"Hello, what are you looking at?"... The perfect conservation conversation opener! (Photo: Eleanor Bentall, rspb-images.com)
There are many ways of helping nature, but perhaps one of the most powerful – and free – ways of doing so is simply to talk about it.
In the summer issue of Nature’s Home, David Lindo’s regular column talks about how nature can bring people together; how it becomes a talking point; how one person’s knowledge can inspire a community-wide engagement and further understanding of conservation. Discussing the value of wildlife is a powerful tool in engaging communities and helping people understand nature - a crucial step in helping protect it.
I’m sure we’ve all shared moments with total strangers in appreciation of various natural spectacles, or even tried to enlighten those around us about local wildlife.
Here in Bristol, a family of peregrines nests every year atop an old warehouse, in full view of hundreds of commuters coming along the riverbank. Most days, I see people stopping on the bridge or river path to look for them, and often people will stop and point the birds out to each other.
I’ve seen photographers with long lenses showing passers-by what they’re focusing on; rushing commuters stopping to watch some activity; and I myself have had several random people stop and ask what I’m looking up at.
When I tell them a bit about the peregrines; why they seek out this particular site and how the family is doing, they generally want to see and know more. Hopefully, they'll then talk about the birds with others. Not one person has shrugged and walked off. Bristol’s peregrines have attracted a growing fan base, which not only means more people are looking out for them, but more people are bonding over them, too.
Whether you’re on your daily commute or chatting over the garden fence, sharing your wildlife knowledge and interest is good for both nature and people. David’s column gave us three ways to engage local residents in nature, so our magazine team gave them all a go.
Something interesting happening on your garden fence? Share it with the person on the other side! (Photo: Ben Andrew, rspb-images.com)
1. Share your finds. Once you’ve located an interesting plant or animal, usher the nearest person over to show them.
Deputy Editor Emma recently took some friends out to the RSPB Ham Wall Reserve for the first time, and really enjoyed watching them discover its wealth of wildlife for themselves. Sitting in one of the hides, a vast grey heron swooped down and landed right in front of us. ‘Wow!’ one of her friends exclaimed. ‘Look at the size of that seagull!’.
When Emma explained that he’d actually seen a grey heron for the first time - not a herring gull - he was ecstatic. ‘I was there looking for bitterns,” Emma says. “I didn’t see one, but I think it’s easy to forget that so much joy can come from the more commonplace species around us. And even more from sharing what we experience with others.”
2. Share your binoculars. If someone asks what you’re looking at, let them have a go!
Nature's Home team member Aisling is into the habit of carrying her binoculars with her wherever she goes, just in case she hears something rustling in the bushes. “Being relatively new to birding,” she says, “I’m always looking for opportunities to practice my ID skills and living in an urban environment doesn’t prove a barrier to catching sight of a great variety of species if you keep your eyes peeled.”
Recently, Aisling visited an old friend, Alex, in Nottingham and they walked around his local park. “In a wooded area, we heard a distinctive, rattling call from above, and with my trusty bins to hand, Alex was able to scout out the source the cacophony. I asked him to carefully describe the bird, and using the RSPB identification webpage on my phone, identified it as a mistle thrush, which was confirmed when we listened to the recording of its call.
“Alex commented that he’d previously thought you’d only find pigeons and gulls in cities! It was great to show someone that if you take notice and keep your eyes and ears open, you can find a great variety of wildlife living right next to you that you might never have noticed before.”
3. Answer questions. Enthusiastically answer all questions put to you by interested bystanders, no matter how obvious they may be.
I try to do this wherever I go, though often steer the conversation from elsewhere. At a get-together the other night, one friend revealed she was buying a new-build house, and after admiring the photos I suggested making holes in the new fencing so that hedgehogs could still get around. Several friends then wanted to know why hedgehogs needed help, how big the hole should be, and started discussing hedgehogs' catastrophic decline, which not everyone had been aware of.
During this glorious hot spell, my next-door neighbours often see me sitting out on my patio, gazing up at the swifts swooping a metre or two above my head before slipping beneath my eaves. The rapture on my face is clearly evident, so they start chatting over the fence. They recently told me that the swifts have been coming to my eaves for over 20 years (well before my time), and they ask how the swift family is doing, and how many I’ve seen. I’ve been keeping tabs on the colony size in recent years and discussing swift decline and conservation with them.
A couple of weeks ago, someone asked me how I could tell swallows from swifts (this inspired my blog post last week) and although it seemed obvious to me, I was delighted to enlighten them with a few easy pointers, which they can now pass forward.
So, talking about and sharing nature – at every opportunity – helps people to understand it, appreciate it, bond over it and, ultimately, care about it enough to actively help our birds and wildlife. So get out there and spread the word! Maybe you could even bring your community together to create some wildflower verges and wildlife corridors or support local campaigns!
Have you inspired someone else to take action for nature? Log it to tell us about it below, email us or share your story via Twitter or Facebook.