Stephen Ingraham (who?)

the unofficial site for birders and digiscopers using Zeiss equipment.

The British Birding Fair

There is nothing in the world quite like the British Birding Fair. It is a once a year, three day event, held at Rutland Water, at the East Anglican Birding Center, and it attracts birders from all over the British Isles, with a smattering of folks from Scandinavia and across the channel: 19,000  this year.

Map of the grounds: once the parking lots here fill, they park cars in farmers fields as far as 5 miles away.	For scale, this is an inside view of  Marque 3 (the red one on the map). Note the number of tents this size and imagine them filled with birding vendors and birders...not one day, but 3 in a row.

It is hard to imagine the scale of the thing. Tents that look as big as a soccer field...not one, but five of them. An art show that fills a tent the size of a gymnasium. Every major optics maker in one long tent with a view of the water (at the top of the map, with the orange isle, with a photo further down the page, and overflow in Marque 5 next to it). I couldn't begin to count the tour companies present and promoting their tours. And any product remotely connected to birding is on display and for sale.

Birders don't come here to see birds, or go on field trips. They come to shop.

Of course, for spice, there are displays of uniquely English crafts, a food court where you can get almost anything you might imagine, and so many workshops and presentations that they had them in three tents this year (each of which would seat about 150 people) All day long they announce the next event in the each of the tents. Most events are free (sponsored by one of the vendors generally) but the constant cry is "come early, seats fill fast".

Turning wood on a Pole Lathe	A display of shopping cart art: all shopping carts retrieved from the river.

Events range from the ridiculous to the sublime: Call My Ruff is all in fun, as are several other quiz type presentations, while the presentations from the British Rarities Committee and the Albatross Conservation Association are serious stuff. Along the way Zeiss sponsored daily workshops on digiscoping...with Paul Hacket on the basics, Nigel Blake on DSLR digiscoping, and yours truly on digiscoping with the DCA and the new DC4...which were well attended (and in all modesty, well received, even though the tent we were in did not allow us to show any samples of our work.)

At times the crush in the optics tent was beyond imagining. Often there were so many people waiting to see the FLs and Diascopes and the DC4 that the Zeiss folks couldn't get to the front to show anyone anything.

The full press: That's John Cockerill, president of Zeiss UK in the blue shirt, and Paul Hacket with his back to us.	Fortunately the British know all about queuing.
About 3 in 5 years, Wellies are the order of the day at BBF (W. Schwab)	The Optics Marque. (W. Schwab)

Rutland Water is more or less out in the middle of no-where at the edge of the Midlands (near Oakham, west of Leicester). Hotel rooms are in short supply so the Zeiss team is forced to book rooms at this little country resort right on the lake.

And lest we forget, the real purpose of the Fair is to raise money for conservation projects worldwide. If I remember correctly this year's gate receipts put the BBF's total contribution to conservation at over 1.6 million pounds.

Presenting the funds at the opening dinner.	Peter Peach, our happy driver, and the service technician at ZEISS UK.
Nigel and Paul took me hedgehoging one night: we also saw a Tawny Owl, and a badger.	Close up.