View From The Shed by Shaun Finnie - AM I A RESPONSIBLE ADULT?

ARE YOU A RESPONSIBLE ADULT?

When my nephew was very young I tried to take him into a shop but he paused at the doorway and would go no further. 'I can't go in there, Uncle Shaun', he said. When I asked why not he just raised his little arm and pointed at a sign on the shop doorway.

“Children must be accompanied by a responsible adult.”

Funny, for a six year old. Apparently I wasn't responsible enough for him then. Have I improved in the intervening years?

I've recently been away from home and the RSPB Old Moor Welcome Shed. Not that I live in the Shed you understand, although sometimes it has felt that way when the weather is awful and the visitors are few. I wasn't off on a dedicated birding trip, it was a family break in the UK although in truth they tend to be the same thing; my binoculars and notebook are always close to hand.

During my holiday (let's call it that) I logged 72 different species of birds, of which eight were my first sightings of the year. For those of you keeping score of my attempt to see 200 bird species this year, I'm currently on 154. That's approximately three quarters of the way to my target with around half of the year gone. Will I make it to 200? I don't know. It'll be tough to be honest as I've already seen most of the more common species. Any others that I add to the list from now on will be a bird that I have to actively seek out, and that realisation got me thinking. Before I go further it's important for me to repeat that these are my own personal views and not necessarily those of the RSPB as a whole.

To add those eight species to my year list I had driven a total of 419 miles. That's not counting the several sea trips I took by boat as the Captain wouldn't let me strap my Fitbit to his propeller. Admittedly most of this distance was for a lovely family holiday but they were still fuel miles that I didn't actually need to burn. Petrol, diesel or battery juice are all ultimately derived from some form of fossil fuel. Every single journey causes a little bit more nastiness to be released into the atmosphere and uses a little bit more of the earth's finite resources. Some fuels are not as bad as others but all are worse for the environment than walking.

So how many fuel miles can I justify in my heart of hearts to see a rare bird. Does it matter if it's a life tick? A year tick? A bird that I find particularly pleasing on the eye? I could easily achieve my '200 birds in a year' goal by one dedicated trip to, say, Ecuador, but would there still be much of a natural world left for future generations if we all did that? How much would it help if I cycled or used public transport whenever possible? At least I could use as few vehicles as possible for each day out. If myself and three friends are going on a birding trip then we could all share the one car. It could be fun or at least, knowing the guys I usually go birding with, interesting (to say the least)! Admit it, you know people like that...

If you're considering an organised birding holiday, why not check out some of the excellent ethical tour companies around who promote responsible touring and minimising travellers' harmful effects? Several of them advertise in The RSPB Magazine. It's certainly worth thinking about.

Now it's easy to say, what differences do my tiny changes make to the health of the planet when (for example) China is bringing two new coal-fired power plants online every week? The world population is approximately 8 billion people. That's over double what it was when I was born. Now admittedly that was a long time ago but it's still an unsustainable trend. What difference does me cutting down on my air miles or turning the thermostat down a couple of degrees make?

The answer is of course that it makes a little bit of a difference, and that's hugely better than no difference at all. If you dig a pond in your garden then there's a good chance that within a few years you'll see newts or damselflies. If you sew a portion of your garden with pollinator plants then you'll probably notice an increase in the number of bees and insects that visit your garden. The circle of life will thank you for it, if only at a very local level.

Given my love of words, I decided to check the exact meaning of the word 'ethical', and this is what I found.

ETHICS – (plural noun) a system of moral principals or accepted beliefs that control behaviour.

So being an ethical birder doesn't just mean that you minimise unnecessary birding trips or that you only travel with reputable companies, it isn't limited to attracting more birds to your garden or putting up boxes for them to live in. It means doing the right things for nature whenever you can. This includes things like following the Countryside Code and the Birdwatchers' Code at all times. It extends to helping out at nature reserves, adding your voice to pressure groups, making way in hides for other people to take their turn at the best views, even giving people that you meet along the way a cheery smile and a little bit of local know or sighting information if you can.

'Ethical birding' just comes down to two words; being kind while you're enjoying looking at the birds. Be kind to your planet and be kind to all the other creatures, including other people, who share it. How simple is that? Perhaps I could be a responsible adult after all.