I’m Toby Carter, an 18 year old naturalist based in Leicestershire and Rutland, my passion for the natural world on my doorstep is growing day by day but my main passions are Ornithology (Birds), Lepidoptera (Moths) and Odonata (Dragonflies and Damselflies) along with Citizen science projects including Nest Record Scheme, Birdtrack and Bird-ringing.

My hope for the future is to work within the Environmental sector, where I can keep my passion for the outside world and transfer that knowledge into a working environment. There’s nothing better than working in an are you’re so passionate about.

Throughout my life I’ve had many amazing experiences from talking at the BTO’s Annual General Meeting in 2014 about my passion in front of a packed audience of 250 people to being awarded with the Marsh Award for Young Ornithologist of 2017 back in October. It was an honour to receive this award at the Mall Galleries in front of so many professional scientists making their contribution to science. My main passion within Ornithology is the majestic and charismatic House Martin, this is a species that has a special place in my heart as I’m lucky enough to have a colony nesting under the eaves of my house, this has allowed me to conduct my own in depth survey onto these migrational wonders looking into the secret lives within their mud enclaved nests to ringing the adults which allows me to see what birds come back year on year and gives us a much clearer picture as to the state of their population.

The Cameron Bespolka Trust gives the next generation of young and upcoming naturalists the opportunities to make those important connections with people across the Untied Kingdom and share the breadth of knowledge which they hold onto. This trust truly has the importance of inspiring the generation into the natural world at it’s hear, the events that are held such as HOS Birdcamp, BTO Birdcamp, Cornell Lab of Ornithology placement and Hampshire Art exhibitions are just some of the many examples in which they try and succeed in encouraging the future generation and day by day due to the help of the Cameron Bespolka Trust the future is looking brighter.

Follow me on: Twitter: @TobyWarbler, Facebook: Toby Carter  and Instagram: toby_carter1

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