Touring UK - the Iphone road movie

Pushing the Boundaries Tour - the Movie

During my 15 days tour with Martin Garner around UK, I recorded a series of video clips with my Iphone. I had a very simple idea: Instead of recording masses of video from the tour, I would simply record a few seconds long moments every now and then. So here it is - 150 moments avarage 2.8 seconds condensed to 7 minutes. A speedy glimpse of our tour around UK, visiting bird clubs, giving talks, meeting new people and birding. Not any kind of masterpiece but it gives a relatively good idea of how the tour was. It is an all Iphone production. Hope you enjoy :) 

Also check it out at our youtube chanel

A series of Iphone video fragments recorded on tour, and edited on my way home. Basic and doable during a hectic tour around Britain (Iphone screenshots above). 

Touring UK

This tour have been a fantastic experience, and a more personally engaging experience then I expected. As I have spoken of in our talks at the numerous bird clubs we have visited, I really own much of my birding knowledge and enthusiasm to English bird litterature - being practically raised on it! During this tour the highlights have been many! Meeting so many engaged birders is a privilegie. There are too many meetings to name them all, but meeting Ian Lewington certainly stands out for me. Simply because the Rare Birds book from 1991 sparked my interest in birds outside Europe. As a young birder I read this book, and studied its art in detail. It widened my horizon. Visiting Ian now and seeing his art in progress today was great. Simply amazing work! Birding with new birders all the time was fantastic too. Seeing new places and talking birds with new people non stop for 15 days was brilliant. Being in a place where phrases like "the abietinus is really the Baltic Gull of the warbler world" is part of a normal conversation is good (thats Martins phrase, by the way). I wish to thank all the bird clubs who hosted our evening talks, and all the kind birders we stayed at - grand thanks for your hospitality! During my talks I also spoke of an amazing visit to the Scilly Isles in 2008 - a trip that strengthened me an Elins ambitions to be pro bird architects. Talking to so many birders after our talks have also been a great experience. So many encouraging words and good ideas have been shared. Thanks all!

Also touring with Martin have been a brilliant experience. We connected early in 2010, when I wrote Martin a mail about a strange looking Bean Goose I had photographed in Varanger (probably an eastern type, ssp middendorfii-ish kind of bird). We have stayed in contact ever since. I really admire the openess and inquisitive approach of Martins Birding Frontiers concept. He proves over and over again that new discoveries is within reach - it is all about your own perceptions and eagerness to learn more. Being two rather entrepeneurial birder types on the road has been a great experience! Sharing ideas and fine tuning concepts over so many hours have been the on-the-road privilegie! Thanks Martin! Much more to come... Meanwhile, do check out the Birding Frontiers blog for an eyeopener in the world of birding.

Talking 

The Pushing the Boundaries Tour was an idea that me and Martin have been talking about for a while. The idea was simply to make an extended event, a tour, and share stories of birds, people, discoveries, conservation work and new and innovative approaches to birding. I have shared my story from Varanger / Arctic Norway. This is where I live and work, and run the pro bird architectural office Biotope. Varanger is without a doubt one of the worlds birding hot spots, and certainly the easiest accesible arctic birding destination in the world. In my talks I have told stories from the work with the development of this amazing destination. No birding destination just exists, it is built, with infrastructure, bird guides, local nature awareness, mapping and loads of enthusiasm from locals and visitors. During our tour in the UK I have also met several of the british birders who are contributing to the building of Varanger as a birding destination. Among them the Brewood Ringers (photo above) who have made the Nesseby Ringing Scheme possible. I have also spoken much of the locals in Varanger, and how people like Ørjan Hansen in Båtsfjord, fisherman gone bird guide, have made a great impact in Varanger and for visiting birders. I have talked about Varanger gardens, of the kind with grenades and Snow Buntings. I have also shown a series of photos of unique arctic bird life (f.ex the Phalarope story and the fighting Puffins). I am very happy for all the encouraging comments from birders we have met about our birder architecture projects - both mapping and bird hide designs. I hope to meet many of the birders we have talked to during the past weeks in Varanger at some point. Or perhaps in the UK. I will certainly be back! It has been very inspirational.

Back in Varanger

Two busy weeks on tour in UK was grand, but being back is fantastic. I made little attempt to hide my enthusiasm for Varanger in winter and early spring. February is one of my favourite birding months in Varanger. The light is simply spectacular and the birding is fantastic too. Just got back from a  walk in the harbour (photo above fromyesterday). The Stellers Eiders, King Eiders and flocks of Gulls are enjoing life in the harbour.  
The photo below is taken yesterday just after sunset at 15.00, from the mainland, with a view towards Vardø island. A pretty cool place to live, work and bird!

Thanks all! 
We are in the mood for action: next project is the Gullfest 2013!

To be continued...

Tormod A. / Biotope

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