150 Remembering Bill Oddie - with Stephen Moss

Bill Oddie has sadly passed away.

He was a well-loved birder, conservationist, author and entertainer. Despite his television fame, Bill was respected by birders for his genuine passion and expertise.

Stephen Moss worked with Bill for many years and he shares his memories of the excitement and unpredictability of filming with Bill, who often ad-libbed and kept the team on their toes.

To read the transcript, see below!

Links

Your bird stories

Tell me about your bird stories here.

Casual Birder Community

Start your free trial here Casual Birder Community

Support the show

If you would like to help support the show’s production, by buying a virtual coffee here 

Keep in the Loop

Sign up here for email notifications of news, blogs and episodes

The Casual Birder Podcast   https://casualbirder.com/

Don't miss an episode - follow the show!

My thanks to Randy Braun for designing the artwork for the show and to The Drones for the theme music Short Sleeved Shirt. Check out their website at www.dronesmusic.net

Transcript

[0:12] Welcome to the Casual Birder podcast. I'm Suzy Buttress. As a casual birder, I take pleasure in watching the wild birds around me, wherever I am. In my show, I share the joy of birding. I tell you about the birds I've seen, speak with experts and enthusiasts, go on bird outings, and I share stories from birders around the world.

[0:35] Well, another successful global BirdFair is over. This annual festival of nature occurs over three days in early July each year, and it's filled with talks, panels and exhibitions, but it's the community aspect that really elevates it to an unmissable event. As I wandered around the site, meeting old friends and making new ones, I saw so many smiling faces, despite the heatwave we're currently experiencing. The Young Conservationist Hub in particular was a really exciting and vibrant place to be, And I was pleased to see Amy Squire there, my past guest from episode 143, the one about the roseate terns that had nested in Hampshire. I also met Dex, musterlid_man from Instagram, and Henry, natuertasticwh on Instagram. Hope I'm saying that right. I've been following Henry on Instagram quite a lot recently because I took part in the Wildlife Trust's 30 Days Wild in June, an event where it encourages you to go out and just take part in some nature activity every day. I did it by taking videos of six things I found in my environment each day and you can find those on Instagram but Henry did a complete series of videos for the whole of June one for each day and was really impressive and very inspiring but it was fantastic to meet him in person.

[1:58] Once again, I was on the Winchat stage with some live episodes. Many of our wonderful Bird and Nature podcasts were also on the podcasting schedule. It was good to see more and more new podcasts showing up, and it was great to have the opportunity to sit down and chat with Chris from My Birding Life podcast, Diana from Heart of the Wild podcast, and Axel from the Sounding Wild podcast. The Winchat podcasting stage, provided by Swarovski Optic, formed my personal base, and I could be found there in between visiting the exhibition marquees and listening to talks. It was handy to have an anchor point and I met with a few members of the Lady Birders subgroup of the Hampshire Ornithological Society, of which I'm a member, and also some listeners of this show. A special shout out to Rhona, Trinity, Amy S and Amy J for seeking me out. It was lovely to speak with you. And for Rhona, it was lovely to speak in person as she's someone that attends my online bird club and I usually get to see her just through the PC screen.

[2:57] On stage this year, I was joined by David Lindo, who's celebrating his 20th year as The Urban Birder, wildlife presenter and nature communicator, Megan McCubbin, Mya Rose Craig, also known as Bird Girl, environmentalist, author and presenter of the first series of the Get Birding podcast, and Kenn Kaufman, author, illustrator, lecturer and creator of a series of bird guides on North American birds and other fauna. I'm really looking forward to sharing their episodes with you.

[3:28] So much work goes into making this event a success. And huge thanks are due to Tim Appleton and Penny Robinson and the enormous team of volunteers who made sure everything went smoothly. And also to Oscar Henderson, our wonderful sound producer for the Winchat podcast stage.

[3:48] Each year, Global BirdFair supports a specific conservation project, and this year it's Preventing Island Extinctions. São Tomé and Príncipe is Africa's second smallest country, and it has a high number of endemic bird species, that is, ones that are only found there, three of which are threatened by habitat loss or disturbance from invasive mammals. BirdLife International are working with local communities, conservationists and representatives from the National Park Authorities to find solutions to the pressure faced by the endemic and other species. A portion of the funds raised by the sale of Global BirdFair tickets will be used to support this project. If you'd like to contribute, you can do so by following the link to BirdLife International in the episode notes.

[4:35] Although my time at Global BirdFair left me feeling uplifted and filled with possibilities for protecting our natural world, the last day is always bittersweet, knowing that we won't all get together again until next year. As a way of holding on to the joy of attending, I interviewed a few podcasters, presenters and attendees to hear about their experiences of BirdFair this year. My thanks to the following for sharing their thoughts with me: Jamie Ward and Amy Squire, George Cuckoo, Keith Betton, in his role as chair of African Bird Club, Mike and Zach Dilger, a father and son team who have embarked on a 200 bird year. You'll remember Mike as a past guest on the Casual Birder podcast. Sussex Sara, Steve from Birding Seychelles, Axel Drioli from the Sounding Wild podcast, Dex, known as Mustelid_Man from Instagram, and Ryan, host of the Into the Wild podcast. I recorded these interviews as BirdFair was shutting down and it was a little windy at times, so I've tried to reduce the effect of that, but there is still some wind noise and there's some sounds as they were dismantling the marquees.

[5:41] [Bumper] music interlude

[5:52] [Suzy] I'm here with Jamie Ward and Amy Squire. Amy Squire is a past guest on the show. You might remember her from our wonderful bird sit at Normandy Lagoon. But Amy and Jamie have been here doing talks and all sorts of things. So I'm just going to let them introduce themselves and tell us what they've been up to.

[6:09] [Amy] Hello, so my name's Amy. Jamie and I have just finished a bird ringing talk. And yeah, it's just been really great to get back to BirdFair. I was here for the first time last year. And so coming back is really great. It was a lovely atmosphere.

[6:23] [Suzy] Now Jamie, you've got some big news in your birding life.

[6:25] [Jamie] Yeah, I just got my C permit in bird ringing. I'm now officially, I'm the youngest bird ringer in the world at the moment. So I think that's quite an achievement. I don't like to brag too much about it.

[6:36] [Suzy] That's awesome. Do you get a certificate or anything like that?

[6:39] [Jamie] No, I haven't received anything like that yet. I got an email from the BCO congratulating me, but other than that, I haven't had anything else.

[6:46] [Suzy] You both gave a talk just now about bird ringing, and that was really fascinating. And you also talked about the methods you use to catch birds, which I hadn't known about. So do you want to just give me a quick overview of the types you talked about?

[6:58] [Amy] Yeah, so I'll talk a little bit about mist netting and whoosh netting, and then maybe Jamie could talk about lamping, because I know that's a very geeky subject. But mist netting, basically, if you think about it, you've got two poles, and they can range anywhere from 3 metres to 18 metres. And it's basically this massive net strung together by these two poles, which has a series of pockets and it's made of like a very fine mesh kind of like a very thin soft fishing line type thing I suppose, that's the closest I could say it is to, and if you string it say between two hedgerows the birds are normally going about their daily business going back and forth they'll end up flying into the net and they'll get kind of caught in these pockets and then we can come and extract them and then put a ring on them. But basically the idea is that we can use it for things such as CES which is the constant effort site scheme or constant effort survey and it is where we, at the same time of year every single year in the exact same place, we always have the nets without any tape lures on or anything so that way we can just monitor the birds without kind of interfering in their daily lives so it just kind of gets a rough idea of how they're faring naturally. And then whoosh netting is what we use for our RAS, which is our retrapping adults for survival on Hawfinches in particular. And that's where we use what's called a whoosh net, which basically fires over the birds. And we kind of bring them down by bait station by leaving sunflower seeds. And for some reason, they're very picky. They only like black sunflower seeds without the lines on them. But yeah, so great techniques for bird pringing.

[8:36] [Suzy] And so what I've learned is that whoosh netting is just like using some sort of little elasticated method to throw a net over the top of the birds while they're feeding, which doesn't harm them. It just sort of keeps them in place while you collect them. But I hadn't heard of woosh netting before so that was quite interesting and Jamie you were going to talk about lamping.

[8:52] [Jamie] Yeah lamping. It's also called dazzling it's a bit of a geeky obsession of mine. S o in the simplest form and we go out on plains in the new forest and we've got, a long pole with a net on the end of it and we have a thermal imager and we scan around for wading birds and if we if we find one which we want to catch we sneak up on it with this pole and we turn on this bright light. So we use um 5,000 lumen torches but we can we're permitted by the BCSUs up to 10,000 lumen so the birds are well well safe with their eyes and whatnot. And um so we basically just sneak up on the on the, birds and just put the net over them. Because obviously it's a bit like a rabbit in a headlight and they just get a bit dazzled. But I would say I get maybe one in ten birds they're quite hard to catch because obviously you're walking in the dark and any any noise can flush the birds quite easily.

[9:40] [Suzy] What sort of birds would What do you catch with lamping? So mainly wading birds. So what we focus on in the forest is woodcock, snipe and jack snipe, which is very nice because you don't often get a ring birds like that normally with other methods, so it's really nice. But we also have other stuff like stock doves and redwings and other stuff that's roosting out on the plains.

[9:56] [Suzy] So what would you say has been your highlight of being at BirdFair, Amy?

[10:00] [Amy] Oh, highlight, I mean, doing the talk was great. It had a pretty good turnout as well. Quite a few people were there to watch. But one of the highlights for me was getting to watch a talk by Jon Mason, who's an excellent advocate for young people in wildlife. And that's really inspired me to do some more good in my school to help encourage the future generations in order to be more passionate about wildlife. So, yeah, very inspirational.

[10:27] [Suzy] So you've been inspired by this. And will you be back to a future BirdFair?

[10:30] [Amy] Yes, definitely. We've hopefully got the opportunity to perhaps even demonstrate bird ringing next year in the Global BirdFair bird ringing section, which we're actually watching right now.

[10:41] [Suzy] And Jamie, is this your first visit to BirdFair?

[10:43] [Jamie] This is my second visit, but I've only been here for the day today. But probably my favourite thing would be just networking and meeting lots of new faces and lots of young people, which is always very, very reassuring to see.

[10:55] [Suzy] Well, thank you both so much for joining in this afternoon with my little Vox Pop. It was wonderful seeing you do your talk and I look forward to seeing you again well maybe during the year but definitely back at next year's BirdFair

[11:05] [Amy] thank you so much.

[11:06] [Bumper] Skylark singing

[11:08] [Suzy] So I'm here with George Cook, or otherwise known as George Cuckoo. George, how have you found BirdFair this year?

[11:15] [George] It's been great. I've had a wonderful time. Weather's been a bit hot. It's certainly been a warm one, but the atmosphere is brilliant. Everyone's so friendly. Great talks. It's been a whole lot of fun.

[11:25] [Suzy] What have you been doing while you've been here?

[11:27] [George] I was in a couple of panel discussions on Friday, one for Curlew Action, which I'm an ambassador for. Did another session about nature content creation, sharing nature and wildlife online and then I did a podcast recording yesterday into the wild podcast so and then other than that I've just been enjoying myself soaking it all in

[11:46] [Suzy] Well that's what it's all about isn't it I mean even now we're just a couple of hours before it all closes and I know there's places I haven't been here I've been trying but it's it's there's so much going on and there's so many wonderful people to meet

[11:57] [George] Yeah definitely and there's so many talks you just can't do it all it's like so big. Like I came for the first time last year and I was expecting something much smaller and there's like multiple stages all these cameras all the art I haven't really had a good look around there's so much to see so yeah I'll have to keep coming back I think to see it all

[12:15] [Suzy] Absolutely um what's next on the agenda for you

[12:18] [George] Not sure I'm currently looking for a job so a lot of job hunting um yeah so if you know if anyone listening to this knows if anything,

[12:26] [Suzy] And what's your uh contact details on instagram is probably the quickest way isn't it

[12:30] [George] Yes uh georgecuckoo on Instagram and TikTok and YouTube find me over there.

[12:34] [Bumper] Skylark singing

[12:38] [Suzy] Keith, so lovely to see you on this gorgeous day at BirdFair. I've just found you on the African Bird Club stand. Tell me why you're there.

[12:45] [Keith] I'm on the African Bird Club stand because I am the chair of this charity. It was set up about 30 years ago, and our focus is entirely on Africa. We're raising money to help projects that occur in Africa, small projects. And so far, we've actually funded 350 or more. And I've just looked at the total we've spent. it's actually not far off at three quarters of a million pounds now, mostly raised by members of the public at places like BirdFair

[13:13] [Suzy] That's amazing what sort of projects are you involved in

[13:16] [Keith] Well for example there's a really new bird that's not been described yet found in on the island of São Tomé off the coast of West Africa. Nobody's found a nest, we don't know where they nest, we think it's in the forests. So we've just funded a researcher to do some work, a Portuguese guy who's going to go down there with the local people and try and find them. That'll be a really big discovery and hopefully that'll lead to that bit of forest being protected.

[13:40] [Suzy] Wow that's amazing what other sorts of things to get involved with the african bird club?

[13:45] [Keith] Well we don't do conservation ourselves what we're involved in is actually helping other people to do the projects they're planning to do. We really like to prioritize work by people who are based in Africa. I mean, I'm not saying we won't have anybody from Europe do projects but you know if you're if you're trying to help people you help them by getting the money to the people in the countries concerned. We spend something like £40,000 a year, or whatever we raise frankly from donations, and in addition to that the African Bird Club is a real focus for people who love African birds and birding. We've got over a thousand members, about half of those are actually in Africa, and a lot of them are coming to see us on the stand here. So it's lovely to see them all and actually lots of people joining up. The first person I met on the first day he said I'd always wanted to join this organization and I said great you can do it now. He said well trouble isI have to pay every year and I'll forget. I said become a life member you won't have to worry. He said I'll do that.

[14:47] [Keith] So instead of paying 25 pounds which is what it costs he paid 600! That was made my day.

[14:54] [Suzy] yeah absolutely well congratulations on that what's been your highlight of being at BirdFair this year

[14:58] [Keith] Well personal highlight for me really is always meeting up with friends, some from Hampshire, some from anywhere else in the uk. Actually people who I've traveled with and people who've guided me around the world. I've been very lucky I've been to 123 countries now, met guides all over the place and lots of them are here. It's really wonderful that you know they remember you because you know it's an important part of what they do. And the thing for African Bird Club, wearing that hat, what's been great about that is actually the number of Africans coming to the stand and actually saying, I really want to play a bigger role in this and signing up. I mean, my long-term plan is that everybody in Africa should have free membership, you know, particularly the guides on the ground. I mean, if you're somebody in Africa who's got lots of money, and of course some have, you can make donations, but I'd just like to make it free for everyone in Africa. And that's really how it should be, frankly.

[15:49] [Suzy] oh well congratulations on your efforts here and I'll put the links in the episode notes if people are interested in finding out more, and thanks so much for speaking with me today

[15:57] [Keith] thank you Suzy.

[15:58] [Bumper] Skylark singing

[16:01] [Suzy] So I'm here with Mike Dilger and his son, Zach. Welcome to the show.

[16:05] [Mike] Thank you so much. Delightful to be here again, Suzy, and lovely to see you. Last time we were hanging out was obviously BirdFair. Before that, it was the middle of the estuary, wasn't it, in the Highlands of Scotland, which was absolutely brilliant when you came on one of my trips. So, awesome to catch up again, what can I say? And great to be back here. It's another scorchio, isn't it?

[16:24] [Suzy] It is. And if I'm honest, it was a little bit too hot on Friday. Everyone was melting. there's a breeze today so it makes it a little bit more bearable. How have you found it Zac? Have you been here for all three days?

[16:36] [Zac] Yeah we've been here all three days. We've had a great time even though it has been a bit manic. Dad did a couple of talks, getting our new binoculars sorted out,I'm getting the new companions from Swarovski and uh yeah excited for that.

[16:48] [Mike] And also he's basically managed to finagle some money out of me to buy a couple of books haven't you?

[16:55] [Zac] Yeah I've managed to convince dad to get a signed David Attenborough book, which I am thrilled about. Uh it's the um life of birds yes

[17:04] [Suzy] Oh gosh oh well yes now obviously he has to get you that

[17:07] [Zac] yeah definitely I mean it's the BirdFair after all

[17:10] [Mike] You've watched the service as well, haven't you? Absolutely love this, I mean it's quite an old series now Suzy, the Life of Birds. But we saw the book and it was signed by David and, I've met him on three or four occasions he's kind of vaguely familiar with who I am, but we just saw that it saw the David Attenborough squiggle, and it looked like a genuine David Attenborough squiggle, so we um we went for that. We paid a little bit over the odds but, and also you got the new Paul sStancliffe book on on bird identifier as well didn't you so

[17:34] [Zac] Yeah just to help me on my way, over 200 and beyond.

[17:38] [Suzy] yeah so this year you set out to see 200 birds um in the whole year in the uk, how are you getting on with that?

[17:45] [Zac] I'm afraid uh we've pretty much smashed it we're on 205 for the year but I'm gonna try and keep going I think I think we could seriously get decently high, maybe 230, 240, maybe even 250 if we're feeling cheeky.

[17:58] [Suzy] Wow, that is just awesome. Now, has it been really hard birding?

[18:02] [Zac] I think aspects of it are quite hard, like the different twitches, like not seeing stuff, but overall it's been absolutely brilliant and we've both absolutely loved it.

[18:11] [Mike] We have loved it. It's been sensational. I mean, the reason for trying it is, I think Birdwatching Magazine started off, Suzy, back in the day. It's like my 200 year or something like that. When we were filming, we've done 13 films on The One Show together. We're doing another one fairly soon. And my feeling was that Zac was really keen to come outside, but I didn't want to kind of overdose him on wildlife. So I was really keen to have a light touch. But particularly when we were filming, he looked like he was the most keen, enthusiastic lad in the world. And I had this slight nagging feeling that as soon as the camera stopped, then Zachary would kind of go back and watch the television and wasn't massively into wildlife. But what started it off was twitching a great reed warbler. I persuaded him to go and twitch a Great Reed Warbler and he just loved it it's so exciting looking for rare birds. We saw it which was brilliant, it's a quite a tough bird to see as well. It was at Shapwick in the Somerset Levels, crawled up the reed, it's like a Reed Warbler on steroids. It's got this fabulous ratcheting call. And we saw it brilliantly. He was hanging out with the other birders, we had to wait for it. It made us slightly suffer before we saw it, and I just thought I'm onto something here. So after that we twitched Buff-breasted Sandpiper, Spotted Sandpiper, because we live right by Chew Valley Reservoir, so loads of good waders. We've also got things like Pectoral Sandpiper, Caspian Gull, and all manner of birds like that. And I thought, why don't we make 2026 a big birding year? And Zachary has just absolutely flown. He's better at spotting things than me. He's got better hearing than me. There's a really good example. We went to see a Ring-necked Duck. I showed him how to identify a Ring-necked Duck. We got there, put the scope up. I couldn't find it. Zachary went, got it! And that's happened all bloody year. We look for a bird. He's always the first person to flipping find it. It's slightly doing my head in, actually. I mean, I'm quite happy to pass the mantle over to him, the torch, but not just yet. Honestly, he's absolutely brilliant, and he's really good on camera as well. And he's much better looking than me, and he's got a full head of hair. He's really, really annoying my younger boy.

[20:11] [Suzy] He's got everything going for him.

[20:13] [Mike] I'm biased, but it's true.

[20:15] [Suzy] And you gave a talk, didn't you? Was it both of you that gave the talk on the 200 birds?

[20:18] [Mike] Well I gave a talk all about mine and Zachary's big birding year and then Zachary came up with questions at the end. But we're doing quite a few other things throughout the year aren't we? There's kind of pelagics coming up and then Grant Arms again

[20:28] [Zac] Yeah so at the end of the year, well we started the year off in Grant Arms in Scotland and we're going to finish the year in Grant Arms in Scotland. Well I missed the eagles at the start of the year so we're going to really try hard and get back for those Golden Eagle, White-tailed Eagle, and just like the two absolute lovely birds megas really. We're also doing a pelagic off cornwall which is going to be great. I'm going to get quite a few lifers there I think if it's a good day. Like bonksie, Arctic Skuas like all those kind of things, I've never seen a skua which is ...

[20:59] [Mike] Cory's Shearwater, Great Shearwater, Wilson's Petrel. Those three will be lifers for me as well. I mean I hardly ever get lifers, Suzy but Zachary may well have about eight or nine lifers and I may well get two or three if I'm lucky. Because I don't do pelagics very often, I'm a terrestrial birder by and large so we're going for it aren't we?

[21:16] [Zac] yeah we're going to really really go for and like push hard.

[21:19] [Suzy] that sounds absolutely amazing. I'd love to speak to you again at the end of the year or early next year just to find out how you did. And we'll have a whole episode just on that so we can talk about the birds you saw, how you found it, what happened when you went on twitches, what happened when you like missed birds, how did you feel, oh yeah

[21:37] [Mike] I have to say, Suzy, he's remarkably resilient we went I went for Blue-winged Teal, a drake Blue-winged Teal three times with Zachary. Zachary went twice with his mother while I was away. He went five times for Blue-winged Teal and missed it but he wasn't downhearted at all about it. And then we saw the Western Reef Heron that was inwales, the first for Britain, and we got it within two minutes. But you know what it's like sometimes you can graft all day long and totally bomb out. Other times you turn up, it's like here I am. So I mean we've had kind of highs and lows throughout the year. But I mean his tenaciousness stands out and his and his ability to find things. But most of all I mean, rather than looking at other birds, he likes to find his own birds and identify his own birds. So your 200th bird Zachary was?

[22:20] [Zac] Was a Grasshopper Warbler which I found myself, which was just the highlight of the year, and it was 200 as well which is even better. Yeah, I heard it reeling and I just like, wow, I think I can hear a Grasshopper Warbler. Oh, it's the best.

[22:34] [Suzy] That is absolutely amazing.

[22:35] [Mike] And the weird thing was that a week before he heard a Savi's Warbler. Because the only thing that a Grasshopper Warbler could be confused with is a Savi's Warbler. And so while I was away, the little so-and-so twitched a Savi's Warbler with his mum. So he got a Savi's Warbler. And some people were saying, are you sure it's not a Savi's Warbler? He goes, no, no, it's definitely a gropper. So he got the Savi's and the gropper in a space for a week.

[22:56] [Zac] But the funny thing is I had Savi's before I had gropper, which is just mental.

[23:00] [Suzy] Absolutely. So, I mean, what birds are there left, really, to be able to see this year?

[23:04] [Zac] Well, like I said, Golden Eagle, White-tailed Eagle are the two kind of big ones for me. Uh kind of

[23:10] [Mike] there's a few things that we're probably not gonna get a chance. Things like um Dotterel we probably missed. Ring Ouzel he's got one up on me. But we're still gonna, we're gonna go to um in the next couple of weeks we'll get down to Devon and we'll go for Cirl Buntings. I was leading a tour there on Cirl Buntings. Suzy, I had the best Balearic Shearwaters. Critically endangered bird, our only critically endangered bird. We had two Balearic Shearwaters on a boat. So we'll go for Balearic Shearwaters. But there's still a few common birds I mean it's about the birds you missed as well. What's the really, what's the bird that you've missed?.

[23:42] [Zac] Well I think my biggest kind of dip was Spotted Flycatchers, I've I've dipped on uh three or four times this year.

[23:51] [Mike] And I've seen three of them sorry, zachary, Honestly one upmanship from fathers and sons

[23:55] [Zac] He's gripping me off,

[23:57] [Mike] Here's the amazing thing Suzy he's actually seen two birds in Britain that I've never seen in British Isles

[24:02] [Zac] I've had Bonaparte's Gull which I had this year and Black-crowned Night Heron which I've also had this year

[24:06] [Mike] so I was away with guests and Zachary, because he's on a WhatsApp group for Somerset, he just went and he gripped me off and goes daddy guess what I'm looking at: Black crowned Night Heron

[24:15] [Zac] Then I switched to FaceTime and, then put the phone down the lens of my telescope and I just showed him so he could see the Black crowned Night Heron but he just couldn't quite take it it was absolutely brilliant.

[24:27] [Mike] The old phrase, I'm sure you're familiar with the phrase gripping off

[24:30] [Suzy] I learned it from you last year which I'd never heard before but yeah I've definitely heard that now

[24:34] [Mike] Oh yeah I was definitely gripped off. But yeah it's been an absolutely brilliant the best thing about it has just been the fact that we've started a WhatsApp group with a lot of my birding friends, and they have encouraged Zachary every step of the way. Because social media is a bit of a minefield for kids these days. But this WhatsApp group is like nothing but positive encouragement. The moment Zachary finds something he posts it and all my birding friends are kind of letting him know how excited they are. When when he got his 200th bird, Mark Pearson the the coastal bird up in Yorkshire went you found your own 200th bird, well done Zed dog! And so like, big love hearts for all that kind of stuff, and it's really really positive experience. And actually because I'm away loads, Suzy, father and son time is absolutely brilliant. When we're out birding we're not so we talk about birding, we're also talking about football, we're talking about school, we're talking about life, it's just I mean, you can'tclaw this time back. Actually that's the best thing, me and Zachary spending a lot of time together. It's been absolutely fabulous

[25:32] [Suzy] Ah it's been wonderful speaking with you. I look forward to speaking with you again with a full episode all on your 200 plus bird year. It's so lovely to catch up with you here. I hope you've enjoyed Global BirdFair and that you'll be back and, thank you for coming over and speaking to me.

[25:45] [Mike] Well we've got another, we're doing the part two Zachary and Daddy, or the Dilger boys big birding year next year at the at the BirdFair, Suzy, so we'll definitely catch you there

[25:53] [Suzy] So thanks again for for joining us today

[25:55] [Mike] Thanks Suzy and very best to you

[25:57] [Zac] Thank you

[25:57] [Mike] And the power behind the throne, John, happy snapping John.

[26:00] [Bumper] Skylark singing

[26:02] [Suzy] I'm here now with Sara, or Sussex Sara she's known on Instagram, um what have you been doing at BirdFair this year?

[26:09] [Sara] I've mainly been catching up with a lot of friends old and new. Part of reason I come to BirdFair every year as a visitor, is just to kind of get a sense of what's new in people's lives, what's been happening in the sector, and hear a bit about all the exciting things that are going on through things like the Winchat podcasts.

[26:28] [Suzy] Yeah we had a really good program this year and lots of different types of podcasts have been here, I think a few more than normal. But there's such a wonderful, array of talks and lectures and participation things, you know, there's lots of young people around this year, lots of young conservationists and they've had a really big part of the show. Is there anything that stood out to you this year? So you'll hear noises in the background is because it is the end of BirdFair and they are now dismantling all of the marquees.

[26:54] [Sara] The Young Conservationist Hub is always one of my go-to spots for the talks because it's so interesting. Partly because it's really important to give youth a voice at events like this. And it is predominantly young people acting as panellists, guests, interviewing each other. But it's also, the area I find most interesting. Like they're having the most dynamic conversations about evolving trends in Conservation, in content creation, in how to get into the sector, and how to get into the industry, and I absolutely love that there's a space for that here and that it's become a really important part rather than, the first year that I came to BirdFair was I think the first year that we'd had a youth section and I'd been involved in kind of running part of that event. And it's just it's been brilliant to see how much it's grown, how important it's become, and how many young people are attending to take part in that and being given a platform to speak.

[27:45] [Suzy] Yeah that has absolutely been awesome and it just makes it feel so, much more of a community. What have you got going on between now and next BirdFair?

[27:54] [Sara] I've got a couple of photography projects that are ongoing that are always exciting. But I mean I post fairly regularly to my instagram anyway, so if you do kind of follow along then you'll probably see new things that I'm up to every week. In terms of upcoming trips I usually head up to Scotland around Christmas each year, um which is always really exciting because I get to go and look for birds that I don't get to see down south,which is where I live. So yeah always looking forward to kind of looking for Twite, which is a really underrated bird in my book, but so beautiful and so like endangered I suppose it's really struggling in the UK, so it's a farmland bird. So yeah, hoping to go up and see those. I'm also potentially planning a trip to Gloucestershire again, to go to the Forest of Dean to look for wild boar. And then, as always autumn migration is a massive staple. So I kind of get this weird, everyone gets the BirdFair blues that's a known thing, I get this weird lull immediately post-BirdFair until kind of end of August starts and then it starts lifting again. And then yeah we're proper into autumn migration. And if you've never done it autumn migration on the south coast of England is incredible right the way down from, kind of Yorkshire, uh Northumberland, all the way down to to Hampshire, it's a really really good time of year to go looking for birds along the coast

[29:15] [Suzy] Absolutely! People should check out your Instagram. I have said before and I'll say it again, I love your Instagram posts because you you post the most amazing photographs but you also describe quite a lot about the, either the animal or the birds that are in your posts. It's not just, a oh here's a Yellowhammer, you know there is a story behind it and I just think that's so rewarding to read. So I urge people to go and read about you on instagram, follow you, like and subscribe all that stuff. Thank you so much sarah for taking part in my little vox pop section and I look forward to seeing you next year.

[29:48] [Sara] Thank you so much. It's always a pleasure and I can't wait to catch up with you again too.

[29:51] [Bumper] Skylark singing

[29:54] [Suzy] Steve, can you just tell me where you're from, what you're doing here at Global BirdFair and what's been your best moment?

[30:01] [Steve] I'm all the way from the Seychelles, part of the Indian Ocean. I'm here for the BirdFair specifically after many years of wanting to come here. The best moment, I can't really choose.

[30:14] [Suzy] Yeah, I mean there's so many talks, there's so many stands from different countries. Have you been to any of the stands from other countries or have you connected more with other African countries?

[30:22] [Steve] I've connected with a lot of different tour companies, yeah, and most of them are offering Africa, but limiting Seychelles, so I'm trying to find a way through there.

[30:34] [Suzy] Tell me a quick bit about Seychelles.

[30:36] [Steve] Seychelles is a nice archipelago of 120 islands which is scattered and we have an exclusive economic, zone which is about 1.3 square million kilometers. And it's very vast. And our main islands are the Granitical Islands. We have 19 endemic birds, 12 of that is found on the mainlands of the Granitical island, and seven of that is found on the Outer Island, which is more coraline Islands. But to be honest, Seychelles is such a wonderful destination, it's just one of those bucket-list islands that most people are really wanting to come. Yeah

[31:19] [Suzy] And I mean today we've got this beautiful blue sky, but I can just imagine sharing that with a blue sea and lush plant life and hearing bird life, I think that would be really interesting. So I'm looking forward to speaking to you in more depth about the Seychelles in a future episode. But for now, it was really great to meet with you at Birdfair. And thank you for sharing your thoughts on it.

[31:40] [Steve] It's been a pleasure and I'm really happy to have a chat with you. Thank you.

[31:43] [Bumper] Skylark singing

[31:45] [Suzy] I'm here with Axel, tell me all about yourself, what have you been doing here at BirdFair?

[31:49] [Axel] Hello Suzy, I'm Axel Drioli or also Axel Wilde for my music and I'm the founder of the field-led creative studio Sounding Wild. And I've been having a stand in the Robin marquee where I was sharing an update of my across continents expedition through following the bird migration between Europe and Africa and showing to people how I engage with local communities by making music with the sounds of birds and presenting the new studio and what I've been up to.

[32:15] [Suzy] Fantastic. And we are going to have you on the show to speak about that in more detail. I've already recorded something with you, but I think things have changed a little bit, so we're going to get an update on that. You've also had a couple of episodes of your podcast being recorded on the stage, haven't you?

[32:29] [Axel] Yes, absolutely. I'm interested in hearing different stories from someone that is taking care of the biggest roost of raptors in the world in Angola because I was just there recently, so migratory story. And then I talked to Dexter and Henry, a couple of teenagers obsessed about nature. I love people that are in awe and wondering about nature and they are just people that we should listen to because they keep us inspiring us. And also been talking about wildlife crime and how to support these people doing this amazing work. So yeah, it's been quite a different range of topics but all about the interest that we have for nature, what inspires us. Because to protect something we need to really love it first and that's that's a sentence that my friend Sam Lee says all the time and I truly believe in it

[33:18] [Suzy] That's a beautiful sentiment as well. And of course you did do a fantastic impression of a golden oriole in one of your podcasts yesterday. I was blown away by that. Shall I? No I won't ask you to do it again now but I'll let the people hear it on your podcast but that was really good. What's been one takeaway you've had from BirdFair this year?

[33:37] [Axel] This is my fourth year, and I don't sell materials. I cannot quantify in numbers how good or bad the BirdFair has been. For me it's about the feelings and the community and the emotions that I leave with every year. And I always have a little bit of a blues when I leave BirdFair because it's a weekend that includes so many different people, but all obsessed in a very positive way, passionate about birds and nature. So really feeling this community, so that the feeling of community I really needed it now. I've been, I had a really tough time in my life recently and, having this community feeling of really respectful people. I have a different safe places that's what, I leave with the feeling of, I know I'm gonna maybe see as many of these people next year but I know that it's here and I can reach out and people are available to talk about anything really.

[34:34] [Suzy] Oh that's really beautiful. Oh well I look forward to seeing you again it's always a pleasure to see you and I look forward to speaking with you on my show.

[34:41] [Axel] Likewise (whistles), that was my oriole!

[34:44] [Suzy] Thank you (laughs).

[34:46] [Bumper] Skylark singing

[34:47] [Suzy] So I'm here with Dex, Mustelid Man on Instagram. I've seen you around quite a lot at BirdFair this weekend. What have you been up to?

[34:54] [Dex] Quite a lot this year. Usually I sort of come and just wander around for a bit and have a drink with friends and all that. But this year I've been really busy. I did a panel discussion on the Friday with Curlew Action on Curlew Conservation and social media. And then yesterday on Saturday I did a podcast session with Axel's Wild Sounds on Instagram. And then today I've been doing my own talk about my work as a teenager in the nature sector so I've been very busy this BirdFair.

[35:24] [Suzy] wow that's absolutely awesome and what's been the experience for you? How have you found it?

[35:28] [Dex] People have been amazing, like every year. Everybody's always so nice, everybody's always so happy, cheerful. It's just great to get together and see everybody. Because this is sort of the one big event each year that all of us get to come together and chat ,like what we've been doing and everything like that. And yeah it's been it's just been really really fun for everybody I feel.

[35:48] [Suzy] Has there been anything in particular that you've really enjoyed being part of?

[35:52] [Dex] I do lots of interviews with people and this week I've been trying to do as many as possible and I actually got to interview the Urban Birder David Lindo and that was amazing to do that and I've gotten to speak to the Early Birder as well quite a lot and that was absolutely fantastic. I also got to speak to My Birding Life, Chris Ducker I believe. Amazing guy, awesome, I've watched his stuff for ages, I was so excited to see him. But yeah, it's just been like, overall speaking to loads of people, doing videos with them, getting their thoughts on lots of bits and bobs, it's just been amazing.

[36:30] [Suzy] We'll watch out on your Instagram account because I guess you'll be posting some clips and things there. What have you got coming up that you'll be looking forward to doing?

[36:37] [Dex] Oh, so I've got quite a few projects coming up, especially with toads. So I'm in the Warminster Toad Patrol and I do a lot with them. There's word of a planning application going through for a site that's called Damask Meadows, which is supposed to be building 49 houses next to our little local nature reserve, which is not only going to affect the wildlife in the reserve, but it's also going to deeply affect the toad population, which is already dwindling. And we are afraid that if it does go ahead we could see the extinction of our local toad population.

[37:12] [Suzy] That's really quite concerning. So you're actively involved in the campaign for preserving those toads?

[37:18] [Dex] Yes, indeed I am. So we have done a few campaigns and being there, we're in the paper and everything just to get as many people to say no. We've got a petition online and we've got I think over a thousand people have signed it which is really, really great. it just shows that people don't want it.

[37:35] [Suzy] I wish you all the luck with that. Do you think you'll be back to BirdFair next year?

[37:39] [Dex] Of course I will. Hopefully I'll be doing even more things, be even more busy next year.

[37:45] [Suzy] Oh, well, it's lovely to meet you. I've been following you on Instagram for a while and just really thrilled to be able to speak with you. So thanks very much for joining me this afternoon.

[37:52] [Dex] Awesome. It's been so nice to speak to you. Thank you.

[37:54] [Bumper] Skylark singing

[37:57] [Suzy] Ryan, the end of another wonderful BirdFair. How has it been for you?

[38:02] [Ryan] Do you know what? This weekend just brings me so much joy. The heat has been a battle, but I'm not going to linger on that because I want to end on the positives. For me, from the podcast stage where you get to meet friends and people you've met before, but also people I've never met before, but I've been following for a while. I get to interview them and ask them about what they've been doing across the year, what they're going to be doing over the next couple of years. Talking about nature connection,social media tools and stuff. So I love that element. And then the Nature Room 101 that we did on Osprey stage just for me is is my happy place. I get to, uh mess around say things I probably shouldn't say and get people laughing which is something I love doing. And then we do the party on Saturday night which again feels like a bit of a weird thing to say maybe that's important at these events. Maybe it's not on everyone's mind that's important but I said as we introduced the, the playlist and the party last night I said like every community around the world dances at some point together, whether at a wedding, whether it's a community around a fire or whether it's you know every community does this, they dance they celebrate. There's no reason why the community of Global BirdFair should not do that. Birds dance, uh Birds of Paradise dance, and stuff so we should celebrate and do that. And watching that happen last night um just, putting that time in previous to set that playlist up, and then watching a group of 60, 70 people just enjoy it and embrace it. It fills my heart, my cup so much. And so, yeah, it's been a solid weekend, busy, running around, saying hello to people. It's, you know, extrovert level 10. You have to be. So I'll probably drop this week comeing and need some alone time. But, yeah, it's just been absolutely incredible. I've now got editing to do from the podcast, similar to yourself, to get them out there. And I just can't wait to see what next year is going to bring.

[39:48] [Suzy] That's wonderful I had planned to be here last night because I normally don't I normally go birding on the Saturday night and this year I had arranged with my husband that I was going to stay here and I was going to take part in all of the festivities and then I was ill and had to go home. So next year I will be there

[40:05] [Ryan] Friday night really keep chill, and then Saturday night like, because what's lovely about it is that you know you don't have to come and dance, you don't have to drink, you don't have to do that stuff because we keep table and chairs out here and it creates that kind of like wedding environment, I guess, where you're like if you want to sit and just watch joy happen and you're part you're still part of it. You don't have to be one thing, you can just be comfortable. And that is it's a really lovely moment and that's if I'm honest it's where the beautiful chats happen, because people are relaxed, the hair is let down and it's not the professional kind of voice that's happening and that's what I love. I think that's so important when you're looking at communities and when you're looking at kind of networking, it's how you how you talk to each other properly rather than how someone else has told you to talk to someone.

[40:49] [Suzy] yeah thanks so much Ryan. We've barely seen each other

[40:51] [Ryan] We've barely seen each other. That shows how busy this weekend is, right? It's not a huge, huge site but you're just running around the whole time so yeah

[41:00] [Suzy] but it's been lovely to sit down and talk with you now so thank you so much for giving up the time for now

[41:04] [Ryan] Thank you so much

[41:04] [Suzy] If you'd like to find out more about any of the people that I spoke to check out the episode notes for links, I do hope you'll consider are coming to BirdFair next year. We'd love to see you there.

[41:14] [Bumper] music interlude

[41:24] I do love to hear what birds you've been seeing so do send me a message on the contact page on my website casualbirder.com. I want to give a shout out to our wonderful Casual Birder Community hosted on Circle. We've got really friendly and knowledgeable members and it's our space to share trip reports, photos, ask questions of the community and just hang out. And members of the Casual Birder Community also have exclusive access to the Casual Birder Bird Club. Details are in the episode notes.

[41:53] My thanks to Randy Braun for designing the artwork for the show and to The Drones for the theme music Short Sleeve Shirt. Check out their website at dronesmusic.net. Thank you all for listening and I hope you'll join me again for another episode of The Casual Birder Podcast.