5 minute read
BIRDS UNITE OUR WORLD
The Birdfair is back in Rutland, under a new banner, Global Birdfair. Kate meets founder Tim Appleton MBE, to find out more
TIM APPLETON FOUNDED and has run the Birdfair in Rutland for over thirty years but during the pandemic it was forced to stop. Now Tim and his partner Penny Robinson have created the Global Birdfair and it is moving to a new site at Rutland Showground. Taking place during the weekend of 15, 16 and 17 July, there will be a whole raft of exhibitors and experts sharing their knowledge and enthusiasm of all things birding with an international audience. Passionate birdwatchers will come from all over the world to attend 180 lectures, panel discussions and ui es. They will find the most up to date optical e uipment on o er, and learn about nature tourism and global conservation. The head of Natural England Tony Juniper is coming, along with the CEOs of WWT and Birdlife International plus other guests for State of the Earth Question Time.
However, it is not just for seasoned birdwatchers and conservationists. There is something for everyone to enjoy, novices and nature lovers alike. The whole purpose of Global Birdfair is to create a space for people to come together to share knowledge and ideas for the benefit of the natural world. ature conservation is in Tim’s DNA, but how did his work begin?
Tim started his career in nature conservation in a wildlife park in Bristol where he came from. After that he worked for the Duke and Duchess of Bedford while waiting for a job to come up at a place he’d always wanted to work, The Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust at Slimbridge, founded by Sir Peter Scott. He became deputy curator there where he learnt from the very best. In 1975 an amazing opportunity came up to create a new nature reserve at Rutland Water, the biggest habitat creation project of the 1970s. Having always been involved with wildfowl, particularly swans, geese and ducks, Tim was the perfect choice for the job. And he stayed there until retiring as reserve manager in 2017. During his time at Rutland Water he worked on many fascinating projects including the re-introduction of ospreys to England. The reserve has become an SSSI, a special protection area SPA and also a Ramsar site which is a wetland of international importance for migratory birds.
As he says, ‘why would I leave? My garden is quite nice
overlooking the reservoir with lots to look at on the water. I do a bird count every day and if I’m not here someone else does it. The garden has the highest list of bird species seen in Britain so far this year. We have seen 113 birds since 1 January. It’s fun to do.’
Tim keeps pigs and hens on his land. Why indeed would he leave? He was often headhunted to go elsewhere but one year in the mid eighties when the Game air was held locally he had an epiphany. He wondered why there wasn’t an e uivalent for the conservation business. Membership of the RSPB and Wildlife Trust was growing but there was nowhere for these interested people to go to buy binoculars or telescopes, or find out about eco tourism, or to buy bird food. So he started one.
Over the years the Birdfair grew and grew but right from the start Tim wanted it to do three things: be a shop window for the birding industry; a networking opportunity and a vehicle to raise money for conservation. He started to work with irdLife nternational which has 120 partners around the world so he could identify crucial conservation projects. We raised . million in profit from the Birdfair,’ Tim says, ‘and have been able to secure a further £35 million around the world through bank loans, so that’s over £40 million from these little fields in Rutland.’
Tim and Penny are also co-founders of Global Birding which is a venture encouraging birdwatchers from all around the world to come together as a global community by taking part in birdwatching events. Their motto is ‘birds unite our world’ and they already have legions of followers. Each year teams from across the planet enter the Global Big Day event to record the birds they’ve spotted on the same single day.
‘We started Global Birding because of the pandemic as so many people were in their homes, not being able to travel,’ Tim says. ‘The growth in interest in nature and the realisation of the benefits to health and wellbeing was wonderful. There weren’t any cars around and people could hear the birds. Sales of optics soared. Travel didn’t but that’s beginning to pick up.’
There was already an established event called Global Big Day run almost exclusively in the States by E Bird which is part of Cornell University and is the biggest citizen science project in the world. As Tim knew the founders of E Bird they joined resources.
‘We set four world records on our second Global Big Day,’ Tim explains. ‘Over 7,250 species of birds were seen on a single day; there’s only 10,500 species in total in the world. We had 52,000 people from 195 countries taking part. Global Birding now has more representatives on the ground than the UN and the people who get involved are amazing, encouraging people to protect what we’ve got. irding Live on Location is filmed in di erent places all over the world and people can see the film clips live on acebook or on YouTube afterwards.’
Global Birding and The Global Birdfair take a huge amount of work to organise. Tim and Penny do the lion’s share but they have a wonderful book keeper, friends Jackie and Peter Murray who do the volunteer co-ordinating, a great team of volunteers on the day and people building the stands.
‘I’m coming up to my mid 70s but you just get on with things,’ says Tim. ‘I’m lucky because I’m completely passionate about what I do. I carry binoculars all the time and I love to look. What I love about birds is they are the flagship for all other species. Here in the garden the only things you see moving, bar the sheep, are the birds. But once you’ve seen them you start to wonder what they’re feeding on, how nature works together, and the whole picture slowly builds.’
