Young Conservationist Workshop - 50th Blog!!!!!!

On the 16th April I was invited to go to the BTO Headquarters in Thetford to a Young Conservation conference was going to be held and I was invited to do a 10 minute talk on birding within Leicestershire and Rutland.

The BTO Headquarters

I got woken up at 5:00am and left for Thetford at 6:00am, we got stuck in traffic all along the A14! Finally arrived at the Nunnery Lakes at 8:45am and the weather was perfect sunny but hardly any wind.

When I got into the building I got greeted by Ieuan Evans, Lucy Mcrobert and Rob Lambert as soon as we arrived. After a while a few more familiar faces appeared including Ben Moyes, Ellis Lucas and his Dad and Josie Hewitt and finally the Wilde Family; Heather, Nigel, Findlay and Harley.

Parts of the BTO team introduced themselves and a bit about them selves, this included listening to Andy Clements, Ieuan Evans, Kate Risley, Justin Walker, Andy Musgrove, Nick Moran and Jez Blackburn.

Then after deciding what workshops we would choose, I choose Bird Ringing with Jez Blackburn and Kate Risley, Nest Recording with Dave Leech and Carl Barrimore and Bird Surveys.

In the Nest Recording they caught 1 Blackbird, 1 Great Tit, 1 Drake Mallard and 2 Goldfinches, the nest recording we saw was Chaffinch nest and a Blackbird nest, this has now inspired me to find more nests and the other day I found a Chiffchaff nest my 1st one ever thanks to Dave Leech and Carl Barrimore, and the surveys we looked at the BBS and how to get more training is it a good idea to do more online training or more one-to-one mentoring?

Then after lunch it was the reason why I was their to do my presentation, I was to go third after Findlay Wilde and Abbey Miller. For all of the 10 minutes it went very quick and my heart was pumping very hard but I enjoyed every minute of it. I will never forget a single moment of it.

Me giving my Presentation 

After all of the 7 presentations were finished, Lucy Mcrobert presented all 7 of us with a certificate also including Ellis Lucas and Harley Wilde. 

From the left Harley Wilde (who sadly you can't see), Ellis Lucas, Findlay Wilde, Me, Myra-Rose Craig, Josie Hewitt, Abby Miller and Ben Moyes.

Then at the end everyone thanked the BTO and AFON for putting together a brilliant day and then Lucy announced that Swarovski was sponsoring them and have loaned out a pair of CL 10x30 Bins and I got presented with them and now I get to enjoy them for a month before one of the other Young conservationist gets the pair, then after trying them out I found out that Findlay had another pair that Swarovski had loaned out.

Here is a pic with me and the bins.

So it ended up with a brilliant day and I thoroughly enjoyed, hopefully they will be a another conference like this soon. 

Thank you very much to the BTO and AFON 

Here are some of the blogs you should look at: Findlay Wilde - http://wildeaboutbirds.blogspot.com,

Ben Moyes: http://moysiesbirdtrips.blogspot.com, Ellis Lucas - http://elliswildlife.blogspot.co.uk, Josie Hewitt - http://josiehewittphotography.co.uk.

Also AFON have put a page together of contacts;  http://www.afocusonnature.org/members/workshops/young-ornithologists-workshop/stay-contact/