Beginnings

I can't remember a time when I wasn't interested in the natural world around me. Growing up in Norfolk it would have been hard not to notice the wonderful natural abundance all around & birds were to me the most obvious, colourful, noisy & ever changing things to be noticed, & their variety provided (& still provides) an intriguing challenge.

Fortunately my family has always been an encouraging one, my mother pointing out all sorts during walks to school, & luckily my grandfather had saved his Guiness tokens for a pair of binoculars, a huge & heavy pair of 7x50s, which he permanently loaned to me. Plus his library contained plenty of natural history reference books, just right for me to study what I was trying to spot.

A birder, up & running, I joined the YOC & attended my first organised field trip in 1984, 11 years old. Later, though I can't remember why, my membership apparently lapsed & instead of organised field trips one of my grandfather's friends, a reformed poacher, allowed me to accompany him on his early morning forays with his new camera. Like me he enjoyed the wild places as well as the wildlife, he especially liked to capture the kingfishers on film after sitting for hours by various riversides he knew from his trout poaching days. He showed me many places over those few years, some of which I've remembered enough to return to, but many other locations I cannot now remember how to get to. My outings with him continued into my teens when a move to Germany, a step-father's military posting, ended them, but not my birding.

During the Germany years my push-bike was my greatest asset, allowing me to rove throughout the nearby, wonderful & plentiful woodlands of the German-Dutch border. This I did as often as possible, even establishing & dissecting ordinance survey maps of my own local patch. Not many records seem to be in existence for those times, but maybe one day I'll find a stash in my mother's loft revealing more of what I saw & did. I was however able to save & I finally upgraded my kit including buying my first telescope, which I still use today.

After a few years out in Germany the tour came to an end & it was back to Norfolk. I was in my late teens & there were, typically, other things on my mind: studies, mates, the pub, & of course the opposite sex, & so the hiatus began which continued into & after my university years. Despite studying Biology in the North West & living there for a total of 13 years, my day trips were limited to when I returned to Norfolk, & my lack of mobility & exploration of that area is now something of a regret.

Anyway coming right up to date, & much of the raison d'etre for this site, was a move & a lady, the latter responsible for the former. Needing a change, & a new job, I moved to London 6 months after my lady had arrived from the US. Being much closer to Norfolk now & both enjoying the coast, we started venturing out, initially to Titchwell where I could casually spot on the way to the glorious beach there. After that & more encouragement to rediscover the outdoors, the hiatus was over, I (re)joined the RSPB & now venture out more often, the best antidote to the urban rat-race.

Finally the spur for beginning this blog was a rediscovered journal of my earliest outings from my mother's loft. First entry nicely written (if I may say so) for an 11 year old & the idea to revisit those places mentioned decades before to see what's changed, what's new. I'm particularly interested to see if the species I saw are still there: have they gone or have they been protected?
As well as my revisiting project, there will be new places, I'll record them now as I did back then so that in 20 years time I hope I'll be lucky enough to revisit those too.