I walked into work this morning fresh with thoughts about a new year, a new calendar and new adventures. It’s amazing how therapeutic a clean slate is. It’s the 2 January and heading back to work feels the same, but different! It’s funny how we take to a new year, with renewed enthusiasm, the promise of making a change for the better. The irony being that every year, we say the same things!
I arrived at my desk after having ten indulgent days off to find my phone flashing violently, full to the brim with frantic messages about a rather peculiar incident. Over the last few weeks, much of our countryside has suffered from heavy rainfall. Fields were turned into swimming pools, cars were abandoned along flooded country lanes and park benches merely peeked from the crest of swollen river banks. Anyway, i digress. The situation we were faced with was this. A seal had managed to swim from the sea, near Kings Lynn, for 50 miles to a flooded field via the mouth of the flooded Great Ouse in the Wash. The seal then heaved itself up onto the flood defences that surround the lakes at RSPB’s Fen Drayton Nature Reserve, and proceeded to swim in the water on the nature reserve. He was captured on camera by a local visitor and the footage was promptly posted on the internet. A few clicks later and the entire national media centre wanted to see our new found seal friend. What a morning! Working for the RSPB is never dull. And a seal having a great escape to one of our nature reserves shouldn’t have surprised me. We’ve fondly called him Seal McQueen!
Year after year, we may resolve to do the same things; change our habits, encourage positive attitudes and healthy living, but isn’t it refreshing when things turn unexpectedly? It forces you to go with the flow and simply enjoy what life throws at you. And you truly never know what might turn up on your doorstep. I will be taking part in the RSPB’s annual Big Garden Birdwatch later in the month and although i remain realistic that the usual suspects will appear, i have a quiet confidence that beyond my kitchen window, in the depths of my garden, something extraordinary will turn up and take me by surprise. You may not have a seal turn up in your back garden, but who knows what might stop by. The RSPB’s Big Garden Birdwatch takes place 26 and 27 January. For more information, go to www.rspb.org.uk/ Birdwatch or come to see us at the Forum in Norwich on 26 and 27 January between 10pm and 4pm.
As featured in the EDP, Saturday 5 January
Erica, RSPB Communications Team, East