Getting back into watching Birds and loving lists..

In early June 2014 I read the book of a true story about a couple from North Wales who sold their house, car and most of their possessions to raise enough money to go bird watching for a year, in an attempt to see as many of the world's 10,000 strong bird population as they could, hopefully breaking the world record for "Most Birds Seen in a Year" on the way.

What a crazy idea! Imagine jacking your life in - job/house etc. to pursue a passion. All or nothing, any of us could do it but not many of us do (including me!).

Well they did it, they saw over 4000 birds, which broke the record and now they make their living from writing about birds, taking people on bird tours and giving talks about their travels.

I've been reading a lot of other bird watching books since and it's got me back into a much loved hobby that I've had on the backburner ever since I turned into a teenager and became distracted.

I remember keeping a list aged 8 when I was a young girl, living on a council estate in Telford, England with a factory at the back of the house. There wasn't that much to see then but I still enjoyed trekking up "The Mount" (in reality a very small green hillock in the middle of the estate) to see if I could see a Golden Eagle (not surprisingly, I didn't).

My mother remarried when I was 11 and my new Stepfather knew a lot about birds, through him I was able to suddenly see a lot of the species I had only seen in my bird book (Buzzard, Barn Owl, Wagtails and lots beside.).

We moved to Lymm, in North West England which had a lovely lake I could walk around every day and I became familiar with a lot of water birds like Great Crested Grebe, Kingfisher, Canada Geese, Mute Swan. As I got into my mid-teens however my interest turned to boys, music and films and I stopped actively bird watching.

In my twenties, when I started to make enough money for a few extra treats each month I started to buy bird food, make my own lard cake and try to attract birds to the tiny garden of the house my husband and I are renting.

Now I'm in my early thirties and since June this year (when I was inspired by the books) I started keeping a list of the birds I have seen in 2014, in addition to a "life list" and a "garden list". I participate in a ranking of world birders on www.BuBO.org and I am starting to understand and enjoy more about birds each week. I'll explain more about listing another time but basically it can get quite competitive and has turned the simple joy of birdwatching into something akin to a sport. That could be good or bad, I'm not sure but I am finding it fun so far and this blog is going to be chronicling how I am getting on.