I Like Birds

I've become a bit of a birdwatcher. How did this happen? I mean I've always liked observing birds, the little sparrows and blue tits buzzing around the garden, and I've been to Birdworld with its crazy prehistoric-looking hornbills and the penguin feeding sessions, but taking an active interest? Not me, guv. Waste of time. Couldn't grow the beard for it anyway.

I blame Chile. Spending three weeks touring South America in the company of people who can point at something and say what it is, meant you either got into the groove with it or rapidly lost interest. Interestingly we had the full spectrum, from

what Simon Barnes would term a bad birdwatcher (this is a good thing), someone who knows their stuff but is pretty laid back about it, to the all-out twitcher who rapidly gets bored with what they've just seen and is already looking for the next rarity. This wasn't even a bird watching holiday - why would I ever go on one of those? - it just happened to be a small group thrown together, most of whom happened to have an interest in birds. Of course it helped that there were, to the untrained eye at least, exotic birds aplenty - from the ubiquitous ibis to oystercatchers, flocks of flamingos and the mighty condor. And of course penguins. Funny, cute, waddling penguins en masse in their natural habitat.

So from that holiday, the seed of a new interest was sown. Bolstered by getting an RSPB pocket book for Christmas and the prospect of adding an extra dimension to country walks, a new adventure was embarked upon. One thing I like about taking an interest in birds is that my entry level knowledge is pretty poor - I didn't even know what a chaffinch looked like, and they're common as muck - so almost everything is a new discovery at this stage. I've learned quick, aided and abetted by having feeders in the garden, and by having an excellent nature reserve up the road, which was already our favourite local walk. So we joined the conservation group and

now have access to their hides, which have already proved bountiful. I love the fact that, just the other week, somebody pointed out a snipe, which apparently is quite an unusual site round these parts, but not knowing this meant I was just as interested in seeing a brace of more common redshanks. In fact I was probably just as excited at seeing a jay in the garden yesterday. I'm at what might be termed the "int everything brilliant" phase (Paul Whitehouse, Fast Show, natch). I hope I never lose the excitement of seeing something commonplace. If you ever hear me saying "oh, that's just a hoopoe", have a quiet word in my shell-like.

There's something satisfying about taking on a new interest at this time in my life. It would be easy to just bowl along, paying little attention to anything outside of music and football, but these interests - while still strong - place few new challenges in my path. Birds, on the other hand, as well as being worth two in the bush before you say it, provide a gateway to a whole new area of knowledge about nature as a whole, and have opened up my eyes and ears a lot more to my surroundings. I don't listen to my iPod while out in the open now - I'm listening out for bird song. Now that's a difficult area. Distinguishing one call from another at the moment is like trying to discern the playing style of an individual Boredoms guitarist. Unless he was a blackbird or a great tit, they're easy. But I'll get there.

There is obviously a frustration as with any area in which you're a novice - coupled with the desire not to embarrass yourself by not knowing what a dunnock looks like - but that's part of the joy, part of the challenge of learning.

I feel like I've learned loads already in the last three months or so, and already have a fairly impressive list of spots. Of course I have a list, I'm a geek. But there's so much yet to learn. Not only song, but all the other dimensions like the differences between male and female, juvenile and adult, where and when you might expect to see them, there's a lot to take in. I'll never master the subject, but then I wouldn't want to as there'd be nothing new to learn. But I'll have a go. Though I still wouldn't go on a birdwatching holiday. And I still couldn't grow the beard.