BIRD FAIR - Day Three!

I had already paid for an e-ticket for all three days, so decided I might aswell spend the last day at Bird Fair. It was incredibly hot - it was reported as the hottest Bird Fair day on record.

Very tired right now, falling asleep as I type, so apologise for any errors etc. Will corrrect, amend tomorrow when I am more awake!

Went to the Events Marquee to listen to Mark Carwardine's talk:
" Whale Photographer on the Loose" at 10.30am.

Mark chatted about his passion for whale photography world wide including the now extinct Yangtze River Dolphin to blue whales from the air. He was a very entertaining speaker, fabulous sense of humour and had the audience roaring with laughter. See article here. Made a quick exit at the end and started my photography quest in Marquee 1 and 2.

I then returned to the Events Marquee for:
"Celebrity Wild Brain of Britain" at 12.15pm

"Mike Dilger our reigning Celebrity Wild Brain will battle against three other celebrities to retain his title of Wild Brain of Britain by answering questions on their own specialist subject. We’ll be testing their knowledge to find out how much our wildlife presenters really know! Stephen Moss will be chairing."

This was very entertaining as always, but sadly Mike Dilger didn't retain his title - Dominic Couzens won with 31.5 points, Dr Rob Lambert coming a close second with 29.5 points, Mike Dilger third with 22.5 points and Nick Baker in fourth place with 22 points. I miss Derek Moore being on this panel - he is VERY funny - bring back Derek!

I didn't see Chris Packham at Bird Fair this year - don't know if he was there or not?

I really wanted to see Johnny Kingdom as he absolutely hilarious last year and was on next in the events marquee, but I just had to get out of there because of the heat and also I needed to have some lunch. I had the same salad lunch today and found a nice corner table by the bar. Simon King followed Johnny Kingdom in the events marquee and I didn't see him again either! Listening to people's comments about Johnny's talk later on indicated that his talk was as entertaining as last year!

Spent the rest of the afternoon photographing people and stands. I met some really lovely people on the Guyana stand who very generously gave me a wonderful bird sculpture which was sitting on top of a bottle of 'Guyana Rum'. The sculpture was fascinating, it was made from a coconut and was of parent bird feeding offspring - a wonderful and treasured gift. I confess I am not sure what bird it is - I will ask them when they email me. They also very kindly offered me some rum, which I initially declined because of driving, but gave in to a couple of sips in the bottom of a glass - now I don't normally like rum, but this was heaven, very smooth and a minute or two later a glowing warm sensation enveloped me!!! I declared that I could easily drink more! I spent some time taking some pictures of their stand which I will email them. Their website is: www.guyanabirding.com and email: cara1@tstt.net.tt Thank you so much for both the rum and the beautiful sculpture.

Rare Bird Alert was dead opposite the Guyana stand - took some pictures here too.

Managed to obtain photos of Tim Appleton, Johnny Kingdom, Clive Byers (with two pairs of glasses on his head!), Paul Hackett, Bryan Bland and a few more snaps of SK! Got some wonderful shots of 'interesting' and beautiful people! I didn't see Lee today, so sadly missed out on a different 'suited' picture!

I bought a raffle ticket at Wild Wings to win a trip to Antarctica - I didn't win, BUT later this afternoon I heard that Mark Golley did - WOW - CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!

Mike Watson, Client Manager from Bird Quest invited me to their stand for a drink - thank you very much!

The Bird Fair Mural sadly still had a few birds to be painted by the end of the show, but took pictures of all the ones that had been, as always brilliantly portrayed.

I always go birding in the evening after Bird Fair and thoroughly enjoy watching the Ospreys, but I just headed for home at the end of the show, far too hot to get out of the car and walk in this heat!

The incredible temperatures did not stop people attending Bird Fair this weekend - I felt that numbers were up on last year, may be wrong though. Congratulations to all involved, especially with the headache of deciding whether to go ahead or not with all the flooding! Huge thanks to all the volunteers who worked so tirelessly - I noticed a young man collecting glasses and even with the incredible heat each day, he always looked happy. Lovely to bump into so many old friends and fabulous meeting some lovely new people. See you all next year!

THERE ARE A HUGE NUMBER OF PICTURES TO BE ADDED FOR DAY THREE - THEY WILL BE ALL ADDED WITHIN THE NEXT WEEK (from 26.8.12)