I’ve been working (in a small way) on a major new Birdlife initiative supporting the Critically Endangered Sociable Lapwing, and the project website has just gone live. Sponsored by Swarovski Optik and supported by Birdlife and RSPB, the site follows The Amazing Journey of eight satellite-tagged Lapwings as they travel from Kazakhstan to the wintering grounds. It’s state of the art stuff, fantastic conservation, and I’m incredibly proud to be associated with it.

In searching for news about the birding world, as I often do, I came across this article that gives some information about how the Jackson Convention and Visitors Bureau is successfully bringing birders and birdwatchers to Jackson County, Michigan, where they spend their hard-earned dollars while watching birds.  And it’s no wonder, with the nicely put together birdwatching portion of the Jackson County Visitor’s Bureau website.

It is always great to see an understanding of and appreciation for the economic impact we birders can have on an area.  Go (to) Jackson County!

Okay, so I (Charlie) am not Simon King or Kenn Kaufman, but I do have a twitter account and I will be updating during the Birdfair and whatever else follows as my new ‘life outside the airline’ develops. I’d be very flattered if you’d do the whole ‘follow’ bit and I promise I will find something interesting to say…I’m at @wiltsnature - I thankyou!

‘Greenwash of the Week’ Award goes to Tusk Mining of South Africa, who says because they are committed to reducing their footprint on the South African landscape they have “undertaken to only begin new mining operations in countries other than [SA]. To this end, we have begun exploration in China and Australia.” So, rather than b*gger up SA they’re going to extract 1 million tonnes of coking coal per annum from an open-caste mine just 6km from the boundary of Purnululu National Park, a World Heritage Site, in western Australia instead. Burning that coal will produce 2 million tonnes of CO2. You just couldn’t make it up…