Schoolboy thrill never grows old
An old school essay written 50 years ago still brings back fond memories of a birdwatching adventure as if it were yesterday.
The over-written piece of teenage prose describes the moment I came eye-to-eye with an avocet on a field trip to the
Suffolk coast.
Not long out of short trousers, this was my first visit to the RSPB’S flagship reserve at Minsmere, and my old exercise book describes the thrilling moment I opened the windows of a hide to look out over its famous brackish lagoon known as The Scrape.
“Just like turning on a television, a whole kaleidoscope of birdlife was revealed in panoramic technicolour in an instant”, I enthused in spidery writing before listing the host of sandpipers, plovers and other waders on view.
“Then I remembered – look for an avocet. My eyes responded and, instantaneously, a solitary black-andwhite bird boosted my ever-growing tally of new birds by one.
“The avocet was all I hoped for – and much, much more. Tentatively mincing its way through water on stiletto legs, it continually combed the surface with an amazing banana of a bill.”
As then, the avocet continues to be the RSPB’S emblem bird, celebrating the charity’s efforts at bringing back rare species from the brink.
Wiped out by 1825 – avocets were hunted for their feathers to make fishing flies and had their eggs stolen for puddings – it took the Second World War for them to return to the sanctuary of East Anglian sea defences.
Over the years, these once out-of-bounds territories have been enhanced to become a springboard for a remarkable avocet population boom and the latest report from the Rare Breeding Birds Panel shows there are more than 2,000 pairs nesting in the UK.
Avocets continue to reawaken feelings of schoolboy excitement. Last week, one touched down at the local sewage works where I cut my teeth birdwatching and put on a display of grace and beauty worthy of a creature that has become a symbol for conservation success.
The avocet was wiped out in 1825, only coming back in the 1940s