourite activities include creating artworks in her London studio and going for long walks and hikes around the UK and beyond. “Trees are super important for our health and well-being and are vital for the environment and wildlife, but as our planet becomes more urbanised, we are losing forests and trees every day. This is a global issue and I want to use art as a tool to make a positive impact on nature.” - explains Margarita.

Each artwork will be unique and original, created by the artist in a different style and technique on a standard format of 15x15 cm. A hundred works of art (made using pencils, pens, markers, ink, paint, charcoal, fabrics, thread, cardboard, photography, laser cutters, 3D printers and much more) all showing a tree, but all of them individual, just like each tree is. Margarita is launching this project through Kickstarter - a crowdfunding platform, which allows people to gather funds for their creative work. The crowdfunding will run for a limited period of 35 days (Jan 31st - March 8th), during which people can order an original artwork for £25, an artwork print for £10 or even book an art masterclass with Margarita in her studio. Once the project is complete, an art exhibition of the 100 artworks will be organised in a London gallery, showcasing them to the public before they are sent off to their new owners. Part of the sales profits will be used to plant 100 real trees, thanks to a collaboration with Trees for Cities, a UK charity that is on a mission to plant 1 million trees in UK cities by 2020.

You can see the project and support it via this kickstarter link:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/764720081/100-artworks-of-trees-100-planted-trees?ref=user_menu

About the artist

Margarita Mitrovic is a multi-award-winning London-based designer and visual artist. She applies her creative skills in a wide variety of projects, including interior design, branding, graphics and illustration. She began her career path after graduating in Interior & Spatial Design at the University of Hertfordshire branch in Moscow, Russia, and since then her experience spans from working in small interior design studios to large architecture practices in Moscow and London, as well as independent and client work in illustration, graphics and art.

Hi resolution images available here:

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/ry09w6axr0h9nlm/AAAqct4WqSirRZpyxuV0Dzs4a?dl=0

About the Author

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

Mya-Rose Craig is a 15-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. She is looking forward to visiting Guatamala, Tanzania, Kenya and Madagasca birding in 2018 and hopes to see her 5000th bird species in the world.

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 is an Ambassador for World Shorebirds Day, See It Her Way and a Charter Champion for The Charter for Woods, Trees and People. She has given over 50 talks, speaking at conferences such as being on a panel with George Monbiot and Caroline Lucas on Sustainability and the Future of Cities. She has also appeared on TV an dis particularly proud of being in Silent Roars, a short film whihc was part of Listen to Britain 2017 https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-the-silent-roars-2017-online. She organised a conference, Race Equality in Nature, in June 2016 aiming to increase the ethnic diversity in nature and plans to run her fifth Camp Avalon camp in 2018. She has also set up Black2Nature with the aim of working with organisations to increase the access to nature of Black Asian Minority Ethnic people. 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. She has been awarded the Bath and West Show Environmental Youth Award 2017 for Bristol for her Black2Nature work EYA 2017. Please also like her Birdgirl Facebook Page and follow her on Birdgirl Twitter.

Sunday, 11 February 2018

Ringing a Wood Pigeon - my first adult ringed

Last Saturday, 10th February 2018, I was busy revising for my GCSE exams. The weather was pretty bad and so Dad and I had not gone to the ringing station.

Dad had put some foods out in a trap, as usual, to see if he could catch something. I hadn't been hopeful.

At 11 am, Dad ran into the house and straight up the stairs to my room. He was really excited and told me that he had caught a Wood Pigeon.

I had ringed a young bird in the nest before at Chew Valley Lake, but never ringed an adult.

Mya-Rose Birdgirl Craig ringing a Wood Pigeon on 10 February 2018
Photograph copyright Mya-Rose Craig

Once I had it in a tight grip, it was really calm and so a lovely bird to ring. It was also actually really beautiful.

About the Author

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