Country diary: A wildlife festival worthy of the longest journey | Mark Cocker

Spurn, Yorkshire: A monstrous convolvulus hawk moth caught the eye, but the great shearwater stole the showWildlife fairs or festivals have become a standard fixture in the environmental calendar, yet at most of them I'm troubled by the same conundrum I find in wildlife television. You watch the screen, or walk through the aisles of products, or attend the lectures, and all seem a pale reflection of the experience they celebrate, which is being in nature itself.I've finally found the event that solves the issue. Spurn Migration festival is a glorious weekend programme, staged in the key migratory period, at a place where this unfolding drama is more visible than anywhere in mainland Britain. On the Humber estuary, which bounds the peninsula on its south-eastern edge, there are thousands, probably tens of thousands, of birds omnipresent. Continue reading...