My earliest memory of birds is as a primary school child looking out of the kitchen window with my dad as he pointed out a wren in the flower bed, and told me that the little sticky-up tail was its defining characteristic. Twenty-something years later my elder daughter wanted to do her Wildlife Explorer with Brownies, and supporting her with that gave me the opportunity and excuse to start birdwatching that I'd apparently been wanting!
By the end of that year, I'd seen 49 species, so we did a family trip to the nearby wetland reserve on New Year's Eve so that I could get to 50 - and Dad decided to start keeping his own bird list the next year. A couple of years later he had fully embraced his ornithological side and has been far more active than I have almost ever since! Admittedly the difference between being retired, and being a parent and working full-time will account for a fair bit of the difference..!
I'm passionate about teaching children to see and appreciate the natural world around them - if they know the wonders that are right there, they're far more likely to engage with protecting them. So in my years as a Brownie leader I regularly did sessions about British birds - we made bird feeders, played bird ID games, and took part in the Big Garden Birdwatch.
Over the years I've spent many happy hours watching birds in wetlands and woodlands, along the seashore and far inland, as well as having some amazingly fortunate sights from wherever I happened to be. One particularly exciting spot was from the window of a holiday house in the north of Sweden in a cold and snowy February - a large bird flew past the mountains on the far side of the lake so I grabbed my camera and took some pictures which later confirmed my suspicion that it had been an eagle!
A few years ago I was privileged to join a dawn birding walk around the village where we lived; the difference it made being shown around the utterly familiar area by someone who knew exactly what to look and listen for was absolutely stunning. I'd thought there had to be goldcrests around there, but without our guide's expertise would never have managed to see them.
And in a few short weeks I'm fortunate to be going to Majorca for a few days birding. I'm particularly hoping to see flamingoes, wild vultures (black and griffon) or eagles (Bonnelli's or booted), red-knobbed coot and if I'm super lucky, either hoopoe or bee-eater would be absolutely wonderful! Top priority to sort out before I go is my camera - I'll definitely want to make sure my memory cards are clear and ready for action.
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