View From The Shed by Shaun Finnie - GET UP AND GO

GET UP AND GO

Last week I wrote about seeing my first ever Shorelarks in Norfolk. They were stunning little birds with their yellow heads, black facemasks and Devilish little feather-tuft horns. It was a delight and a privilege to see them, made all the better by the fact that I had pretty much zero chance of seeing one at my local patch in South Yorkshire.

Those of you who have met me outside the Welcome Hut at RSPB Old Moor will know that I'm fond of asking visitors how their day has gone and what they have seen. It's always fun to interact with guests and frankly it's an easy way of checking what's on the reserve. We know roughly which birds are out there at all times but it's always good to have this information confirmed. I may be aware, for example, that our Kingfishers have been seen quite a lot recently, but it's always nice to have confirmation that they're still out there. It's even better if this information comes from a delighted guest who has just seen one. Of course if a customer tells me that something unusual is on the reserve – like the seven year old boy who was the first to notice our visiting Spoonbills this summer – then I'll try and get out to check it for myself. It's confirmation for the reserve and a nice sighting for me too.

Even when visiting birders tell me that there's nothing to see at Old Moor (by which they invariably mean that there are plenty of birds around, just not any of the particular species that they were hoping for), I'll usually smile and reply that “it's still better than sitting at home watching Bargain Hunt”*. And, unless you're a particularly dedicated fan of daytime television, that's true. There will always be something of interest at your local reserve even if you visit every day. The light will be different. The weather will have changed. The animals will be interacting in a way that you've never seen them do before. It's all natural and glorious but there's no getting away from the fact that if you go to the same place day in, day out, then you're likely to see the same birds today that you saw yesterday. To continue with my original example, there's no point in visiting the Dearne Valley every day of the year in the hope of seeing a Shorelark. They simply don't live around here. As the novelist Rita Mae Brown once wrote (and it wasn't Albert Einstein, in spite of what you might have seen on t-shirts, mugs and misleading websites), “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results”. If you want to see something different, you have to act differently yourself.

We're coming to the end of the year and those among us who make a list of their annual bird sightings are either resigned to the fact that they've probably seen every species that they're going to in 2022 or are making a final push to add those last few winter migrants to their lists. If you're in this latter category then you'll have already added most of the regular coastal and seabirds to your yearlist. You won't have seen many of those at Old Moor. Neither will you have spotted the mountain specialists here. If you've ticked those then it will have been in Scotland or Wales. For people like this, the places to be at the moment seem to be the east coast of Yorkshire and Norfolk. The RareBirdAlert.co.uk website is full of rarities and migrants that have been sighted on those shores recently. Further afield, the Scottish islands are always good for a few wayward travelling species that don't make it to our shores to frequently. The numbers you see all depend on how dedicated you are. There are over 180 RSPB reserves around the country, each well worth a visit. Can you justify the time? The cost? The travel pollution? It's all the individual's choice.

Or are you happy to watch 'the same old things' with a smile on your face. The Blue Tits are eating everything in sight like there's no tomorrow at the moment. That could be very literally true for them if they don't pile on the grammes now in preparation for the coming icy months. And many duck species are starting to regain their colours, lost during the moult of their season of eclipse.

Whatever kind of birdwatcher you are, please enjoy yourself. It's not a grim game of simply putting ticks in boxes. The thrill should be in seeing the bird itself, not just in the knowledge that you've 'bagged another tick'.

However you spend your week I hope that you can find a moment to just stop and enjoy the birds and the entire natural world in which they – and we – live.There's beauty everywhere.

*Note: Other cheap auction-based TV schedule fillers are available.