Camp Avalon 19-21 July 2019 Details

BLACK2NATURE

Friday 19 July 2019 to Sunday 21 July 2019

Camp Avalon 2017
Copyright Mya-Rose Birdgirl Craig

Shapwick Heath, Somerset Levels
Photograph taken by and copyright Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig

Book onto this amazing nature camp for young people aged 12-18 years. Into its 4th year, Camp Avalon has attracted a number of teenagers to the Somerset Levels near Glastonbury, to spend the weekend birding and getting involved with nature.  It is aimed at those who have no experience of nature and have never been to the countryside or camped as well as those already interested in being outdoors.  These are the links to Birdgirl's blog posts about the 2015 weekend.

This year we hope to have lots of teenagers who are Visible Minority Ethnic (VME) and or live in the city's areas of deprivation as well as those who live in the countryside. We will have plenty of activities for both groups.

VME or inner-city teenagers may be accompanied by an adult if they wish but do not need one to attend. 

Girls and boys are in separate tents with adults. DBS checked adults will be with the teenagers at all times. All food with will be halal.

Camp Avalon - Friday Night

http://bit.ly/1PpG6tC

Camp Avalon Mothing Workshop
Copyright Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig

Camp Avalon Mothing Workshop
Copyright Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig

Camp Avalon Mothing Workshop
Photograph taken by and copyright Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig

Camp Avalon - Saturday

http://bit.ly/21m0TVD

Camp Avalon Sketching Workshop
Photograph taken by and copyright Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig

Camp Avalon bird sketching workshop
Photograph taken by and copyright Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig

Camp Avalon Photography workshop
Photograph taken by and copyright Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig

Camp Avalon photography workshop
Photograph taken by and copyright Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig

Camp Avalon - Sunday

http://bit.ly/1jueBlC

Camp Avalon Bird Ringing Workshop
Photograph taken by and copyright Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig

Camp Avalon Bird Ringing Workshop
Photograph taken by and copyright Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig

Camp Avalon Bird Ringing Workshop
Photograph taken by and copyright Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig

Camp Avalon Sunday
Photograph taken by and copyright Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig

Camp Avalon Birding Walk
Photograph taken by and copyright Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig

Camp Avalon Birding Walk
Photograph taken by and copyright Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig

Friday 19 July 2019 to Sunday 21 July 2019

Camp Avalon – Programme

The programme will be finalised shortly depending on final numbers. 

Friday 19th July 2019

All activities dependent on weather

5.00 pm

Pick-up St Paul's Learning Centre (CPLC)

6.00 pm – 7.00 pm (CS)

Safety briefing, allocating tents and setting up camp

7.00 pm – 8.00 pm (CS)

Helping cooking and serving dinner

8.00 pm - 8.30 pm (CS)

Everybody to help with carrying dishes to the kitchen, washing up and drying and bringing dishes back

8.30 pm – 9.30 pm (CS)

Time to socialize and play football

9.30 pm - 10.30 pm

Toasting marshmallows over the fire

11 pm

Lights out and no more talking - just sleep

Saturday 20th July 2019

7.00 am (CS)

Everybody up and get ready

7.30 am – 8.00 am (CS) Breakfast at the campsite

8.00 am - 11.30 am (HW)

Birding at Ham Wall, searching for Great White Egret, Bittern and lots of other great birds.  Meet at HWCP. 

Led by Chris Craig and Shaun Austin
Filming with ITV West News

11.30 am – 12.00 pm (CS)

Refreshment break

12.00 pm - 12.30 pm

Feeding animals on the farm

12.30 pm – 1.30 pm (PFW)
Bio Blitzing in 2 teams

Led by Shaun Austin and Helena Craig

1.30 pm – 2.30 pm (CS)

Lunch

2.30 pm - 4.00 pm (PFW)

Wildlife Photography workshop

Led by Shane Austin

4.00 pm – 4.30 pm (CS)

Refreshment break

4.30 pm - 5.00 pm (CS)

Tent inspection

5.00 pm – 6.00 pm (CS)

Downtime (only after all belongings packed back into backpacks and tents tidied)

6.00 pm – 7.30 pm (CS)

Helping cooking and serving dinner

7.30 pm - 8.30 pm (CS)

Everybody to help with carrying dishes to the kitchen, washing up and drying and bringing dishes back

8.30 pm – 10.30 pm (MD)

Looking for Nightjar and bats on the Mendips (dependent on weather)

Led by Chris Craig

11 pm

Lights out and no more talking - just sleep

Sunday 21st July 2019

7.00 am (CS)

Everybody up and get ready

7.30 am – 8.00 am (CS) Breakfast at the campsite

8.00 am - 10.30 am (PFW)

Bird ringing demonstration
Chris Craig, Pete Burston and Mya-Rose Craig
Magazine Photoshoot

10.30 am – 11.00 am (CS)

Refreshment break

11.00 am - 12.30 pm

Walk to Glastonbury Tor

12.30 pm – 1.00 pm (CS)

Lunch

1.00 pm – 2.30 pm (CS)

Taking down tents and packing up the campsite
Ayesha Ahmed-Mendoza and Helena Craig

2.30 pm – 3.00 pm (CS)

Refreshment break

3.00 pm 

Finish 

4.00 pm

Drop off St Paul's Learning Centre (SPLC)

Key to locations

SPLC - St Paul's Learning Centre, Grosvenor Road, St Paul's, Bristol, BS2 8XJ, telephone 0117 9145470.

CS – Paddington Farm, Maidencroft Lane, Glastonbury, Somerset BA6 8JN, Telephone: 01458 832752.

PFW - Paddington Farm Woods, near to Camp Site

HW - Ham Wall RSPB Reserve, park in the new Ham Wall Car Park if open or Shapwick Heath Car Park opposite, Ashcott Road, Glastonbury, Somerset BA6 9SX

MP – Stockhill Woods, Priddy, Mendips, Somerset BA5 3BE (drive through Wells and then follow A39 towards Bristol and Bath, turn left onto Priddy Road and at the crossroads (with the Hunters Rest on the corner) turn right, the woods are on your right and park in the pull-in before the car park).

HWCP – Ham Wall RSPB Reserve Car Park, Ashcott Road, Glastonbury, Somerset BA6 9SX 

Bittern, Shapwick Heath, Somerset Levels, March 2015
Photograph was taken by and copyright Mya-Rose Craig

Cost

£20.00 per person including food and camping costs

Grants

Free places are available to those young people (and parents/family if they wish to come) from an area of deprivation or who are VME. Camp Avalon recognises that there are almost no young birders from black or minority ethnic backgrounds and so hope that these grants will encourage disadvantaged young people to be able to attend. All equipment needed will also be loaned for the weekend.

Thank you to the volunteers who have offered their time in order to pass on their knowledge to young birders. 

Shapwick Heath, Somerset Levels, March 2015
Photograph taken by and copyright Mya-Rose Craig

Hudsonian Godwit, Shapwick Heath, Somerset Levels, April 2015
Photograph taken by and copyright Mya-Rose Craig

Grass Snake, Shapwick Heath, Somerset Levels, April 2015
Photograph taken by and copyright Mya-Rose Craig

Black2Nature

Thank you to Paddington Farm and the many people who have supported Black2Nature and these camps and to Chew Valley Ringing Station and the birders who have offered their time in order to pass on their knowledge to young birders. 

Thank you to Opticron for the donation of five pairs of compact binoculars and discounted optical equipment to this project and to Bristol Ornithological Society for the donation of £2500 for 20 pairs of binoculars.

Thank you also to Go Outdoors for discounted camping equipment and Blenheim Scouts for discounted use of their minibus.

Thank you also to Burns Price Foundation, Quartet Community Funding, Community Access Support Services and Alpkit for helping to fund our projects. 

Transport

Free transport is available to and from Bristol, with pickup from St Paul's Learning Centre, Grosvenor Road, St Paul's. 

How to Book

Please book on Eventbrite or e-mail helenabcraig@hotmail.co.uk or text 07798818772 with your name, address, phone number and date of birth and your child's name and date of birth with any dietary requirements. Please also get in touch if you would like to get involved by volunteering.

About the Author

Young environmentalist and birder Mya-Rose Birdgirl Craig 

Copyright Mya-Rose Birdgirl Craig

Camp Avalon and Camp Chew are the ideas of Mya-Rose Craig, who also organised the first events in 2015. She is organising the 2017 camp with the organisation she has formed Black2Nature and hopes to attract more young birders and inner-city teenagers.

Mya-Rose Craig is a 17-year-old young British Bangladeshi birder, naturalist, conservationist, environmentalist, activist, writer and speaker. She is based near Bristol and writes posts about birding, conservation and environmental issues from around the world. 

She has been involved in the UK organisation of the Youth Strikes encouraging young people from around the world to not go to school once a month and protest instead demanding immediate action to prevent climate breakdown. This is an interview in New Statesman.

She 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 four nature camps for children and teenagers since 2015 and is helping to run four more in 2019. She also organised a conference, Race Equality in Nature, in June 2016 aiming to increase the ethnic diversity in nature and plans two more in 2019. She has also set up Black2Nature with the aim of working with organisations to increase the access to nature of Visible Minority Ethnic people and is President. 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 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 is a Minister in Chris Packham's Manifesto for Nature in 2018 and spoke in front of 10,000 people at the Walk for Nature. She has also appeared on TV and radio and is particularly proud of being in Silent Roars, a short film which was part of Listen to Britain 2017 https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-the-silent-roars-2017-online. 

She has been awarded the Bath and West Show Environmental Youth Award 2017 for Bristol for her Black2Nature work EYA 2017. She was also listed as one of Bristol's BME top 100 powerlist.

She loved seeing Mountain Gorillas in East Africa and Penguins in Antarctica over Christmas 2015, her 7th continent. She became the youngest person to see 5000 birds in 2019 age 16 and is looking forward to visiting Brazil birding in 2019 and hopes to see half the birds in the world there. Please also like her Birdgirl Facebook Page and follow her on Birdgirl Twitter. If you would like to contact Mya-Rose about her work, please e-mail helenabcraig@hotmail.co.uk.