Birdgirl's Interview for BBC Radio 4 "You and Yours" Programme

Young Birder Mya-Rose Birdgirl Craig in her garden
Photograph taken by and copyright Chris Craig

During the Easter holidays, I was contacted by a journalist, Jess Quayle, from the 'You and Yours' consumer programme from Radio 4. They were planning a feature about the number of people feeding birds in their gardens and how this had increased massively in recent years. They wanted me to answer a few questions on the topic and talk about how I feed my garden birds.

Young Birder Mya-Rose Birdgirl Craig in her garden
Photograph taken by and copyright Chris Craig

Young Birder Mya-Rose Birdgirl Craig in her garden
Photograph taken by and copyright Chris Craig

The only problem was that I was away skiing and then was going straight to Paris to spend a week with my grandmother in Disneyland.

Luckily, the programme wasn't due to be aired for couple of weeks, so after I was home, I got up at 7 am midweek to record the last bit of dawn chorus in our garden in the Chew Valley, south of Bristol. If I am ever up at 5 am for ringing or twitching, hearing the dawn chorus is a truly fantastic experience. I was too tired to actually talk then, so fitted the recording in at Chew Valley Lake after school. The only problem was that the Bristol Water gardeners were out cutting and strimming the grass, so I had to do my recordings in between the noise. I always learn a lot about being a presenter, every time I have to do anything like this so is a brilliant experience.

It was amazing to have my first interview for BBC Radio 4 aired last Friday 5th May 2017, which you can still hear on BBC IPlayer for the “You & Yours” programme in the section about the increase in people feeding the birds in their gardens. I am at 10:45 into the programme on http://bbc.in/2qeC28M with images at http://bbc.in/2qMuXts.

Young Birder Mya-Rose Birdgirl Craig in her garden
Photograph taken by and copyright Chris Craig

Young Birder Mya-Rose Birdgirl Craig in her garden
Photograph taken by and copyright Chris 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 is an Ambassador for World Shorebirds Day, See It Her Way and a Charter Champion for The Charter for Woods, Trees and People. She organised a conference, Race Equality in Nature, in June 2016 aiming to increase the ethnic diversity in nature and plans to run her third Camp Avalon camp in 2017. 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.

Birdgirl's 30 Days Wild - for diverse communities

These are a few of my photographs from my 30 Days Wild last year.

30 Days Wild 2015 - Enjoying the plants in my garden but could be a park

30 Days Wild 2015 - Enjoying local woods but could be in a park

30 Days Wild 2015 - Enjoying the pond-life in my garden but could be a park

30 Days Wild 2015 - Smelling the flowers in my garden but could be in a park

30 Days Wild 2015 - Noticing a bumblebee in my garden but could be in a park

30 Days Wild 2015 - Enjoying a nature reserve but could be a place in the city

Today is the first day of 30 Days Wild 2016, an initiative of The Wildlife Trusts who state "This June, can you do something wild everyday for a month?"

What they are saying is that nature is everywhere, so by looking for it through your normal day, you should start to notice it and enjoy it.

This month is 30 Days Wild 2016, an initiative of The Wildlife Trusts who say "This June, can you do something wild each day for a month?" 

They say that they don't want you to give anything up for June, just give yourself time in the wild with your family, to reconnect with nature. 26,000 people have already signed up, but it would be great if you signed up to taking part at http://bit.ly/1WZnYKW.

This Friday, 3rd June 2016, is also the date of my conference, Race Equality in Nature. This is about getting Black Asian Minority Ethnic (BAME) people out into nature http://bit.ly/1TnYiE1  

The idea for the conference came after I organised a nature camp last year, Camp Avalon, when five BAME teenagers came along.  The all found it hard to engage with nature in the ways that others did and we had to find a way that made a connection.  Chris Griffin who was leading a birding walk talked to the boys about Peregrine Falcons and how when they dropped to catch their prey, they travelled faster than a Formula 1 car, then comparing both speeds.  The boys were mesmerised - by nature.

I could see that everyone could feel connected to nature, however unlikely by their appearance and background.

So why are there so few BAME people out in nature?  Our reserves, whether they are in the countryside or in the city, have few BAME people visiting.  A recent Government Report shows that BAME children are far less likely to be taken to a even park or playground. There seem to be a huge number of factors effecting BAME people and their ability to go outdoors in the UK (even compared to home countries where maybe people are working outdoors). We hope that the conference will highlight some of these and what can be done to help.

So, for my 30 Days Wild, I have decided to connect with nature each day in a different way, that could feel relevant to BAME communities and practical if you live in an inner city area. Things that they can identify with and so might find it easier to try.  I have been asking for suggestions from a range of communities, so that I can hopefully be inclusive.  It would be brilliant to hear from you with your ideas.

Some of my ideas are: 

• Visiting an open space in a large family group, play rounders and make lots of noise
• Sit in a park or garden for 10 minutes practicing mindfulness/meditation/using prayer beads
• For Muslims taking part in Ramadan throughout June, break your fast in a group in a garden or open greenspace (check where's open in the evening), followed by doing your prayers outside
• Reading your religious book outside (use a bench as a prop if you need one)

Student Islamic Society on a trip out

A child with autism

Ideas on The Wildlife Trust website include "feel nature through the soles of your feet".  That sounds pretty universal and so I thought I'd start with that, though of course most BAME people in the inner city might have to go to a park to feel grass in their toes.

Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig - 30 days wild day 1

Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig - 30 days wild day 1

About the Writer

Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig on Scilly

Photograph taken by and copyright Chris Craig 

Mya-Rose Craig is a 14 year old young British Bangladesh 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. Please like her Birdgirl Facebook Page and follow her on Birdgirl Twitter

Birdgirl’s Favourite Blog Posts of 2015

Please watch my 90 second video about seeing amazing Mountain Gorillas in Uganda.  There were a highlight of of the year but not the blog itself:

youtu.be/abuqEr6KnnA

Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig with a silverback Mountain Gorilla

I have loved blogging during 2015 and looking back I thought I’d post my favourite ones.  When I started looking at the posts, there were so many and so much variety, it was really hard to choose.  In the end, I had posted 247 times during 2015, which is just plain crazy.  For 2016, I’m going to try and keep it averaging at about one a week, with more when I'm abroad, so that I can concentrate on school work.

Here the final list:

1.     Big Garden Birdwatch – 28/012015 - http://bit.ly/1yPFQLk

This is THE birding event of the year and so had to be included. Every year the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) as the public to watch their garden birds for an hour and record what they see.  In 2015 over 8.5 million birds were recorded. 

Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig taking part in Big Garden Birdwatch

2.     Bangladesh Trip 18^th Feb 2015, The Spoon-billed Sandpiper Day 5, Part 2 – 18/02/2015 - http://bit.ly/23wjhtL

The is about finally seeing a Spoon-billed Sandpiper, a hugely rare and stunning bird.  Saving the Spoon-billed Sandpiper is a project that is really important to me.

Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig with Mohamed Foysal and Sakib Ahmed Sonadia Island, Bangladesh

3.     What kind of world would I vote for? A GM free one – 02/05/2015 - http://bit.ly/1QeZqFL

This is a subject that I feel very strongly about.  I think it’s terrible that we can have GMO in our food without it being labelled.  If there was one post I would urge you to read, it’s this one.

Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig

4.     A Mega Twitch, Citril Finch, Norfolk – 10/05/2015 – http://bit.ly/1JbHw6s

I think the reason this twitch was great, was it had everything going for a good story. First it was a MEGA RARITY.  I had been away on Scout survival camp and had no sleep then I wrote, “I should have know something was up, when Mum appeared to pick us up right on time.  Mum is never on time.”  We dashed home and Dad got us to Norfolk for late afternoon.  It was a little walk to the bird and the whole world was walking towards us, helpfully grinning and telling us that the bird was still there.  We saw the bird pretty quickly but knew it was touch and go, as within about 20 minutes it had disappeared.  I felt loads of relief.   Lee Evans was there adding some drama and so were a few friends that we hadn’t seen for ages (like Mike Edgecombe OBC Chair).  Then we stopped at the home of some world birding friends, which is always great and had a late night getting home.

Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig

5.     30 Days Wild, Day 13 examining Brian and meeting Bill Oddie – 13/06/2015 http://bit.ly/1QWcxvZ

This was an initiative from The Wildlife Trusts to get people doing something wild everyday in their normal lives during the month of June. I decided to take part for the month and on this day I went to the Festival of Nature in Bristol and used a camera for tiny objects, like a snail (Brian).  I also heard Bill Oddie speak and met him afterwards. He was really lovely to me, showed me genuine interest and was just kind.  I was a big fan anyway, but am now his top fan.

Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig with Bill Oddie

6.     Camp Avalon - 21 Jun 2015, Ringing – 15/07/2015 - http://bit.ly/1K87IOU

Camp Avalon was a young birders’ weekend camp that I organised on the Somerset Levels last summer.  I worked hard to make it ethnically diverse and 5 boys came from inner city Bristol.  I loved this session because everyone connected with the birds and that was lovely to see.  Camp Avalon will be running again this year on 15-17 July 2016 and so get in touch if you or someone you know wants to come.

7.     No More Hunting with Dogs, Parts 1-3, Meeting my Conservative MP, Letter to my MP, To Mr Rees-Mogg, I am Fox  – 11,12,13/06/2015, 08,12,13/07/2015,  - http://bit.ly/1f5sIvj, http://bit.ly/1IAm4H0, http://bit.ly/1KP3XQf, http://bit.ly/1K0ADUZ and http://bit.ly/1PIHzMS, http://bit.ly/1I1E0NW

I know these are strictly 6 posts, but fox hunting is something I hate.  My conservative MP is in  favour of bringing back hunting with dogs and so I went to see him, heard his arguments, did my research, wrote explaining why his arguments sucked and then did a video message to him two days before a vote was due in the House of Commons.  I was really proud as he actually “favourited” my tweeted video, which I do respect him for, as most people would have ignored it.

Fox killed by hounds

8.    East Africa - Day 32, Seeing my 4000th bird species in Kenya – 23/08/2015 - http://bit.ly/1OSUjgn

How could I not include the excitement of my 4000^th bird species? It was a Red-throated Tit, which I saw on my first day in Kenya at Swaro Plains just south of Nairobi.

Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig photographing Red-throated Tit, Swaro Plains, Kenya

9.   Bristol Climate Change March – 29/11/15 – http://bit.ly/1ZXfukC

This year has been such an Amazing year for me.  I live near Bristol, a centre for Nature TV production and green organisations, which I am really proud of.  2015 Bristol was European Green Capital, a huge thing.  There are lots of famous Ambassadors but they chose me as well.  It was the UN Conference on Climate Change (COP21) in Paris in December and cities around the world held marches and rallies.  I was asked by Bristol Greenpeace to address the rally in Bristol, which was unbelievable.  It was a really important event with 785,000 marching around the world.

This was my speech addressing the rally, which was amazing having people cheering me through my speech (sorry about the rubbish sound):

http://youtu.be/elKe2vsb3hg

Bristol Climate Change Rally 29 Nov 2015

10.   Antarctica Voyage Day 6, 24 Dec 2015 – Graham Passage, Danco Island, camping on Leigh Cove and seeing an Emperor Penguin – 25/12/2015 - http://bit.ly/1NE3ZY6

I think this was the best day of our trip, everywhere we went was beautiful, with lots of ice, whales and seals.  Then we successfully twitched an Emperor Penguin, which is really rare away from their breeding site on the Weddell Sea.  We really couldn’t believe our luck.  After all of that, we camped out on ice in a stunning location.  It was 2 nights after summer solstice and so the sky was beautiful all night.  It’s an experience I will never forget.

Young Birder Birdgirl Mya-Rose Craig camping on Leith Cove, Antarctica at midlnight

Leith Cove, Antarctica at 2 am

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, 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 is 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. Please like her Birdgirl Facebook Page and follow her on Birdgirl Twitter

My guest blog for The Wildlife Trusts - 30 Days Wild

#30DaysWild was a Wildlife Trusts initiative for June 2015 to get people out into nature.

On Day 30, I wrote an article for the Wildlife Trusts website about dome of the issues in getting people into nature.

This is the link to my article http://bit.ly/1KZncI5

This is the article:

During June, The Wildlife Trusts ran a hugely successful nature initiative, 30 Days Wild.  The idea was that each day people looked out for something wild or natural.  Not a planned event searching out wildlife, but something that was a random act of wildness.  It was a brilliant idea and got people across the country involved.

As a young birder, it would have been easy to just go birding daily at my local patch, Chew Valley Lake, listing a different bird each day.  This would have been too easy, too within my comfort zone.  Instead, I tried hard to choose wild things that were not planned at all, that I just came across, in my normal life.  This was much harder.  I do usually notice wild things as I pass them, but now I needed to take special notice with a photograph.

The month started well and on day one I ringed baby Blue Tits (pulley) from a nest box in our garden before school.  We didn’t know until we opened the box whether there were any birds inside, so it was exciting to see them.

Then on day two, I sat and watched the wildlife in our pond, the next day I photographed a blackbird in our bird bath, then on day four, I went for a stroll in our beautiful woods and on day five I noticed a bee on flowers on my way to the school bus.

Some days my ‘doing something wild’ was obvious, like when on day six, I gave a ringing demonstration to Bristol Nature Network, when it was brilliant to see them so excited. 

Other days I had to look harder and think harder.  I had a 5 day school trip to Barcelona, so had to think of wildness in a city.  In the end, I was able to come up with something wild for each day, pretty impressive for a city break (if I don’t say so myself).  My favourite was the leaf carvings at La Segrada de Familia, with carvings of insects in them.  Gaudi, the architect, was inspired by nature and always tried to bring an element of that into his work.

I know that I am really lucky to live in the countryside and be surrounded by nature.  It might be more difficult in the city, but as David Lindo ‘The Urban Birder’ tells us, there is plenty of wildlife in the city.  The Wildlife Trusts’ city centre reserves are really essential for this.

I think that it is crucially important for everyone in our society to be able to connect with nature, whatever their age and whether rich or poor.  I have written and talked a lot about how to get children into nature and birds, including a list of things to try.  It’s especially important to get children interested as they are the future.  I think that the best way to inspire them is outside of school, at groups like after school clubs, Scouts and Guides.  Teachers are already including important subjects like climate change, deforestation and conservation within Geography and Science, but I think teaching kids about nature as a stand alone subject in PSHR would give it the kiss of death, as nature is seen as nerdy.  That is something that we must change. 

In recent years, lots of people have written about how eco-therapy (going out into nature as a treatment) works better than anti-depressants for people with severe depression.  However, you are more likely to be able to use eco-therapy if you have already connected with nature before.  What this means broadly is that people who are already used to connecting with nature (for example because they live in the countryside), can use it to make them feel better more easily than someone who has never connected with nature (for instance because they live in the inner city).

Areas of our society most impacted by this are ethnic minority people living in the city.  The research shows that ethnic minority people, especially men, are far more likely to suffer from mental heath issues.  They are also the least likely part of our society connected to nature and so eco-therapy is unlikely to be an option for them.

It’s very difficult to engage this section of our society and virtually no research has been to find out why.  There are no role models and nature is seen as a white past-time.  I have spoken to a few ethnic minority birders that I know, but everyone says the same, that they didn’t have any role models, they got into birding just because they saw something in it and that their family were unsupportive.

Last weekend I organised a camp for young birders, Camp Avalon.  I had read an American article by David Lindo talking about taking inner city ethnic minority teenagers out birding and “opening the door to nature” for them.  I realised that it was important to try and overcome the barriers and get ethnic minority teenagers to attend my camp.  In the end we had 14 teenagers with 6 from ethnic minorities (including me).   It was hard work for them and us because engaging with wild things did not come naturally to them.  Over the weekend, all fourteen teenagers managed to engage with nature in their own way. I really believe that even if some only engage with 20% of the weekend, hopefully they would have seen and understood enough for that “door to have been opened” so that they might connect with nature sometime in the future, when they are ready to.  That might not be until they are in their twenties or even with a family, but the weekend would not have been wasted.  One 16 year old Asian boy plans to return next year, which is am brilliant result.

Ringing at Camp Avalon

Ringing at Camp Avalon

These are areas I intend to continue highlighting and want to look into more, see what can be done to overcome the barriers and then try to make the changes happen.

Camp Avalon

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, conservationist, 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 is looking forward to going Mountain Gorilla Trekking in East Africa in the summer and watching Penguins in Antarctica in December 2015, which will be her 7th continent. She has recently 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