Day 16 was a non-event :( Besides a bit of reading ,"My Garden And Other Animals" by Mike Dilger I didn't get to do anything else to surpress my "wildness"
Day 17 though was busy.A bit of work, a lot of packing including taking the Moth Trap apart for transportation to South Wales, sorting out the cameras, scope, trail cam and making sure batteries were remembered.
That done, it was time to head north to York University, a drive of around 75 minutes to join the celebration of Yorkshire Wildlife Trusts 70th birthday with the added bonus of a special guest.
The host was Director Of development Jonathan Leadley
He did a quick welcome speech to the 1100 people crammed into the Central Hall of York Uni and then said "This speaker needs no introduction" and on came Sir David Attenborough.
He spoke for about 10 minutes, talking of Yorkshire Wildlife Trust and what we need to do to help the planet and its wildlife.Everyone in the room was hung on his every word.To hear his voice without it coming out of the TV was amazing.
After which he was joined on stage by Sir John Lawton, President of the Yorkshire Wildlife Trust where Sir David was asked questions given to the YWT to put to him.
He answered with enthusiasm and joy, re-telling stories of dangerous situations he had found himself in, especially with a Rhino attacking and destroying the back wheels of the jeep he was in.
Another question put to him was , "what animal would you bring back from extinction?" As a man who loves his Dinosaurs , he answered the Quetzalcoatlus, the largest Pterosaur which was as large as a small plane(35ft wingspan) just so he could find out how it managed to take off and fly.
After around 45 minutes of questions and spellbounding answers it was time for him to go catch his train back to London.I think people tried their best to make him late by giving him the longest standing ovation I've ever seen for anyone.
Following Sir David was a film showing 100 years of the Wildlife Trusts and then Sir John came back out to talk about it a bit more.
The evening was rounded off by Executive Director Rob Stoneman on projects that have already been successful and what they hope for in the future, though personally as a member of Friends Of Spurn I and others still worry about their planned Visitor Centre being built in a sensitive location at Spurn Point.
In all it was a great evening and I even managed to bump into a Twitter friend and famous blogger, BBC Wildlife Mag's Junior Blogger Of The Year 2015 and Springwatch Unsprung Hero, Zach Haynes and his parents, great to see you all :)
You can catch up with his amazing blog here -
https://yearofnature.blogspot.co.uk/
The next 8 or 9 days will be coming from South Wales so look out for future blogs on Skomer, Pembrokeshire, Badgers, Choughs, Great Spotted Woodpeckers(as they have been distracting me all evening since I got here) and Moths.
Many thanks again for reading and staying with us throughout the "wild" month of June :)
No comments:
Post a Comment