It was only when his retrieving dog carried it back to him that C.M Inglis realised quite what he had just caught. Mr Inglis was in Darbhangar, India and he had just caught a pink-headed duck. This wasn’t just any old duck however, it was in fact the last known wild specimen of pink-headed duck, now unseen or heard of since 1935. It’s thought that these ducks were probably lost due to the gradual loss of their chosen habitat, the incremental creep of industry and growth versus the delicate greenness of an Indian tall-grass jungle. Which is a great shame, because I would have loved to have seen a pink-headed duck.
It wasn’t because they are extinct that these ducks caught my eye. Sometimes things that have been lost to us seem far more appealing than they otherwise were (think ex-boyfriends, school days, camping). Instead it was through flicking through a friends book that I happened to see a picture of them. Look pink-headed ducks up in a book or Google them because they are incredible looking creatures. Bright salmon-pink heads and burgundy wine-coloured breast and legs. To add to their appeal they also laid extraordinary, creamy near-spherical eggs.
Perhaps it was because I was particularly taken by these ducks but the fact of their extinction suddenly struck me as cause for action. There is so much to see and do and so little time to do it in. You only get one innings - you may as well make that one a worthwhile experience!
Yet I don’t feel the need to jet off to India just yet. I’ve never been that good with flying and there’s this small problem I have with air-miles that might just hinder immediate travel plans; I’m sure my GAP year made full use of my carbon quota.
Instead I plan to fully embrace what we have to see right here, right now – and so could you.
It’s the RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch over the weekend of 26-27 January which provides the perfect opportunity to take a real look at what we’ve got. At the azure heads of the blue tits and the ruby-jewelled goldfinches, the snub, baby-faces of the long-tailed tits and blush of a bullfinches breast. Watch the ebony feathered blackbirds tumble amongst the thick leaf mulch under the bushes and the misty ring of grey-blue around the slender dunnocks’ neck.
Blue tit by Ben Hall (rspb-images.com)
I hope we’ve realised too much by now – that without halting the loss of biodiversity our world will be a far less enviable place. But just to make absolutely sure that the short time I have in this world is used absolutely to its fullest, I’m going to make sure I don’t miss out on any nature from here on in.
For more information about the RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch go to www.rspb.org.uk/birdwatch