A brave new world

I’m new to all this, but wanted to let you know how much birding, and this magazine, has helped me through this difficult year. I’ve always been outdoorsy, and interested in nature, but I’ve never been a birder. I knew a duck from a goose and a sparrow from a Starling, but that was it.

When lockdown started, and I was furloughed, I had to force myself to go out to clear my head. My wife continued to work as a carer, so was out of the house and for the first time in my life I was regularly alone. It was tough. I would find myself alone for 10 hours at a time. I started walking to help break up my day. Often just a mile of so around the edge of town, taking in bits of park or woodland.

At first, I just put my hood up and head down and didn’t stop until I got home. After a while, and when the weather improved, I started to linger longer and would take notice of the bird life around me. I started to take a few photos of what I spotted regularly, then searched online for ID information when I got home.

Before long, I was spending more time ‘spotting’ than

I was walking and found myself going out just to add new species to my ‘spotted’ list.

A pair of binoculars, a flask and a cheap rucksack later and without realising it, I’d become an accidental birder. My wife would return home after a shift and instead of having nothing to talk about, I would regale her with my birding day. She saw how much my trips out had perked me up so bought me my first issue of Bird Watching to pique my interest.

One year in and I’m hooked. I’m now a subscriber, and have even met up with ‘proper’ birders at a local reserve. I won’t embarrass myself by sending you my terrible efforts at photography, but I am loving my new hobby and still find plenty of time for it even though I am now happily back at work. Thank you for introducing me to the world of birding and helping me navigate through my first year as a birder. You have helped make a very difficult time a lot more bearable. Thomas Minton