OK when I first heard of the listing competition that birders have, I listed out my species seen this year and it was about 30. Things like (Eurasian versions) Robin, Magpie, Goldfinch, Blackbird. I did struggle.
Normally I spend my weekends playing computer games, reading or watching films. Now I am on a mission and the last two months my husband and I have had more outings than probably the last two years!
My husband is not into nature at all, especially not birdwatching. He is heavily into technology and computer games (we even met through a computer game back in 2003 when it was even more weird to do that than it is now!). He moved here from Holland after we met so he doesn't have a load of mates to go to the pub with so I am lucky that we spend a lot of time together.
Although he is not at all into birdwatching, he is very supportive of everything I do and so bought me my first ever pair of binoculars for my birthday in late June. We also joined the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) so we get entry into a nationwide network of nature reserves
I had booked the week of my birthday off from work but René (the husband) was working still. When I'd booked the week off I had expected to use it going shopping, playing on my xbox, reading and relaxing. Instead I surprised myself when I asked René to drop me off at the Risley Moss nature reserve in Warrington so I could try out my new binoculars.
It was sunny and I had a lovely couple of hours wandering around the reserve. It was free to get into which was a nice start and very quiet on a weekday. I did feel exhilarated to be alone in the woods and a little bit afraid when I did spy someone through the tree canopy, so I tried to avoid them when I could.
When coming to the bird hide I had been following signs for, there was a single man there, looking through his binoculars. I wanted to turn around and leave but he saw me and said the now familiar birding greeting "seen much?". I said I hadn't and then got into conversation with him. He was very friendly and talking to him made me feel less like he was going to murder me in the woods so we had quite a pleasant chat about Peregrine Falcons in Manchester city centre and other bird related things.
During our conversation a bird flew across the field in front of us and he pointed out it was a Great Spotted Woodpecker. I was excited as it was new for my year list, I watched it for a while running around the trunk of the tree and asked the guy how he had known what it was when it was flying so fast - maybe the colours? He answered that he was actually colour blind so recognised birds instead by their jizz. To me, "jizz" was usually a word I took as quite rude in English slang (eg. "he jizzed all over her face") so I was a bit taken aback by this and started to wonder if I had misread the situation and in fact this guy was some old pervert in the woods, as I'd initially feared.
I soldiered on though and was relieved when a couple shortly turned up and started the "seen much?" conversation so I could I make my excuses and hurriedly leave.
After a brisk walk I eventually came to another hide, this time overlooking the woodland, I settled down to see what I could see. The answer was nothing by the time a different older man came in and "seen much"ed me again. I asked him the same question and he told me he had seen a Hobby at the third hide, that I had not yet visited. I had never seen this bird of prey and was still slightly creeped out so made a quick getaway from the hide using my excuse of seeing a Hobby for the first time as my reason for not indulging in conversation.
As I began to hotfoot it away from the hide however the old man shouted for me to wait, when he caught me up he said that since it was my first time, he would help me to identify the Hobby. As we got close to the hide he wondered aloud if the old guy he had been talking to was still there. Apparently that even-older guy had been asking my man here questions but was deaf as a post and couldn't hear the answers so my new friend here was also on the run from someone.
We passed the older-old guy on the way up to the next viewing point. We didn't go in the hide but instead sat on a picnic table and waited and watched for a Hobby.
We could see the rubbish dump in the distance with hundreds of different gulls, swifts but no Hobby.
I got quite excited at one point and stood up training my binoculars on a passing bird in the distance, just a second too late I realised it was no Hobby as my old friend disdainfully said "that's just a wood pigeon!!". All my street cred in the birding scene evaporated but at least he now knew what he was dealing with.
Eventually, just as my eyes were starting to water from looking into the bright sky for so long my old guy told me he had found one and showed me where it was. I watched the Hobby for around fifteen minutes as it jetted around in the sky, swirling and diving. The old man told me the latin name for Hobby is Subuteo Subuteo and when he saw tears coming from my stinging eyes I think he thought I was overcome with emotion and so told me how he still remembers seeing his first Hobby as a child and he hopes I will remember this for the rest of my life too. I thanked him, wiping my eyes as he left. I might not have been crying with happiness but it was a pretty good day indeed.
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