A wee friend of mine has entered a competition run by the RSPB to become the 2016 Cairngorms Young Nature Presenter. The winner gets a day filming with Iolo Williams and a 5-night stay in Glen Feshie.

There are 8 finalists and all their entry videos are on show via

http://www.rspb.org.uk/kids-and-schools/kids-and-families/kids/join_in/competitions/video-comp/

There are some really good videos – all quite short – so you might want to see who our budding Nature Watch presenters might be.

My pal is Xander and his video is all about ants (he’s the fine looking chap wearing a red top and green trousers). I’d really appreciate it if you could vote for him as I know just how made up he’d be to meet one of his heroes.

TIA

Done
Some talented kids on there

All done, enjoyed the films…
Hope he wins.

Thumbed up – and well deserved !

Done, all good videos but I did genuinely like his the most.

Voted for Xander; great to see so much interest from all of the shortlisted in what’s around us.

If only more of that age group would take more of an interest………..

He’s great, voted and good luck. Enjoyed all the films.

Done, best of luck too Young Xander, cool film he knows his stuff

I’d really appreciate it if you could vote for him

Surely that’s cheating?
(I haven’t watched any yet, so don’t know how good anyone else is. They may be as good, if not better, but as they are young people shouldn’t it be based on ability and not who knows the most people via Internet forums?)

To do..

Surely that’s cheating?
(I haven’t watched any yet, so don’t know how good anyone else is. They may be as good, if not better, but as they are young people shouldn’t it be based on ability and not who knows the most people via Internet forums?)

I’m not sure that’s how the internet works 🙂

I’ll give him a vote and good luck to him, buggered if i’m watching the films tho, I get enough of that with compulsory bloody spring/autumnwatch with the Mrs

FWIW the organisers make clear that it’s OK to use social media to garner votes.

There are some great videos though. I particularly liked the young lad and his night video of the foxes.

Done.

Go Xander

Done, enjoyed all the films but voted for wee Xander… 🙂

Ok fine, voted!
(Still haven’t watched any though) 🙂

I don’t think I’ve ever noticed ant hills like that before.

Pedantic model… surely if you have small and large you have medium by default?

Done.

I watched them all – Zander gets the vote! 😀

Done with pleasure. He would have got my vote anyway – with his enthusiasm and knowledge reminds me of my son Jamesie.

Boo, no counter to tell us who’s winning ?
Let us all know how Xander gets on, won’t you

What jam says, I think Xander was the best presenter and the film was creatively made too.

No vote counter at all. I guess it might be possible to guess if you look at the YouTube views but I’d like to think that folk would have a look at a few of them regardless of how biased their voting might be 🙂

Voted for Xander – his enthusiasm is impressive!

I’d like to thank everyone for their positive comments on Xanders presentation. They’ve been passed along to him and, win or lose, he’s been very encouraged.

Voting ends tomorrow lunchtime, so there’s still an opportunity to get yours in.

Voted – Xander’s enthusiasm and knowledge is infectious, and an inspired subject to present. Go on wee man!

He’s like a Scottish version of my eldest. In fact, he has some trousers in exactly the same colour on today.

He once got tutted at for stopping on Cannock’s Follow the Dog trail, to fetch out his sketch book to drawer a “nice tree”.

Vote cast.
Good luck Xander.

Voted without giving it any intelligent thought, I know you guys like that kind of thing.

All very good, I voted for the Ant man as he seemed incredibly enthusiastic but keep it channelled into sharing his knowledge. The other presenters were all very good. with a lot of knowledge, but the presentation wasn’t as engaging.

(says me who can’t present anything, so I’m unsure why I’m posting my reasoning!)

Thanks to everyone for voting (this is Xanders dad).

We have until mid day today to get in the final votes, so if anyone on here fancies learning about ants and casting a vote please do so by mid day 🙂

Just voted, great enthusiasm – hope he wins it.

I thought you’d all like an update.

We’ve just had news that Xander didn’t win the Cairngorm Young Nature Presenter competition. They have said however that he impressed the judges so much with his infectious enthusiasm that they would like to invite him to become a Cairngorms Nature Ambassador and have asked him to be involved in making a short video with Nick Baker as part of the Cairngorms Nature weekend in May. He’s also receiving a camera trap and signed book from Iolo Williams so he’s delighted with all of that we’d like to thank you all for the support (and of course the votes) during the competition, it really has meant a lot to us and we’re very humbled by all the lovely comments you have made about his video. It’s been a really positive experience for Xander and no doubt will encourage him to try again next year! Thanks again

Just heard that Alex Bayley won it – with a film on foxes. Can’t really grumble as the quality of all the entrants was really high. Xander was in the top 3 all along and was only pipped at the post.

Xander has been particularly pleased by all the lovely comments posted here and elsewhere and, with the prizes listed above, it doesn’t feel like he “lost” at all.

Hits the “like” button 🙂

Hurrah.