View From The Shed by Volunteer Shaun - DAY BY DAY, ONE BY ONE

DAY BY DAY, ONE BY ONE

When I was very young I had an advent calendar. It was a cardboard sheet with little numbered windows on it, one for each day from the first to the twenty-fourth of December. Behind each of these windows was a picture relating in some way to the festive period. That could be a religious image depicting something to do with the nativity or maybe something portraying the time of year more generally such as a snowflake or a picture of a postman delivering gifts. Door 24 was twice the size of the others and inevitably opened to show a picture of the baby Jesus in his crib surrounded by loving parents, kings, angels and various smiling farmyard animals.

In those times of thrift my parents made sure that I used the same calendar every year. I never questioned if this was “normal” or not. I still don’t. Early in the new year the cardboard windows were carefully closed and we packed it all away until the next December. This was a simple yet much-loved Christmas tradition and (for those of us of a certain age) it was much safer than trying to light the candles on a Blue Peter advent crown. 

These days of course such a calendar would be classed as dull or whatever today’s youth slang is. (I’m reliably informed that it would be “dayroom” among today’s cool kids). The wheel of progress has turned, making many of us crave a calendar with a piece of our favourite chocolate behind every cardboard window. These have been the standard for years but now there are even ones where each window houses a themed gift of your choice, so maybe gin or cheese, tea bags or toiletries, Lego or jigsaws. If you can imagine it then it probably features in an advent calendar, and if it doesn’t you can even create your own. You can buy calendars with empty pockets in them, waiting for you to stuff them with your own gifts, hopefully personal to the recipient. In our increasingly secular society, just about anything you want can become part of an advent calendar.

That gave me an idea. Why does each window of the calendar have to hide a consumer indulgence? Why do we need to receive an actual gift each day? Yes, I know that the idea is to replicate the presents given to the baby Jesus on his birthday but do they have to be material things? Do we even need a physical calendar?

So here’s a challenge. This year, how about setting yourself the task of doing something each day throughout the advent season rather than (or perhaps as well as) just chomping a small piece of chocolate per day. And given that this is an RSPB blog then maybe you could try to see a different kind of bird every day throughout December, starting at the first of the month and finishing on Christmas Eve? For example, you might spot a House Sparrow on Sunday the first, a Robin on Monday the second, and so on. 

This could become seriously difficult by the 24th day so I recommend leaving the more common birds until later in the month for a day when your sightings dry up, as it were. So if you happen to see (for example) a Great Egret early in the month, log it for that day and leave the much more reliable Blue Tits, Blackbirds and Carrion Crows for days when the others are harder to come by.

What if you decide to log a bird that you haven’t actually seen or decide to plan ahead by saving a bird that you’ve seen today as a tick for a future date? Well that’s your choice. I’d call it cheating but, as an old golfing buddy used to say, “You’re only cheating yourself”. Then again he also used to say, “A good scorer will always beat a good player”, so we can’t really rely on his judgement. It’s your game, your rules. There’s no ‘prize’ as such, just the satisfaction of a job well done. Has that concept fallen out of favour? Maybe it’s time to bring it back. Hopefully the pleasure of stepping out to watch the skies, lakes and woodlands every day will be its own reward. Whatever you see, however successful you are with the challenge, you’ll feel better simply from the fact that you’ll get out and about every day. If you’re a novice birdwatcher you might find that you know more birds than you thought and even learn a few new ones throughout the month. If you’re more experienced then you might relearn an appreciation of the more common species or even perhaps search out some of the rarer ones. Either way, you’ll have made an effort to see the birds in your area every day for (almost) a month. Perhaps you’ll discover that it’s a pleasant new habit, one that you’ll carry over into the new year? After all, there are officially 641 different bird species on the British List. Maybe next year you’ll join those of us who make a concerted effort to see at least 200 of them? (I’m currently at 160 for 2024 - I don’t think I’ll make it this year…  again). Or perhaps you’ll be much more sensible about it and just enjoy what you spot regardless of what they are.

So give the advent birding challenge a go. Hopefully you’ll enjoy it and even if you don’t manage to see any birds at all, not even a single Robin, you can always fall back on a cardboard sheet full of Cadbury’s Dairy Milk*.

*Other chocolate products are available, but why settle for anything but the best? If anyone from the Cadbury company reads this, I’m seriously pushing for a sponsorship deal.