Phil Cooper
Speaker Topics
Sports, History, Other
Locations Covered
East Midlands, Yorkshire & Humber
Fees
Free
Availability
Short Notice
Profile Bio
I am registered on Zoom and have undertaken 5 presentations using this. One of these to a Rotary Club in Victoria Australia. This was by using screen share, as my talks revolve around photographs I have taken of various places I have visited.
I have used donations to support charities at home and in parts of the world which have experienced natural disasters. I would stress that for me it isn't a money making venture. Any donation from the Costa Rica talk will go to the reforestation project "Rainforest of the Austrians". Please google this to see details of their tremendous project. There is a PayPal reference if a group wants to support this. More details are on the website.
The accent is on the visual, with enough verbal to explain the story of where I have visited. I have accumulated what I feel are good photographs to illustrate my talks which relate to my travel experience. I had 19 speaking engagements in 2019, to various organisation. These presentations relate to places, often with a historical background and often not readily visited. These include Syria and Jordan, the Silk Road in Central Asia and Western China. “Great presentation – I spoke to people tonight they were the cleanest photos seen at a Travel Club Presentation. Very good 9 out of 10. It must have been good, hardly anyone dropped off to sleep!” (Taradale Travel Club New Zealand).
Talk Description
The Birds, Beasts and Bugs of Costa Rica and the reforestation of the Rainforest of the Austrians.
If people have never been to Costa Rica and are interested in wildlife I think they find this of real interest. This presentation showcases video (and some striking still photographs) taken on my 2018 trip to this fabulous country. There are some unique shots of sloths, one mother and child and another of a rarely seen encounter between two alpha male sloths. The guide had never seen this before.
Brightly coloured birds such as Toucans, Curassaw, Acorn Woodpecker, Scarlet Macaw, Flame Coloured Tanagen and Emerald Toucanet, I find a delight to watch, particularly watching them feeding. The places visited represent the full variety of environments, from high altitude cloud forest (at Savegre) , to transitional forest (Manuel Antonio Reserve), to tropical wet forest (Tortuguero) and rainforest (Esquinas).
Of course Costa Rica is well know for its bird life. While many will have seen humming birds, (as I have) it was a superb sight to be close to these magnificent birds as they weaved their way around us lumbering giants. I never grow weary of watching these creatures.
In the title I mention the Rainforest of the Austrians. The inspirational Michael Schnitzler who as a conservationist has obtained over $4 Million from his Austrian sources to purchase land and develop Esquinas Lodge. Amazingly he has done this in between travelling to between Costa Rica and Austria, where he is an internationally admired violinist and concertmaster the Vienna Johann Strauss Orchestra. Any contributions will be forwarded to the above project .
Other Talks
