by Tim Appleton
For those that know me, they will know my love for birds, conservation and inspiring people to enjoy nature has been a life long passion.
My mentor Sir Peter Scott founder of Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust maintained that if you show people nature by what ever means they will care about the environment.
I took this on-board creating Rutland Water Nature Reserve and managing it for over 40 years, introducing a flagship species, the Osprey, back as a breeding species to England and co-founding the British Birdwatching Fair, which I continued to manage for 31 years until this year.
Now it’s time to take my passion along with thousands of like-minded people to a new Global level and this week I launched a new website and an online resource for Birders, Birdwatchers and all those who love our planet and it’s Wildlife.
Global Birding
To celebrate this new resource, I am inviting everyone to take part in Global Bird Weekend. It takes place on the 17th and 18th October 2020, when we hope that together we will set a new world record for the number of bird species and the number of people Birding on a single day in October.
This is an all-inclusive event. It is meant to appeal to those new to birdwatching as well as presenting a chance to challenge more seasoned birders to get their ultimate list on their home patch. To inspire interest in our natural world,
Of course, with so many motivated to take part it presents a golden opportunity to raise funds for a conservation project. The illegal bird trade, especially in Asia is devastating the wild bird populations throughout the region, so we want to help stop this horrendous trade by supporting BirdLife International’s vital project and both raise awareness and raise funds to Stop the Illegal Bird Trade. BirdLife International have set up a dedicated donor box page for us, accessible via our website. This assures those people who can afford to donate that all their funds go direct to the cause.
But Global Birding is more than one weekend, we will build platforms to support every aspect of the “Birding Industry”. To find out more PLEASE visit our website and follow us on Twitter @global_birding and Facebook #globalbirding and on Instagram Thank you, join us and birding together for conservation. we can all make a real difference,
Tim Appleton in Association with Swarovski Optik, EBird and BirdLife International