If you remember the last newsletter, it had the format of several short intro texts that contained links to more information. This kind of delivery is perhaps the most common way of delivering news. It is relatively concise to read, and one can click to get more info.

On the downside, if you chiefly read emails from your phone, it is not effective to have incomplete information that can only be reached by jumping to another site.

2. Gunnar’s midweek bullets. 
I lost a bit of traction with these weekly emails during a lot of traveling lately, but I enjoyed putting them together. The main idea was to share with you on a weekly basis birding news and favorite stuff I found in the fields of personal development, training and health in books, podcasts and gadgets.

Perhaps more than you bargained for, if you are mainly interested in birding, but you can of course skip sections you are not interested in. These emails tended to give longer explanatory texts with links in each bullet. These links also takes you away from the newsletter, but the full concept is explained in these longer bullets.

3. Links in the end of the message. 
The email can be of different lengths. Again points will be segmented in short paragraphs or in bullets so one can skim through the content, but all links will be at the end. I am trying such format with this email with all links to the different formats, and other things I highlight, are placed in the end. The idea is that it should be easy to read and that the links are not distracting you, especially if you read from your phone. 

4. YouTube newsletter.  
This is a novel approach that some marketers recommend. Like many news outlets today post pages online which contains both a video and a transcript,
this format can be adapted to newsletters. The important news will be delivered by voice, and if you watch, snippets of video or photos will accompany the  voice, but you can also listen as you commute.

I could for instance record my recent powerpoint presentation, that I gave at the Birdfair, then post it to YouTube and send the link to you. I will try a few such newsletters to try them out. Of course, they can be somewhat time consuming to produce, but on the other hand very short snippets of news can be sent this way as well, and may actually be more rapid to do this way once we got the workflow going. A YouTube video-link opens your YouTube app and would be the only link you’d have to click to get the enriched content.

British Birdfair 2018
I flew in to London Stansted around 7.30 AM from Stockholm Skavsta. Although the flight was uncharacteristically early, having left my mom’s home at 3:15 AM, and not bothered about going to bed before having to get up, this is a great way to reach the Oakham as there are direct trains from Stansted. With some naps on the 80 min bus ride, the two hour flight and the two hour train ride I managed to deal with this. I conveniently checked in at the Oakham School which provides bed and breakfast with shared bath for £90 per double. I shared room with Jose Luis Lescano of Peru Unique Destinations. The Oakham School is great place to stay, because many of the vendors at the Birdfair stay there. One does meet a lot of people. 

After a  a recovery nap, I took the bus to the festival area, where all the operators were putting up their stands. PromPeru was setting up their stand in Marquee 2.

I was invited to the Avian Adventures stand Marquee 3 and hung out with Gerry, Peter and the others. Avian Adventures is doing a tour with us in September.

Later there was the pub for all the exhibitioners. Tim Appleton welcomed everyone to the 30th Birdfair, and Andalucia provided the food.

I hung out with Andy Mitchell, Joan Maynard and Nigel Marven.

On Friday, we were given our T-shirts from PromPeru and between myself and Jose Luis, we decided to how to split the time slots at the APTAE table in the stand between us.

The Birdfair is huge. There are no less than 9 marquees of exhibitioners - and several different talks simultaneously at the same time. It is hard to both be exhibitioner and get a chance to visit all the booths, and almost impossible to also listen to some lectures. I met with old friends and with many past clients. Unfortunately, some past clients who came to see me at the booth missed me as I altered the time there with Jose Luis.

I got a chance to catch up with Laurens Steijn and Lars Buckx from Dutch Birding Breaks who have been running tours with us for the last couple of years. Their next tour with us is scheduled for February 2019. 

We were in Marquee 2. During the first day I only could visit all of Marquees 1-3. More to be visited next day. At the end of the day Birdlife International had a celebration with beer and wine at their stand in Marquee 2.

In the evening there were Birds and Beers in the pub in Oakham organized by
Mike Watson of Birdquest and John Hague - (Not So) Drunk Birder. I did my song Birdparty with bluetooth speaker playback as so many times before - but this time it was a tribute to legend Jon Hornbuckle who sadly died last year.

On Saturday morning I spent more time in the stand at first, and then presented my lecture “The Future of Birding” and got to make a shout out for our new tours of only five days.

I’ll make a recording of my slideshow and will share this as a YouTube video next week.  I visited a few more marquees in the afternoon, first Aragon next to ours in Marquee 2 were serving delicious ham, cheese and wine, and I ended up with Mike Watson, Nigel Sadler, Pete and Nina Morris, as well as Steve Bird and Gina Nichol of Sunrise Birding, at the Birdquest stand, and eventually joined by Mr Mark Beaman himself and Inger Van-Dyke, before heading off to the evening’s special events. 

First there was a presentation by Jonathan Meyrav about the Champions of the Flyways event and fundraiser in Israel. He delivered a great speech. I was particularly moved by the fact that Palestinians and Israelis took part in this even together. Birds know no borders.

I made a commitment that for next year I will be taking part, especially as the fundraising is for African Vultures. What is happening now to vultures in
Africa, can be compared directly to what is happening to the Andean Condor in Peru.

They are all actively persecuted and poisoned carcasses are being put out.
There are many similarities.

Afterwards, it was party time organized by Colombia. Colombia have just made several documentaries about birding produced by and here presented by Gregg Bleakney, who I had just met and chatted with in during breakfast at Oakham School. The Colombia crew even gave me a ride to the festival area, that morning. Didn't I tell you, that it is at the school you meet interesting people. 

Diego Calderon, who is coming to Peru with me for the Big Month, was the star and the consultant for the movie. Sadly Diego could not be at Birdfair in person this time, but so much more reason why I am looking forward to be birding with Diego in Peru in October.
Diego is a birding superstar. I have known him online for almost 20 years, and only very brief encounters through the years, or a few phone calls when I was in Colombia, emails, and lately chats on social media. It was a bit of a surprise to me to learn that he is only 38! It shall be great to bird together in Central Peru with Golden-backed Mountain-Tanager and yet to be described species. 

Afterwards there was a party with cocktails and dancing. I was hanging out with Nigel Marven, Ting Yee, Ash, Claudia and Alice Banwell, 
as well as Lisa Erb, Meche Alpizar and Harry Barnard from Rancho Naturalista, Costa Rica.

Afterwards, I got a ride back to Oakham with Nigel and Ting. Still somewhat hungry, I went out to get some Indian takeaway at Asian Delights on the main road in  Oakham, which I knew from previous years was open until late at night. But, they did not accept credit cards.

Disappointed, I settled for the pub next door to have a last pint before bed, and the same there. No credit cards accepted. Hmm, I should have gotten ££ from the ATM, but I was totally relying on my credit card for everything. 

The owner, John, graciously gave me a pint for free, and not only that, he gave me 10 pounds to buy the food. I tried to resist taking it, but he would not have it. He remembered me from the previous year. He even provided me with silverware and a plate to have my food in the pub. I sent off a message to Mike Watson, that this place would be a far better place for Birds and Beer next year. This way, I hope to pay back the generosity many times over.....

On Sunday morning I had signed up to join Nigel Marven on a boat trip on Rutland Water to try to see Osprey and other birds. The other celebrity on board was Nick Baker. 

Nigel was telling us, while waiting for Nick Baker to show up, that Nick had had  a once of a lifetime experience the previous evening cruise he led. As they approached the dock they saw a lot of swallows diving low over the water to  drink or to catch insects, very close to a group of mallards. All of a sudden a mallard raised up its neck and body and grabbed the swallow with the beak. It killed it and ate it! No one had ever witnessed this behavior before. Amazing!

Once the boat got going, we saw a fair number of birds including Little Egret, which Nick pointed out had contrasting yellow feet, much like the gentleman over there, pointing at me and my bright orangy Vibram Five Fingers on my feet. Nigel remarked that I may be known as Little Egret from now on.

Nigel is a popular TV presenter, but he is even more fun in real life. He comes up with the funniest comments. As we are approaching the dock, and see some triathlon open water swimmers, he grabs the mic to get the last word. He says he has just witnessed an even more amazing Mallard behavior, very hard for Nick Baker to beat, as a swimmer just got attacked, drowned and eaten by a flock of mallards! Haha!

I am sure our 12 day tour in Peru that Nigel and I will do together in Nov-Dec offering the absolutely best of Peru, will be full of laughs and similar tales.
Why don't you join us?

Getting back to the stand on Sunday, took some time. I had to meet up with our agent to our India trip in January and there were others to see as well. From my meetings we now have ideas for 7 Wonders Birding Tours also in Bhutan, Spain, Guatemala, Cambodia, China and Costa Rica. It shall be very stimulating and fun putting together the offerings the coming weeks.

I also met up with Carles Oliver who builds hides for bird photography in Spain - specifically Lammergeier. We hope to start a joint project in Peru with a hide for Condors. 

Finally, at our stand, I did my song Birdparty once again and my Swarovski song at the Andalucia Wildlife Guides stand by request of Jose Luis Sanchez. Just can't help myself! People seem to like it, and I like to sing. 

Before going back to Oakham to catch the train to Stansted, I also managed to see my friends Ernesto Couve and Claudio Vidal from Far South Expeditions. Anyone who knows them, they are lovers of sea birding
just like me, perhaps we can start a joint venture with pelagics in Peru.
We are also cooperating to arrange a trip on January 12 to Alejandro Selkirk Island in the Juan Fernandez archipelago to twitch Masafuera Rayadito - perhaps the most difficult bird to get in all of South America, due to isolation of the island, complicated permit procedure and the lack of boats. I shall be guiding. Let me know if you are interested in joining

The Birdfair was over. In less than two weeks I will see many of the exhibitioners again at the American Birding Expo. I shall try to remember to take more photos this time to share this time. If you will be there; I will see you there. And if anyone wants to volunteer to help out in the Kolibri stand, I'll buy the beers and the food!

Links.

Guran Guran update and the Swedish elections.
While in Europe I also managed to make a recording with my band Guran Guran in Sweden. It is not common for us to make covers, however this is
a cover of Swedish rock-blues poet singsong writer Ola Magnell. It has been
labeled progressive rock as it was released in 1975. The original has  somewhat absurd surrealistic lyrics, with a rather bleak outlook on society as it was in 1975. I slightly changed the lyrics by changing 22 words and substituting three names current to current politicians.
Regardless, it is meant as tribute to Ola Magnell and at the same time
make a small contribution against the dark forces in the general parliament
elections in Sweden yesterday. SD (Swedish Democrats) are almost as large as each of the conservative Moderaterna to the right and the Social Democrats to the left.  

Those of us who favor solidarity and a multi-ethnic society without xenophobia feared that they’d become the largest party. The party has its roots in openly racist ideology, but as they have cleaned their image slightly, they have become more and more popular and openly populist to gain support. Luckily, they did get less votes than they had hoped, but are still the balance of power. It shall be interesting to see what kind of government we will have as there will maybe have to be some consensus between antagonists of left and right.  

Here is a version of the song on YouTube which also contains the lyrics translated into English in subtitles that can be activated. Hope you like it. I appreciate your subscription to the channel. Our version made quite an impact on Facebook with some 62000 views in three weeks.