Denise Landau, President, Friends of South Georgia Island with Anton and Leigh Wolfaardt in the Mouse-Free Marion Project stand at the Global BirdFair, Lyndon Top, Rutland, UK, 11-13 July 2025. Denise holds a copy of “Marion & Prince Edward: Africa’s Southern Islands” presented to her by the Project for her support. Photograph by John Cooper
In July, Anton Wolfaardt, Project Manager and John Cooper, News Correspondent, Saving Marion Island’s Seabirds: The Mouse-Free Marion (MFM) Project, along with Anton’s wife, Leigh Wolfaardt, travelled to Lyndon Top, Rutland in the United Kingdom to participate in the 2025 holding of the Global BirdFair. Our aim was to increase awareness of the project, make and renew contacts, and raise funds towards eradicating the island’s introduced House Mice.
Staying in a large tent in the adjacent “Glamping Village” we spent three days manning our stand in a huge marquee (one of more than half a dozen) scattered over a field close to the Rutland Water Nature Reserve. The weekend coincided with a genuine heat wave with temperatures into the 30s! With the help of BirdLife South Africa, we had albatross buffs, pins and socks to sell and a few copies of the Prince Edward Islands “coffee table” book by Aleks Terauds and others. Leigh Wolfaardt offered signed art prints of her gouache and graphite pencil “Albatrosses of the Prince Edward Islands” painting for sale, with 50% of the proceeds going to the Project. With a raffle on offer and albatross stickers on hand for Hectare Sponsors the three of us were kept pretty busy over the three days of the fair. However, we did find just enough time to listen to the last part of an evening lecture on albatross conservation (when the MFM Project got a welcome mention) by Peter Harrison MBE, the MFM Project’s first Patron.
Raffle winner John Groom wasted no time in getting his framed print by Leigh Wolfaardt mounted in his home
The winner of the raffle of the framed print of Leigh’s “Albatrosses of the Prince Edward Islands” was John Groom (who bought four tickets to help his chances of winning) from Crowthorne, Berkshire in the UK. He writes to ACAP Latest News: “I’ve been going to the UK bird fairs for more years than I care to count and have made many friends and planned many holidays as a result. I worked in South Africa and Zimbabwe for 19 years at the start of my career in the mining industry as a metallurgical engineer. This introduced me to wildlife and my interest in birds grew from there. I’ve been very fortunate to travel widely and enjoy the wildlife, culture, food and people from around the world. One highlight was a visit to South Georgia in 2011 and to follow the development of the rodent eradication programme from about that time – hence my enthusiasm and support for the Mouse-Free Marion Project.”
Leigh and Anton Wolfaardt and Grey Petrel Sponsor Helena Jefferson (right) smile for the camera in the MFM stand at the Global BirdFair, photograph by John Cooper
A most welcome surprise came from Helena Jefferson who lives in Market Drayton, Shropshire, UK. Helena arrived at our stand on a very hot day, requesting a seat and going on to say that she wished to support the MFM Project. She told us she had been waiting to find out how to donate for the last two years since she first heard about the project from a fellow British Trust for Ornithology philanthropy friend. Following a discussion with Anton, she has now sponsored a most generous 30 hectares, placing her in the “Grey Petrel” category on the MFM Project’s Honour Roll. She writes: “I am just VERY happy to have been able to donate AT LAST and to have talked to those other lovely people at the Global BirdFair about saving albatrosses and other seabirds from humankind-made dangers at sea and on land, and to encourage their support of your incredible eradication work.” Thank you, Helena!
Leigh and Anton Wolfaardt meet with Andrew Callender, Head of Global Policy, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and an Advisor to the Mouse-Free Marion Non-Profit Company Board
We were pleased to renew and make new contacts with the many people who visited our stand at the fair, especially from the world-wide BirdLife community. These included Martin Harper (CEO, BirdLife International), Stuart Butchart (Chief Scientist, BirdLife International), Oli Yates (Head, Marine Programme, BirdLife International), Susan Micol (Senior Programme Manager, Preventing Extinctions, BirdLife International), Yasuko Suzuki (Senior Marine Specialist, BirdLife International, based in Japan), Stephanie Nolan (Digital Communications and Campaign Officer, BirdLife International), Andrew Callender (Head of Global Policy, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, UK, Advisor, MFM Non-Profit Company Board and Member, MFM Project Management Committee), Antje Steinfurth (Conservation Scientist, Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, UK), Scott Pursner (Director of International Affairs, Taiwan Wild Bird Federation), Luís Custódia (Sociedade Portuguesa para o Estudo das Aves, Portugal), Thierry Micol (Head of the International and Overseas Team, Ligue pour la Protection des Oiseaux, France) and Jose Manuel ‘Pep’ Arcos (Species and Spaces Unit, SEO/BirdLife, Sociedad Española de Ornitología, Spain).
We also met with Denise Landau (President, Friends of South Georgia Island and Member, MFM NPC Fundraising Committee), Mark Tasker (Emeritus Principal Advisor, Joint Nature Conservation Committee, UK and a 75-ha sponsor), Ruth Peacey (Producer, Director & Film Maker, UK, who has filmed on Marion Island), Sarah Crofts and Micky Reeves (Wild Falklands Ltd, Sea Lion Island), Andy Pollard (Guide and Photographer, Falklands Nature), Hannah Lawson (Ornithologist and Expedition Leader, Polar Latitudes) and John Gale (Bird Artist & Illustrator). We met briefly with Peter Harrison MBE, and Shirley Harrison and with Global BirdFair Co-founder and Organizer Tim Appleton MBE.
From left: Scott Pursner, Director of International Affairs, Taiwan Wild Bird Federation, John Cooper MFM Project News Correspondent and Yasuko Suzuki, Senior Marine Specialist, BirdLife International, photograph by Leigh Wolfaardt
The 2025 Global Birdfair had as its theme “Safeguarding Ocean Species”, highlighting the Endangered Antipodean Albatross Diomedea antipodensis, a sister species to Marion Island’s Vulnerable Wandering Albatross D. exulans which is severely impacted by the island’s introduced House Mice, and most recently by High Pathogeneticity Avian Influenza (HPAI).
It was the fourth holding of the Global BirdFair, which followed from a long line of British Birdwatching Fairs held on the edge of the Rutland Water Nature Reserve from 1989 to 2019, when the COVID-19 pandemic brought the popular fairs to a halt for two years.
The MFM Project offers it grateful thanks to Tim Appleton MBE for covering the costs of our stand; Ria Olivier, Antarctic Legacy of South Africa for donating books about Marion Island; and Stephen Pringle from East Sussex, UK for arranging and funding the printing of two Sponsor a Hectare maps of Marion Island at very short notice just two days before the fair commenced. Christopher Blair, a UK birder aboard the Flock to Marion AGAIN! 2025 voyage in January 2025, encouraged the MFM Project to attend this year’s fair and helped support our participation; a pleasure to meet him again at our stand. Perhaps we should go to next year’s Global BirdFair?
John Cooper, News Correspondent & Anton Wolfaardt, Project Manager, Mouse-Free Marion Project, 12 August 2025
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The Mouse-Free Marion Project is a registered non-profit company (No. 2020/922433/08) in South Africa, established to eradicate the invasive albatross-killing mice on Marion Island in the Southern Ocean. The project was initiated by BirdLife South Africa and the South African Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment. Upon successful completion, the project will restore the critical breeding habitat of over two million seabirds, many globally threatened, and improve the island’s resilience to a warming climate. For more information or to support the project please visit mousefreemarion.org.
