This blog is written by Fiona Weir who is the Programme Manager of the Giving Nature a Home in Glasgow project for RSPB Scotland.
In September 2017 I met with Agnes Leith at her home in East Kilbride. Agnes and her friend Pauline had been in contact with the RSPB about her husband’s nature diaries and I went along to meet them and read the diaries over tea and biscuits. It was clear straight away that they had been a lifelong passion by the words and photos that Agnes showed me.
The diaries had been kept by Hamish Leith, Agnes’ husband, and showcased years of records from bird watching starting back when he was a student at Glasgow University (where he studied medicine) right up to when he died a few years ago. Hamish was a keen bird watcher, but his diaries not only recorded species and numbers they revealed short stories of his accounts with the nature on his doorstep.
Hamish’s words show a snapshot in time recording bird numbers and species in different areas in and around Glasgow, but they also capture short stories about his days out and adventures. The diaries for us are vital as they show a method of recording that is slowly decreasing, but they also provide evidence of bird numbers, such as house sparrows, which we know have declined by 90% over the last 40 years. Hamish counted a huge number of house sparrows on his way into the university in the morning, but we know now with our house sparrow project records in Glasgow, these numbers are sadly no longer there.
Hamish’s diaries showcase a way we used to be much more connected, interested and immersed in nature. Using nature as a way to get out and observe, draw and record what was around us. Now we are fascinated by technology and the use of smart phones to capture a moment, we are disconnected from nature. Being disconnected we are now not aware of what is on our doorsteps and the unique wildlife that can be found in and around our cities.
We are not only using the diaries as a valuable record, we are also going to showcase some of the stories in an exhibition at the Kelvingrove Museum in April. The exhibition will be part of the 30th anniversary celebrations of the Glasgow Garden Festival, and will show different ways of recording over the last 30 years. We will also be getting children and families out and about across Glasgow recording and capturing their own adventures in nature through short stories and citizen science.
Agnes Leith said: "I met Hamish through my brother who brought him home for his tea to our house in Clarkston. He said “I’m bringing home an unusual guy who talks of nothing but birds!” I remember being very impressed with his knowledge of them. Many years later I was his wife!
"To start with I was bored to tears. Horses were my thing back then not birds. However, as he was a busy GP at this time, I helped him by counting nests on his behalf. I remember going out regularly to count rook’s nests in various rookeries for the RSPB and kept a note of whether the numbers were going up. It wasn’t long before my arm was gently twisted into loving this ornithological interest!
"When we had our living room extended, Hamish insisted there was a floor to ceiling window looking out onto the back garden, which I continue to get great pleasure from to this day. He would sit in the garden quietly and one day a pigeon landed on his shoulder. It wasn’t long before this pigeon and Hamish became great friends. It used to sit up on the roof near the back door waiting for Hamish to come home. This resulted in one or two unfortunate instances of the pigeon landing on friend’s bald heads!
"Another day, I walked in to the living room and here was none other than a large tawny owl perched high up on the pelmet of the curtains! I quietly reversed, shut the door and whispered to Hamish who armed himself with his fishing net and big gloves. After only a couple of swoops onto the lamp shade and back, and no ornaments broken at all, it was finally rescued and set free into the back garden. The dentist who I was now 20 minutes late for, didn’t seem to believe my excuse!
"Hamish never left the house without his huge binoculars, even on holidays in Arran where once we had a let house for a month in Kildonan. The house we had was close to the sea and one evening, suddenly Hamish came running down the stairs having put one of our small children to bed. He had looked out the window and seen a couple with a small boy walking by the seaside. As he watched, the small boy stopped, pointed to something in the sand just above the water line, picked it up and stood there. At this point Hamish came charging through the kitchen and out the door. He ran outside shouting at the small boy to “PUT THAT BACK!” He had known it was a young fledgling from a nest in the sand which he had been keeping an eye on. The small boy wasn’t pleased at all."