WINGING IT: BIRDING FOR LOW-FLYERS

Andrew Fallan’s concept of birding ‘low-flyers’ certainly strikes a chord; after all, we can’t all be the next birding equivalent of George Michael or Richard Dawkins. The author quickly classifies himself as one of the “massed ranks of birding ‘low-flyers”, someone who “cannot lay claim to any of the skills, abilities, achievements of some of the top names…within the birding community”. The diary-like chronicling of Andrew’s experience makes for a gentle read, meandering as it does from his early years exploring the fabulously-named Fobbing marshes to a life-changing trip to the Isle of Skye that rekindled his enthusiasm for the outdoors. Whilst I didn’t find myself laughing out loud at the tales, I was pleasantly reminded of many of my own early experiences in birding.

A chance encounter with a Kestrel was where it all began for Andrew. I found myself at once identifying with his excitement for birds of prey, and slightly envious that he can recall his birding epiphany (or “the Archaeopteryx in his personal story as a birder”, to quote Mark Cocker in Birders – tales of a tribe). I only have my parents’ say-so that my first few words included ‘Great Tit’ and ‘Blackbird’, and often wonder what it would be like to be able to trace my birding beginnings to a single moment. I also found parallels between the author’s creative identification of a Stone-curlew in these early years (as he says, most likely a first-year gull!) and the ‘youthful exuberance’ apparent in some of the records from my own formative years as a birder…

The author has an acute sense of self-awareness and integrity, exemplified by his reviewing – and retracting – of historic personal records of species such as Goshawk, which are notoriously difficult to identify. In keeping with the honest nature of the book – and Chris Packham’s comment in his foreword – I categorically do not share Andrew’s opinion about ringing. I also found an inherent dichotomy in the open criticism of the behaviour of a minority of twitchers and the many stories of birds the author has ‘chased’ over the years.. Comments like “the damn twitchers had probably scared them all away” (referring to the lack of a Barn Owl or Bittern sighting whilst visiting Minsmere when a putative Slender-billed Curlew was present) seem at odds with his readiness to act on ‘gen’ about rare breeding raptors received from other birders/twitchers. In the same vein, the closing paragraphs of the book recount the decision to ‘twitch’ from Norfolk to Suffolk for a Red-flanked Bluetail, only to bemoan the consequences. Perhaps I’ve experienced one too many twitches but to my mind, the behaviour of a large crowd at a twitch is predictable enough to simply be avoided altogether, if it will spoil your enjoyment of the bird in question.

Book reviewed by Nick Moran