Two walkers in this Sunday’s End to End challenge will be looking up rather than at their feet.
Dora Querido and Sophie Costain are raising money for Manx BirdLife and have been sponsored for how many birds they can record on the walk.
Both women work for Manx BirdLife – Dora is the charity’s chief operating officer while Sophie is a data assistant.
Dora said: ‘Most of our sponsorship has been based on our participation at the event but because we are raising money for Manx BirdLife some people are pledging sums based on the number of bird species we see.
‘We hope to do the walk in 10 hours and are training hard. Spotting birds at the same time will be quite a challenge.’
Manx BirdLife, in partnership with RSPB, works to conserve the Isle of Man’s wild birds and their habitats by raising public awareness of conservation issues.
Surveys of the island’s bird populations are carried out annually and results covering the whole island are published every 10 years.
MBL is publisher of the Manx Bird Atlas and supplies statistical data to government and private companies.
Dora joined Manx BirdLife in May this year under a two-year contract. She is Portuguese and a passionate conservationist. She moved to the UK in 2009 to follow her dream of working for a charity that protects birds and initially, worked for the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust (WWT) in Slimbridge, Gloucestershire.
Keen bird watcher and walker Sophie started working with Manx BirdLife in March as a breeding bird surveyor.