My First Book of Birds

Well, not my book,actually, it's The Man's.

I grew up as a townie, we had a garden and my gran fed the birds crusts, and bacon rind. I had a very limited knowledge of birds. I knew robin, sparrow, pigeon, brown owl (because I went to Brownies), starling, seagull and crow (and I was wrong about crows!)

When I came to Penrith on Teaching Practice the family I was staying with took me for a day out. We'd go to watch trotting, they said. Trotting??? On the way to Troutbeck there was a huge bird walking across the road. It was a gleaming orange colour and had a long tail. I shrieked and said "What was that?" John & Chris laughed and told me it was a pheasant!

The Man, on the other hand, knew a lot about birds, having read about linnets, spotted flycatchers and blackcaps in this book. When I met him he also had a Readers' Digest Book of British Birds with lovely drawings in it. I went through it learning the names of all the birds (well most of them).

So now it has turned out so useful because I know which birds I'm blipping! Education is never wasted!