Another year, another Birdfair.
We have been represented at the Birdfair for many years now. The first time was probably about 12 years ago when the company was just newly established.
After COVID-19 struck the world, the Birdfair moved to the internet and even then we tried to participate…but that wasn’t really that. Birdfair has always been about seeing old friends, finding new ones, hearing travel stories, and collecting information about possible future destinations. For companies, such as NaTourEst, it’s also about seeing old and new friends, but also hearing about the latest innovations in the nature tourism world, finding new contacts and partners, and promoting our tours to potential clients.
This year, we were again at the Swallow Marquee under the Estonian Tourism Board stand. We were standing at the same spot with most of our neighboring stands being the same as last year. When last year, the temperatures were around 30 degrees Celcius, this year, it was raining for most of the time and temperatures were mostly below 20 degrees. Except for the mud fields between the marquees, it was actually much more pleasant with a bit cooler weather.
This year, we were represented by both Peep (who has been there since 2019) and Bert, who was there about 12 years ago…when it was the first time for NaTourEst. All in all, we had a good time and hopefully a successful fair. We met some people who had recently been to Estonia and visited our bear hide, also a lovely group of friends who did the Lynx and Steller’s Eider tour with us, and many people who are planning to come next year or in the future! We also met old partners and made plans for the future with new partners.
This year, Peep also gave a lecture on “Lynx Watching in Estonia”, as the lynx is probably the star species of Estonia, besides the Steller’s Eider of course. The lecture went well and there were many people listening to it, even though it took place on Sunday morning at 10:30 AM.
In short, I talked about how the lynx population is doing right now (about 600 individuals), how the numbers have changed, how we look for them and what else can you see during our lynx tours.
We also advertised 2 new tours – “Lynx and Flying Squirrel Tour” and “Spring Birding“. I really looking forward to these tours and hope to guide at least one of them. Seeing mammals, such as the Flying Squirrel or Eurasian Lynx is always very exciting and gratifying. It will be definitely a challenging tour because finding the lynx is never easy…but when you see finally see one…it makes up for all the sleepless hours.
I am also really looking forward to the “Spring Birding” tour, as it’s probably one of the most exciting times to be in nature looking for birds. It’s pretty much the peak time for owls, grouse, and woodpeckers and we get the chance to visit a Great Snipe lek during the tour.
So there’s a lot to look forward to!
