An Illness Ruffled My Feathers. (Birdwatching)

Member Name: Machair1

Product:	Birdwatching
Date:	31/03/09 (85 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: A calm and serene way to spend a few moments.

Disadvantages: None

I must confess until 1996 I never even noticed birds, not really, as to me they were just something in the background, not interesting and certainly something I associated with anorak clad spotters, who would race round the country in search of the elusive rarity that had been spotted moments before.

This all changed when I caught an enterovirus related to polio, and having a scary diagnosis of pericarditis, which is where the virus had infected the outer lining of the heart, I was too ill to do anything after being discharged from hospital. Sadly for me this virus is also the most common culprit to cause ME and this is what I ended up with after that.
So supine on the settee for months life seemed to stop for me because I had suddenly gone from manic mum to 4 under 11, to sick settee case incapable of going up and down stairs for more than one accompanied trip.

There were two things I noticed about this- one that it was probably the first time in my life I had ever stopped- and 2 the dreadful artex on the ceiling which was in horrid swirls would have to go as soon as I could muster up enough energy to organise it. I noticed a third thing though as it was April then and suddenly I began to see little pairs of birds together building nests and feeding young, and little cheeky squirrels would run along the fence every morning at the same time. Time stopped for me for months but I found in that void a tremendous peace and solace in sitting and staring, and appreciating things that I had always deemed not that important.

So I bought a bird box especially for great tits. These are lovely little birds which look a lot like blue tits, but they have a large black stripe down their tummies, and they need a slightly larger hole in their box. Each year they have come back to nest. The way this happens is incredible. On New Year's day or just after you see them looking inside and entering and leaving to check it out, then in early March they commence building the soft little bed which will be their nest. This is amazing as they do it over a few weeks mostly before you get up in the morning at dawn. First the outer circle of mossy green leaves and finally the top is covered with soft down. What amazes me about this is the natural instinct of these birds to do this. Humans may attend seminars on child birth and so on but these little creatures need no help from workshops to create perfect little offspring. The next stage is after the eggs are laid the job falls to both parents to help. First mum sits on the eggs for weeks and is fed by the male, and finally after hatching she joins dad to find endless food to supply her growing family.
Nothing beats the wonderful sight in early June when mum sits on a branch with two of her new born babies as she teaches them how to fend for themselves.

I am no bird expert but am blessed with friends who are, and they know bird behaviour inside out, but I am a casual bird appreciator rather than anyone who claims to know intricate details or capable of naming any rare sightings. In my opinion however you don't need to be an expert to enjoy something so precious.

I spend a lot of time in The Outer Hebrides and especially so since being ill, and one of the wonderful things about the birds there is that they are ground nesting as there are very few trees. This means that newly hatched birds such as Lapwings and Redshanks can only run at first, and so face great dangers on the roads from traffic before they are old enough to fly. Driving up there you often see in May the little legs of baby birds scuttling across the road, and you have to go slow to protect them.

Also in The Outer Hebrides in June you will see short eared owls in the daytime and early evening sitting on fence posts watching for prey to swoop on for feeding their young. These majestic birds are easy to photograph and you can slowly nudge the front bonnet up until you are level with them, and here affords you a perfect opportunity to get some perfect snaps of those blinking and windscreen wiping eyelashes, which house the piercing vision of those majestic raptors.

These are my birds and I adore to just stop and watch them as their behaviour really marks the season for me and tells me it is spring/early summer. They dip in and out of carpets of azure blue and golden yellow meadows, and then return to the high crags where they disappear out of sight until the next time you see them swooping and soaring making circles in the wind.

I haven't got any fancy equipment but I did buy a new camera last year with an 18 times zoom which is mainly to use for wildlife pictures. I own a simple pair of binoculars which I use for no other reason really other than to look interested, as often tiny blobs on the horizon which to a trained eye are discernable, I am afraid to ne rarely mean much.

I did stay at The Bird Observatory in North Ronaldsay in The Orkneys a couple of years ago and really enjoyed the camaraderie of this seeing what the latest sightings were on the board. We even helped to remove a Swift who was trapped in a derelict building, freeing him to the wild coastline from which he came.

In the Maldives in the early morning before any tourists get up I will often be seen with my toes in the water next to a Heron as he watches the sunrise in total peace and quiet, before retiring to his favourite coconut palm for a well earned sleep.

No for me there are all levels of bird watching and every day I am learning, but I prefer to see it as a way to appreciate nature and what is there. Even in the noisiest of city gardens some little miracles are going on all the time. Last year a little bird kept knocking on my kitchen window. I would hear this noise many times and a friend explained to me it was an immature male chaffinch, seeing his refection in the window and thinking it was a competing male, he was trying to peck at what he could see to ensure he was protecting his territory.

If you want to enjoy birds then all you really need is a good bird book, but buy a hardback one with lots of photos, and keep it in the lounge by the window. If you want to go real bird watching you can then buy a little hand one to keep in your pocket. Buy a simple pair of binoculars if you really want to enjoy a better look, and then think about your zoom capability on the camera if you want to photograph anything special. Other than that you don't need much but to stop for a while and to watch, and suddenly peace and calm descends on you.

Yes the illness I caught 13 years ago changed my life, but many of the consequences have been positive. I am sure I would never have stopped long enough to smell the roses, or to see the birds, and I think I would have missed so much. Yes an illness ruffled my feathers a few years ago, but it did teach me something, and that is that some very enjoyable moments of stopping and "just being" were passing me by.

Only yesterday I saw a jay in the garden for the first time. I wonder where he came from?...............

Now posted on Ciao under my user name there Violet1278.

Summary: A wonderful way to pass a few happy hours.