ZEISS at the British Birding Fair 2010

The British Birding Fair is, without doubt, the largest gathering of the flock in the world. Each year it draws upwards of 20,000 birders to Rutland Water, near Oakham in England, for a three day birding trade fair. It is not a festival, US style, where the focus is on birds and birding…it is a fair where the focus is clearly on birding commerce. They do have workshops and entertainment, but it is really all about shopping: shopping for optics, shopping for tours, shopping for clothing, shopping for birding gadgets and software, shopping for bird and nature art. 9 huge tents house the event, and on a rainy weekend (6 out of 7 in my experience so far…we are talking England here) the shoppers come dressed in willies and waterproof hiking boots with umbrellas and slickers and waxed coats, and brave the increasingly muddy paths between vendors.

my favorite art in the art tent.

While the location is somewhat remote by British standards (just try to get a hotel room if you forgot to book a year in advance), it is within a few hours drive of 3/4 of the population of the UK, and within striking distance of the closer countries on the Continent. Vendors come, literally, from every corner of the known universe…anywhere and everywhere a birder might want to see birds…and would be willing to pay for the privilege. The wildlife art show is, I am told, the largest juried show of its kind in the world, and attracts the cream of the wildlife art world.

Wildlife celebrities, like Simon King (videographer, film maker, TV personality and general promoter of wildlife in the UK and Africa…literally a household name in the UK, remembered as the child star of a long-running nature show on the BBC as well as for his work with David Attenbourgh, and his own Big Cat Diaries and Meerkat films…recently a peer of the realm) make daily appearances (Simon at the ZEISS stand in the Optics Marquee…stand is British for booth and marquee is a tent). You have to see the queue (line) that forms when Simon is sighing autographs. Only in England. One wide and 300 long.

Simon King signing at the ZEISS stand
	The muddy paths and the queue for Simon King (inside tent)

Some people park 5 miles away in muddy farmer’s fields and walk in, and even the closest parking (also in muddy fields) is a good walk from the grounds themselves.

Well over 90% of the money raised at the gate and in sponsorships at the BBF goes to a conservation cause selected each year.

Typical Bird Fair weather	The view from the stand in the sun

This was my 7th visit and I always look forward to it, even though it is exhausting. I am working there, talking pretty much non-stop to prospective ZEISS customers from 9 until 5 each day. Because of my work at Better View Desired and now my presence on Twitter and FaceBook, I always run into a surprising number of people who know me, or of me, even in the wilds of East Anglia UK. And I enjoy the company of my colleagues at ZEISS, gathered this one time a year, from the UK, Germany, and the US, around the interests of our birding customers.

There are birds at Bird Fair: iPhone4 digiscoped	Grey Heron hunting in the rain. Hand held digiscoped with the DiaScope 85FL

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