A climate-friendly aproach to ornithology
In an article I posted last week I questioned one of the arguments in support of Birdfair highlighted by Stephen Moss in his response to Mark Avery’s article (Birdwatch September 2024). https://lowcarbonbirding.net/2025/02/05/birdfair-a-reputational-risk/ I address here two further arguments made by Stephen Moss regarding the funding generated for conservation projects and the importance of the event …
By JAVIER CALETRIO Mark Avery (Birdwatch, September 2024) argues that, with its overwhelming emphasis on ‘carbon guzzling trips abroad’, Birdfair looks more like a trade fair than a birding festival with a variety of interests. That was certainly my impression on my first visit in 2018. That year, of 396 stands, nearly half (187) were …
A growing number of birdwatchers are considering cycling rather than driving for their regular, local birding trips. While this can work for some birders living in areas with quieter roads or good cycling path networks such as Exminster marshes, cycling in places with heavy traffic can be daunting. Amy Robjohns writes about her mixed feelings …
By James Spencer Early this autumn, I was having a “work” conversation with Mark Lewis and mentioned it was ten years since the first edition of Patchwork Challenge, and before I’d even finished the sentence I knew: despite the lack of visuals, the glint in his eye was obvious. Mark is a born patcher, one …
Continue reading "The origins and revival of Patchwork Challenge"
“Like Halle (author of Spring in Washington), I have spent many days in Washington biking in search of nature. And like him, I have been witness to natural phenomena that have enlivened those days when I saw special features—a beaver, a turtle, a loon, a comet. As Halle knew, a bicycle is far better than …
Continue reading "Birding with a breeze: on birdwatchers and bicycles"
By Javier Caletrío Letter originally published in British Birds December 2019 Vol. 112, pp. 760-761. I am writing to express my concern about the role of the British Birdwatching Fair in normalising high-carbon holidays. Wildlife enthusiasts and conservationists have a moral duty to contribute their fair share to the commitment of the Paris agreement to …
By Javier Caletrío Climate Matters is a group of scientists and data analysts working with journalists to communicate climate change. One of their initiatives has been to build stories about climate change that TV weather forecasters can tell their audiences every time there is an extreme weather event. I read about this successful initiative shortly …
Continue reading "A modest proposal: birds, weather and climate communication"
By Dominic Martin Thursday morning, my phone is vibrating. A quick look on the screen and a notification from the Swiss Bird Alert app is telling me that a Lesser Yellowlegs was spotted at Klingnauer Stausee—the first time this American wader has been observed in Switzerland. Exciting! I haven’t got the time today, but tomorrow …
By Robert Fletcher, Wageningen University Costa Rica has long been considered something of an “ecolaboratory” wherein cutting-edge conservation strategies are tested and refined for emulation elsewhere. One of the main strategies developed in this way has been nature-based tourism, leading ecotourism guru Martha Honey to indeed label the country “ecotourism’s poster child.” As throughout the …
Continue reading "Costa Rica: Lessons from the ecotourism laboratory"
Fifty autumn postcards from forty birdwatchers—a fraction of the growing number of individuals who are thinking more carefully about why, where, and how they travel to watch birds. As these accounts show, there is no single or perfect way of understanding and doing low-carbon birding. Some of these birdwatchers live in bird-rich places, others in …
