David King wins the David Streeter Award

The David Streeter Award is given annually to a young person who has made an outstanding contribution to nature conservation.
This year the winner is David King. Here he tells us a bit about himself.
My interest in the natural world started when I was 10 after watching Springwatch. Seeing me dangling my mum's compact camera out of a window to photograph birds, my family bought me a cheap red camera (about £30), which was probably worse than most modern phone cameras. My hobby of wildlife photography grew over years, until 2017, just after my 14th birthday, I shifted gears and took up wildlife filmmaking instead. Since then, I have created a small YouTube channel David King Wildlife, which has seen some interesting projects:

One was a 20 minute wildlife documentary about Warnham, which took two years to film. Another was a seven minute video about our connection to wildlife during the pandemic (including a letter from Sir David Attenborough). I'm also attempting a monthly video update on my trail camera at Warnham.
As well as my wildlife filmmaking, I have also been part of the 12-16 Wildlife Rangers groups at Tilgate and Horley, as well as going to other Sussex Wildlife Trust related events, such as biodiversity days and a Young Naturalists group at Woods Mill.

I signed up to volunteer with the Sussex Wildlife Trust too, however the pandemic has meant I haven’t yet been able to do anything.
In my studies, I do A-Level Environmental Science, A-Level Geography and BTEC in Media, which all relates to my plan to become a professional wildlife filmmaker. At the moment, I am looking at Ecology and Conservation University courses, but I can’t be certain about anything in the future yet.
What I can say is that the sequel to my first documentary is already a year in production. As long as everything runs smoothly, it should be out within the next year or so. On top of that, I hope to do more videos along the lines of the one on the pandemic, college work permitting.

I feel I have been lucky in life. I am surrounded by quality green spaces, and the Sussex Wildlife Trust have been an amazing help in furthering my interest in nature. On top of that, I am extremely fortunate that I have the equipment to make the films on my channel. Most people don’t have half that opportunity, unfortunately.
I was delighted to win the David Streeter Award, and have spent the £250 on a trail camera, with the aim of furthering my project at Warnham.
Wildlife photos by David King
Comments
Huge congratulations David, wishing you all the best with future projects! Keep up the great work, your doing brilliant things for conservation!
02 Dec 2021 21:19:00