Pushing the Boundaries RELOADED - talking at the Rutland Birdfair 2013!

In January and February 2013 me and Martin Garner went on a tour around UK, giving talks at 10 bird clubs in 14 days. What a road trip! In our different ways we both hoped to promote birding and talk about some projects that proved that birding is quite possibly the coolest enterprise ever. In all modesty. We were both amazed by all the great people we met on the road. In day time we birded nature reserves and other hotspots with old and new friends, in the evenings we where met by welcoming people at the bird clubs. I think we must have met something close to a 1000 birders on our tour! 

Since my early years as a young birder, in the 1990s, I have basically been raised on British birding litterature. One of my favourite books was the ´Rare Birds´ guide, illustrated by Ian Lewington. On the Pushing the Boundaries Tour I got the chance to see a lot of cool places, but the people we met is what really stands out! And that Brown-bellied Dipper I had to chase unexpectedly hard to find, and of course that 111-species-in-day bird race in Norfolk. Great birding, great people!

Now the RSPB (The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds) have asked me and Martin to give our Pushing the Boundaries Talks on the Rutland Birdfair, at the RSPB Birders Lecture. Friday evening, first day of Birdfair. In the Events marquee. 550 seats. That is a pretty big wow! Now we hope to fill the marquee with birders, and we promise to upgrade and fine tune our talks with even better birder niceness for this event! 

From Rutland Birdfair 2012: an amazing event celebrating birds and nature. How cool it is to see so many people enjoying it. Its like the birding world migrated to the same little hotspot, for information, for inspiration and to connect. Close to 25 000 bird and nature enthusiasts visit Rutland Birdfair!

Me and Martin on tour in february 2013. Birding and bird clubbing. Check out Martins Pushing the Boundaries Reloaded intro.

Pushing the Boundaries Talk: So what is it about?!

Birds, of course. 

Some of the coolest birds on the planet actually. 

As it is for both Martin and me, birds and birding is a source of endless inspiration! For me birding has become a full time enterprise. With a twist. For four years I have now run what I think is the only bird focused architectural practise in the world. I have not heard of any other architects working full time with bird projects yet (but I hope this will improve). My Pushing the Boundaries Talk is about how me and my wife, against much "good" advice moved north to the fishing town Vardø in arctic Norway, to set up an architectural practise that worked with pro bird and nature proejcts only.

Varanger is a well known birding destination and for the past few years we have made it even more known, both internationally and locally. It has been and continues to be a great adventure being birding archtiects based in Varanger. 

Arctic birding. A small family business with a plan to make a difference.

Being a birding architect is much more then just designing buildings, it is about enganging with people! Making new things happen is a great reward. The world of birding have such a wide range of amazing people and things happening. The Birdfair itself is proof of a community of both magnitude and variety. We have bird art, bird festivals, bird sound recordists, bird science, bird identification specialists, bird tour companies, bird conservation, and so much more. We wanted to contribute to the world of birding by means of architecture. To do so we had to prove our value, by engaging with both the international birding community and by making a  solid difference where we live. Join the Pushing the Boundaries Talk and hear about this story.

Birding architecture in progress, from stealth type bird photo hides, to wind shelters to combined bird towers and outdoor amphi-theaters. We design, protoype, build and make it happen.

A lot of people see Che Guevera as a change maker worthy of iconic status, and of course mass spreading on T-shirts. We aim to make the über cool Steller´s Eider the Che Guevara of Varanger. Pro nature revolution by birding!

Bird street art: For that little arctic birding revolution we needed more birders, and being impatient, we just started making them. 

Pushing the Boundaries: Isles of Scilly & Becoming birder architects

So how do you go about becoming a birder architect? Well you start by convincing your architect girlfriend that birding really is very normal and even a very cool thing. In 2006, having just met Elin at the architect school, we just had to go somewhere exiting, to prove that not only was birding a big thing but also worth our focus as architects. Remembering how the Isles of Scilly seemed to feature in almost every page of the 1990s classic ´Rare Birds´ guide book, I figured there could be not better place to go! We spent 3 weeks in October 2007 on Scilly. A superb experience, and this is where we hatched our plans to become birder architects! 

Scilly birding: We spent a lot of time birding, and we where both amazed by the number of birders around. Like phylloscopus warblers they popped out behind every bush on the island. Walkie talkies was sparkling all over the place and the ´huit´ calls was always the latest bird info passing around. 

We even found ourselves a very cool Blackpoll Warbler, and we were both a little overwhelmed by the scenes of heavy local birder migration the following hour at the Lower Moors on Scilly. Check out the short video clip we took of birders rushing in to see ´our´ Blackpoll Warbler (a low res video, but pretty cool still). I think about 300+ people arrived within 20 minutes.  

A long story short: The Isles of Scilly proved to be a potent experience. We met a lot of great people, saw some very cool birds and places and we both agreed that we should pursue a career as birder architects. Sorted. 

We hope to see you at the Birdfair

With that brief intro I am very glad to be able to invite all birders coming to the Birdfair to join mine and Martins talks at the Events marquee on Friday at 16.15 o´clock. We promise Martins inspirational stories from the frontiers in bird id and birding and my story of how birding can change a place. It will be some cool stories of birds and people aiming to make a difference. 

From the Arctic I will present some architecture dedeicated to birders

the scenaries

the inspirational people who make things happen

and of course some very cool birds!

Grand thanks to all the good birders & bird clubs that hosted our talks in January and February, and thanks to the keen birders at RSPB for making this happen. Hope to see you all, and meet new friends, at the Birdfair this August! to be continued..

Best wishes 

Tormod A. / architect & birder, based in Varanger / Arctic Norway

Birding Britain - two weeks on the road

We have now been on road for two weeks with the ´Pushing the Boundaries Tour´. We have enjoyed some very cool birding, met so many enthusiastic birders and seen new places. For me it has been a crash course in Britain. My previous UK experiences are two early school years trips to Britain, with little birding in it. And an amazing three week visit to the Scilly Isles in 2008, which was a key ingredient in me and Elins choice to start the adventure that would lead to us setting up the Biotope office - the first ever architectural office dedicated to birding. Being on tour in Britain for these past two weeks have been an amazing experience! Below follows a few photos and thoughts as the tour comes close to and end.

We have not really had time to do that much birding on tour. We have almost met more birders then birds. I had a few target birds when I arrived UK. Two of them being the Red Grouse and the Brown-bellied Dipper. Both subspecies I have not previously seen. And what beauties! I guess a lot of people travel north, having a ´White´ Grouse on their wish list , for me seeing a red one was equally amazing. The Dipper was a bird I had to put in a little extra work to get, but finally after a checking a few kilometers of river streams I was rewarded with three of these distinctively different birds. A very smart looking bird, with its warm brown-red earth colours. Some surprises also followed. A new bird for me was Caspian Gull. So gull watching is very different in UK and Varanger. I would say watching gulls in a fishing harbor has a slightly more picturesque feel to it, but birds are birds, and a Caspian on a dump is still great! Then we invented the term Chiffchaffing, meaning looking through Chiff Chaffs trying to find a Siberian Chiff Chaff of the subspecies ´tristis´. Another great experience which Martin wrote about on his blog. 

Birding is not same same as a general interest in or love of nature, it goes slightly beyond that. You go where the birds are, and if that is not an escpecially beautifull site, you can still have an amazing experience. We have visited several dumps during our tour, and been rewarded with some very cool birding. Such as seeing the Gull variety: Caspian Gull, Great Black-backed Gull, Herring Gull ssp argenteus & argentatus, Lesser Black-backed Gull, Yellow-legged Gull and Common Gull, possibly even Russian type ´heinei´ Common Gull. Right photo above is of the Milton Tip in Cambridgeshire. Great birding. Left photo above is from the spectacularly beautifull fields and wetlands of the Norfolk coast. Thousands of ducks and geese winter here, and we had great views of a wide variety of species. More great birding.

UK - the homeland of birding

Meeting so many birders across UK have been a real privilege! The people we have met on this tour have all made the Pushing the Boundaries Tour a real adventure for us. Thanks to all of you! The great thing about being a birder is that you meet and connect with people, where ever in the world you go - especially in Britain. Birders make a differende - ´A force to reckoned with´ is the right frase, I feel. It has been a true inspiration meeting the digiscopers, the reserve wardens, the tour operators, the bloggers, the twitchers and many, many more! 

Thinking outside the box

Lots of birders count their species. As a birder / architect I also tick bird hides! I have already a quite large library of bird hide photos, and this has grown even more on this trip. Finding new inspiration, and always looking into how bird hide design can be improved is one of my favorite topics. It is one of the key things we work with at the Biotope office: how to improve architecture for birders. Britain probably have more hides than any other country, so in this respect it was a fruitful tour. Still, as in Norway, there is potential for improving the designs. At our talks on this tour I have shown photos and spoke of how new bird hide design can improve our birding, and even invite more people to the birding scene. 

   

On our tour we have tried a variety of hides, from the standardized box hides, to the one of a kind Titchwell hide to the simpler, but equally functional screen hides. I will make a more in-depth article on hides soon. This is a topic that is worth researching and describing much more. The amounts of hides that are build is amazing, and evidence of a birding scene with the impact and power to promote birds and nature. However this is also a frontier to be developed. To be continued…

On the road

During this tour I have filmed a series of short cuts with my iPhone. Approx 100 three to six seconds clips will be edited down to a short Pushing the Boundaries movie. To be released very soon. It is an all phone production, giving a glimpse into the tour on the road. 

It has been hectic and inspiring. Grand thanks to all the birders we have met on the road! In the end our scheme was bound to be revealed. Andrew Chick of the Lincolnshire Bird Club connected the dots, and revealed the Curlew plot :)

Well - what an adventure it has been! Need a little power-nap after this tour. Thanks all! Hope to be back soon. 

to be continued..

Tormod A. / Biotope

Birds & People - touring Britain with Birding Frontiers

Birding Frontiers & Biotope presents : Pushing the boundaries tour!

For the next two weeks Martin Garner / Birding Frontiers and I, Tormod / Biotope, will tour a series of bird clubs in Britain. I am really looking forward to this little adventure! We are visiting bird clubs in the evenings and bird sites and nature reserves in day time. Surely it will be inspiring meeting many birders and seeing new places! For me Britain is the homeland of birding. Maybe it has a lot to do with the fact that most books I read growing up was bird books in English language! In Norway birding has not (yet!) become a big thing, but in Britain is seems so, well, natural. I guess it helps being a couple of millions doing it! 

Biotope is a result of my and Elins decision to work with pro nature projects. As architects and birders we saw a potential for bringing the architectural skills to the world of birding. Much too often architecture happens at the expence of nature. We wanted to be the pro nature architects, engaging in projects that highlight and promote birds and nature. When we where deciding on where to live when being pro bird & nature architects there really was little discussion. Three years ago we packed our bags and moved to the finest arctic birding destination in the world: Varanger, Arctic Norway!

The past three years have been a great adventure - of meeting people, of collaborations, of discovering, hard work - and some extraordinary birding! I will do my best to share these stories from Varanger with the birders we meet on our tour. 

Since I wrote an email to Martin some years ago asking for ID advice on an odd looking possible eastern type Bean Goose, we have stayed in touch and even collaborated on projects such as Gullfest. I cant wait to hear new stories from Martin on this tour! I am sure all who have joined a talk with Martin or gone birding with him agrees that his knowledge and enthusiasm makes good even better! Check out Martins ´Pushing the boundaries Tour´ intro, with much more details on all the places we visit, and links to the bird clubs hosting the talks. With the Pushing the Boundaries tour we aim to present engaging new stories and innovative approaches to birding.  

Below is a little taste from the coming talk by Biotope

Stories from Varanger - a nature destination in the making

Birder power!  

Birdig always bring surprises, and Varanger is the hottest place in the arctic for rarities. We are at the outer limits of Europe, and there is so much more still to be discovered. More about that on tour..

The arctic ocean is rich in fish - and birds. The local fishermen and guys at the fishery are our good friends! Like birders they appreciate productive nature. We birders may have a lot of specialist knowledge about Gulls, but these are the guys you talk to if you want to make a Gullfest! 

Birdng to the people: Gullfest 2012 - the worlds first arctic birding festival. Among a series of keynote speakers, Martin delivered inspiring talks that captivated both visiting birders and locals alike. Photos from the Gullfest base camp. 

Varanger is in the making: bird hides and wind shelters are being built at strategic sites. This is architecture dedicated to birders, both for visiting hard core birders and the nature enthusiasts of Varanger! It is also a statement of the value of the regions rich and unique birdlife. In Varanger birders are making an impact! 

By the way: There is a lot happening in the north at the moment. For those who are interested in an arctic adventure check out the Gullfest 2013 event:
Gullfest 2013 intorduction, with advice on Gullfest travel and accomodation in Varanger 

Please feel free to join me and Martin on one of the bird clubs on this tour for more stories on birds and birding.

Check out the tour map. We hope to see you at one of the bird clubs:

Follow Martin on twitter @BirdingFrontier & Tormod @BiotopeOffice for updates on the road!

Looking very much forward to meeting you all on the Pushing the Boundaries tour!

Tormod A. / Biotope