There is much more to the Cooperative movement than the visible shops trying to compete on our high streets and retail parks though. Today in the UK, as well as The Co-operative Group with its six million members and 5,000 outlets across its family of businesses including food, financial services, travel, pharmacy and funerals, there are thousands of other co-operators who share the same heritage. The cooperative model is often the best way for rural communities to organise services such as broadband into areas where the big telecoms companies can’t be bothered to deliver. Alternative energy is another good example:

The UK’s first community owned wind farm, Baywind Energy Co-operative was established in 1996. The project has always favoured local investors, that way the economic benefits of the wind farm are kept within the community it serves. In 1998 Baywind secured a loan from The Co-operative Bank to purchase two turbines for their Harlock Hill site. It has also received several grants from The Co-operative Enterprise Hub to develop new, co-operatively owned wind farms across the UK. Baywind now typically generates around 10,000MWh of electricity each year – enough to power around 30,000 homes. And along with educational visits throughout the year, it funds environmental books for local schools. There’s even a Coop Facebook page now,which you can ‘Like’ to get updates. The Co-operative Join the revolution Get involved

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The Cooperative movement was born out a mixture of radical socialism and paternalist philanthropy

Do you like watching wild birds? I do. Wherever I travel around the UK and the world the local wildlife is at least as interesting as the built environment to me. I take a lot of photographs without following any particular instructions and over the years I’ve produced very few good bird pictures, and that can be a bit frustrating at times. There are lots of pictures of small fuzzy distant ducks, little avian specs flying across a boring expanse of sky, and countless pictures of a wooden post from which a glorious example of an interesting bird species has just flown away out of sight. Why only yesterday I took a picture of a tree trunk with a goose flying behind it. How many shots have you taken like that?

Tree with flying bird behind

I’ve kind of accepted that you can’t get good pictures with ordinary cheap point and shoot cameras. But I’m not the sort of person who lugs a large camera bag around all day long, let alone a full length tripod. So which are the best compromises?

Most days I take a walk around the local duck pond just for a constitutional really, and keep an eye on which birds are visiting. Tame birds are easy to photograph and so are large ones like swans and geese. Birds which are preoccupied with feeding or some other essential activity may also be photographed from closer up when they are distracted by something important. Getting up close is the key here. Patiently waiting quietly is a rewarding skill to practice, so work out where is the best place to lie in wait and then stay calmly for as long as you possibly can, but be ready for when the perfect bird appearance suddenly arises.

Optical zoom is essential, at least 3 times but preferably more powerful. You then need decent lighting conditions. Really, you do eventually need a digital SLR camera, not just a pocket sized micro point and shoot affair, although you can get some good results with these if you learn how to master the manual settings and strike lucky.

A tripod is not essential if you have a steady hand, but the use of something to lean upon such as a ledge, wall rock or tree can only help to get a sharper photograph.

A pair of binoculars will help to identify distant birds and inform your choice of the best place to wait. These should be wide field of vision rather than high magnification for bird watching.

To celebrate the spring, the RSPB is launching a Free Prize Draw on 6 April to win an Olympus E-520 Digital SLR camera along with a copy of the RSPB Guide to Digital Wildlife Photography (together worth over £400).

Five runners-up will also receive a copy of the illustrated book by David Tipling, one of Britain’s best known wildlife photographers.

Everyone who buys an RSPB membership online between 6 April and 14 May 2009 will automatically be entered into the prize draw including adult, family, children’s and gift memberships.

RSPB membership makes a great alternative gift at Easter time – with over 100 nature reserves to visit with admission free to members.

Join the RSPB

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How to Photograph Birds