BTO Youth blog

BTO Youth blog

The BTO Youth blog gives a voice to the young people we work with and engage across the UK.

From our Youth Representatives and Youth Advisory Panel, to young people who’ve joined us at Bird Camp or done their work experience with us, a whole host of authors has written for us. The Youth blog focuses on a range of topics, including BTO’s scientific work, BTO Youth programmes of work, and opinion pieces. Sometimes they include interviews with other people, or are written by a collection of young people. Would you like to be featured? Email us at youth@bto.org with your idea for a blog!

Learning, leading, and healing with nature

Our Youth team brought together 12 aspiring leaders on our Young Leaders Course in the New Forest. Here are three personal reflections from the course.

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Learning, leading, and healing with nature

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There’s a Cuckoo in here somewhere

There comes a time when those, often young people, with slightly less conventional hobbies question what it is about birding, trainspotting, unicycling or vintage knitwear that really gets them going. As a long-time birder this is an almost annual occurrence. But why dwell on the why when the what – the ...

20.11.2025

Learning, leading, and healing with nature

This International Youth Day (12 August), our Youth team kicked off the annual BTO Young Leaders Course in the New Forest, bringing 12 young aspiring leaders together to celebrate youth-led leadership within the environment sector. This four-day course embodies the idea of empowering young people with the skills, confidence, and connections to make a re ...

09.09.2025

Getting to know Eric Simms at the BTO Archives

In August 2024, I had the exciting opportunity of volunteering in the BTO Archives at the Nunnery in Thetford. The Archives house a wide variety of documents, data, and photographs relating to the history and activities of BTO and the wider world of British ornithology. Over the last two years, BTO Archi ...

29.11.2024

Rise and lead

Unlocking potential at the Young Leaders Course Nov 2024.The Young Leaders Course returned to the scenic New Forest, where 11 motivated young people and four inspirational lectures shared their experiences and views on leadership in the conservation sector. ...

01.11.2024

A Girl & Birds

Earlier this year we were invited by Alicia Hayden to support her in the publication of a blog relating her experiences as a young person in birding. The blog relates an incident of abuse that had, and continues to have, a devastating effect on her.She has not shared with us the name of the person respon ...

27.08.2024

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