This year's Martin Garner Spurn Young Birders have been been put through their paces, testing their bird identification and general birding skills at the Spurn Migration Festival, and the winners named.
01 December 2023
Launched in 2015, the Martin Garner Spurn Young Birder awards celebrate and showcase the fantastic skills of young people. Six young birders, who have crafted their skills and knowledge over the years, are selected from the many impressive entries and invited to MigFest, where they are put through their paces via a series of birding challenges.
To reach the finals is a huge achievement in itself and the six finalists are split into two categories: a 'junior category' for those ‘13 and under’ and a 'senior category' for those aged 14 to 16. The finalists have to demonstrate their skill, identifying birds in the field and answering questions related to four habitat types; Estuary Watch, Seawatching, Visual Migration and Birding the Bushes. Also part of the assessment is an indoor theory session where they are tested on calls and songs, bird topography and general knowledge questions.
From the two categories, the finalists with the most correct answers were awarded the top prize in their age category; Alfie Seastron, aged 13 and William Lambourne, aged 14 became the winners of the junior and senior categories respectively. The remaining junior finalists were Felix Urwin (11), and Milo Dawes (10), and seniors were Toby Middlemist (15) and Sam Glennie (16).
You can read the full press release here: https://www.bto.org/about-bto/press-releases/young-birders-fly-high
