The Big Garden Birdwatch long weekend is here! There’s still time to sign-up and take part. Just spend one hour between Friday 27 and Sunday 29 January counting the birds, and help monitor how birds are faring. Find out more here; https://www.rspb.org.uk/get-involved/activities/birdwatch/
“Did I ever see myself as ‘that’ person with a pair of binoculars? When and why did I become a ‘twitcher’? Thing is, I don’t really know. In what was often a sad and lonely childhood, I remember a couple of evenings walking with my Grandad in the warm summer evenings down the country lanes in Devon. He would hear a bird song, and tell a 5- or 6-year-old me ‘that’s a blackbird singing,’ or ‘can you hear that robin?’ It seemed like an alien world to me – I wanted to understand everything he knew!
But then of course, I became much more concerned with my image. Birding was not cool when trying to fit in at school, at university, or even attract myself a partner, and I soon forgot about it., but now our lives were curtailed massively. He would need to rest frequently when out walking. That is, until my husband developed heart failure. We used to go on lovely holidays, doing things like scuba diving, but that had to stop. I had two choices:-
- Feel sorry for myself
- Make the most of what we had
Walking and forced periods of rest, meant we noticed the birds and wildlife around us. It was wonderful watching the vast array of birds all around the country. We even did some bird watching in India, which was magical. What bird watching means to me, is that the world slows down. It was being mindful, before I knew what being mindful was.
After my husband’s death, it gave me great comfort to go to the places we used to go, sit on the same benches, and watch the birds.
These days, in the busy world I inhabit, I have bird feeders in my garden and watch an assortment of goldfinches, blue, great, coal and long tailed tits, robins, dunnocks, and my winter male blackcap all jostle for space. My garden list is 23 different species, including a pair of mallard ducks that inhabited my lawn for a few days last summer. Much to the annoyance of my collared doves, wood pigeons and blackbirds!
It calms and grounds me when I watch the world outside my window. I love doing the RSPB Big Garden Bird Watch. I see what visits my garden, and I marvel at the little feathered creatures and how they have made it through the extreme heat of last summer, and the recent freezing temperatures. Bird watching always right sizes me again. I am a small part of this beautiful natural world that is all around us.”
Charlotte Pace BA (Hons) RVN VTS (Cardiology-IM) PG Cert (Vet Ed) FHEA
BVNA President