An interesting week in the life of Wader Quest.

This has been an unusual and interesting week for us.

On Wednesday we ventured into London on public transport, not something we are greatly accustomed to doing, and found the experience was far from being unpleasant despite our metropolisophobic tendencies. (Couldn't find a proper name for a phobia about cities so I invented one.)

The reason we were there was to give a talk to the London Natural History Society following an invite from Kat Duke. The talk was in the Isis Education Centre in the middle of Hyde Park and was a very pleasant venue indeed. We talked about some of the waders we had seen on our travels and how they are being affected by the modern world.

LNHS talk showing the excellent presentation equipment.
Common Snipe Gallinago gallinago on screen.

On Friday we did the opposite journey and headed out to Thetford in Norfolk. There we spoke at a seminar at the BTO HQ at the Nunnery. We had been invited to speak there by Allan Archer, who  has agreed to be a Trustee of Wader Quest so we were able to take the opportunity to have a useful chat about our future with him at the same time. We had a fabulous response from the good folk of the BTO and we really enjoyed our visit there immensely.

BTO seminar.
 Black Stilt Himantopus novaehollandiae on screen.

It was particularly good to see some of our friends from the Wash Wader Ringing Group, Nigel, Ruth, Justin, Samantha, David and Lucy who even came in from maternity leave just to see us. It was very pleasing to have their support, particularly that of Nigel as it was his talk about the Spoon-billed Sandpipers that pretty much spurred Wader Quest into being in the first place, who'd have thought that two years later he'd be attending a Wader Quest talk?

Then Saturday morning we dragged ourselves out of a cosy warm bed to set up the Mobile Charity Shop at a car boot sale in the dark and chilled pre-dawn mist. I was not, I confess, over optimistic. However, as the sun rose over the horizon and the temperature crept into double figures, a few hardy souls turned out and fortunately for us they were people who wanted to buy, not just browse. The result being that we had one of our best mornings for some time.

The scene at the car boot site just after we arrived (the cars are behind us; we weren't the only people there!)