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A quick chat with… writer, critic, cruciverbalist (he likes a crossword) and birdwatcher Richard Smyth

Writer and birdwatcher Richard Smyth answers our birding questions this month

What first sparked your interest in birdwatching, and when? My grandad’s bird books (AA British Birds, Hamlyn’s Birds of Britain and Europe, AA Wildlife In Britain…). He was too frail to go out birdwatching with me when I was a kid, but without his bookshelf I wouldn’t be a birdwatcher today.

Who was your birdwatching inspiration or mentor? See above. Also my mum, who – without being a birdwatcher herself – would heroically take her noisy, impatient younger son out to scare the local birdlife in various damp and unpromising West Yorkshire locations.

Do you bird alone or with a friend? Alone, almost always.

Your dream bird to see? Something I haven’t seen before, but that I can recognise, well-lit and fairly close-up, that appears unexpectedly, in an evocative location, and – this is key – there’s no-one there to see it but me. Your favourite birding spot? I love my local patch, a nothing-much sort of place down on the River Aire. And Bempton Cliffs takes some beating.

Your classic birder’s lunch, grabbed from the petrol station shop? I prefer a cheese-and-tomato sandwich that’s gone warm and soggy in the bottom of my rucksack.

Lapwing or Golden Plover ? Lapwing. Love a Lapwing.

Favourite bird song or call? Ooh, tough one. Wren definitely on the shortlist. Seaside Herring Gull. Blackcap in full flow.

Birdwatching’s biggest myth or misconception? I seem to have read a lot of books and heard a lot of talks that start off by saying ‘all kinds of people go birdwatching!’ and then the rest of the thing is all stories about middle-aged men called Ken or Geoff. The best bird you’ve seen? I don’t think I’ve ever been as excited by a bird as I was by the surprise Osprey I saw over Buckie when I was 10 and on my summer holidays. I’m not much of a twitcher.

Identifying gulls – nightmare or a nice day out? Absolute bloody purgatory. Please don’t make me.

Your favourite bird joke? Not a joke as such, but hats off to whoever first called the Pied Wagtail a ‘Chiswick Flyover’.

How do we encourage young people to watch birds? Take them out to godforsaken wild places and leave them there.

Peregrine or Merlin? Peregrine. Whoomp.

The one place you’d love to go birdwatching? The Highlands and Islands, and the Flow Country. I’d probably get lost and perish but I’d take that chance.

A birding or conservation issue you feel strongly about? Climate change – although of course it’s a lot more than a birding issue, and a lot more than a conservation issue, too. It’s an everything issue if ever there was one.

The bird that annoys you most? They all have the potential to absolutely do my head in. Blackbirds are pretty irritating.

Bogey bird that still eludes you? So many! I’m a very reactive birdwatcher, happy to watch whatever’s hanging around when I show up. Love the birds you’re with, that’s what I say. That said, I’d look out the window if there was a Capercaillie in my garden.

The bird book you’d never be without? As a ‘bookish’ birdwatcher, I’ll say Cocker and Mabey’s Birds Britannica. Indispensable (if a bit big for my anorak pocket).

Why do you love birdwatching, in three words? Birds. Are. Terrific.

Advice for birders taking part in our #My200birdyear challenge? Read Lev Parikian’s book Why Do Birds Suddenly Disappear? I promise it’ll make you feel better about the whole benighted enterprise.

I DON’T THINK I’VE EVER BEEN AS EXCITED BY A BIRD AS I WAS BY THE SURPRISE OSPREY I SAW OVER BUCKIE WHEN I WAS 10...