Birds are far and away the most popular of all wildlife species, and it is not hard to understand why. Many delight us with their songs, intrigue us with their behaviour and gladden our eyes with their amazing plumage. Perhaps most of all we are often privileged to see them at close quarters taking advantage of the food we put out for them, and to have them entrust their nests to our gardens. In Chapter 10 I fantasised about a possible UK wildlife safari based on mammals, and concluded that notching up six different species in a day was a reasonable reward for Britain or Ireland. However, it is relatively easy to find and identify over 30 species of birds in an afternoon spent walking in a local nature reserve, and this highlights another attraction of birds, namely joy in getting the identification right. When I visit my nearest local patch, which is an estuarine reserve called Titchfield Haven, and walk around the half-dozen easily accessible hides, it is common to find many people aged between 10 and 80 with binoculars in one hand and a bird guide in the other, trying to differentiate the black-tailed and bar-tailed godwits, and separate the green sandpipers from their wood and common sandpiper relatives. So there is a challenge, sometimes a chance to show off one’s knowledge, and an opportunity to make a bird list.

I well remember when, many years ago, my 10-year-old son accompanied me on a student field course in southern Spain. One of my academic colleagues teaching on the course was a keen birder, and could often be found of an evening, a cold beer in hand, writing up his daily bird list. This clearly registered with my young son who, some evenings later, appeared at dinner with a small notebook and pen. When I enquired what he was up to, he replied, ‘Oh, nothing special, just writing up my bird list.’ And so began a lifetime of bird finding and bird photography in many far-flung countries, all developing from the notion of making a regular list of birds seen and identified. Indeed birdwatching, or ‘birding’ as we now dub it over here, is often called ‘listing’ in the USA.