My World Of Wildlife

Having been birding now for 5 years, with almost every weekend including some sort of time immersed in nature, I thought I would write a few of my thoughts. The first one is about birding or just generally having an interest in the natural world. Usually when I go out to a nature reserve for example, I am not the only birder. But I can guarantee you I will be the only young birder who is a girl there. Occasionally I may see another boy, who has an obvious interest in birds but other than that it is either men or older people, now why is that? Is it the fact that most teenagers are stuck indoors in front of a screen? Or is it that they genuinely don't know how interesting and thrilling the natural world can be? Or could it be that they don't have access to the countryside because they live in a city? Well for me it is a combination of issues. One of them is the stereotype of birding or having an interest in nature, I don't tend to tell new friends about my hobby because ...

On Sunday I finally got out birding and went to RSPB Pulborough Brooks in West Sussex. The weather was very autumnal, the orange, yellow and red leaves were being blown of the trees by the strong wind, the lasting mark of storm Brian. The jackdaws and crows were making the most of these gusts, tumbling and diving in the air, almost playfully. Soaring past them I spotted a beautiful red kite, being mobbed by a crow. The bright light only enabled me to see its silhouette but it was a great view never the less. Walking down the path, a kestrel was hunting in an adjacent field, hovering, then diving down into the grass with such speed and elegance. This time the kestrel was unsuccessful. Looking out of the first hide there was a relatively small group of wigeon and teal, bobbing along on the rather choppy water. A few lapwing were hunkered down from the wind around the edges of the lake and there were 100's of canada geese with a few greylag at the furthest point of the view. The...