You will probably be familiar with the work of Andy Mackay even if you did not know it, since it was Andy who generously breathed life into NGB's image with our terrific Little Egret logo which now adorns many a tshirt, hoodie and even a bear mascot! Here he describes his blossom into birding at a young age and gives some tips to other young birders:
Had NGB existed 'when I were a lad' I'm sure I would have
been an active and enthusiastic member. But it didn't of course, because for
me, the 'NGB years' would have spanned 1978 to 1990, and the Internet had
barely been invented then. Even by the time I was 25, very few people had
computers.
At the age of 13, although I had been interested in birds
for as long as I could remember, I knew no other birders and rarely did any
birding outside of my garden, other than on family holidays and outings. I did
have a decent pair of binoculars though, and had been a member of the Young
Ornithologists' Club since the age of nine. But over the next 12 years my
birding was to undergo huge changes...
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| YOC 'Bird Life' magazines + Kestrel badge |
In 1983 the Shell Guide to the Birds of Britain and Ireland
was published, and I bought a copy soon after it came out. See 'The Book That
Inspired a Generation' on my blog for more on this. Another book I came across around this time was Bill Oddie's
Little Black Bird Book. If you've never read this, I strongly suggest that you
get hold of a copy and do so. Although it's mostly about birding/twitching in
the 1970s, a lot of it is still highly relevant. Plus it's very funny. Like the
Shell Guide, BOLBBB was a revelation for me. Strange as it seems now, I had
never considered the idea that I might somehow find out about rarities and go
and see them myself. I assumed that rare birds were only seen purely by luck,
and always by other people!
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| The Shell Guide & Bill Oddie's Little Black Bird Book |
The following year saw me taking further steps to becoming a
'proper' birder. In late August 1984 I made my first visit to north Norfolk.
This was supposed to be a voluntary wardening fortnight at Snettisham, but
thanks to the influence of a more experienced 'vol' who was there at the same
time as me, it turned into what was effectively a birding/twitching trip at the
RSPB's expense, much to the annoyance of the warden! In those two eye-opening
weeks I had 16 lifers, including a Marsh Sandpiper at Cley. Not long after
this, back in Leicestershire I met Jeff Higgott whilst birding at Cropston
Reservoir, and he introduced me to both the local ornithological society and
ringing, which I took up enthusiastically. I also started subscribing to
British Birds around this time.
I now had not only a regular birding companion, but also
that all important 'grapevine' contact. Prior to this I had never heard about
anything interesting turning up in the county, with the exception of the
Bridled Tern at Rutland Water, which I read about on the front page of the
Leicester Mercury after it had gone! As well as local birding, we went
twitching whenever transport was available. The highlight of this period was
undoubtedly the Little Whimbrel at Salthouse in August 1985, still my longest
standing British 'blocker', and the only one I have left from the 1980s.
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| Pen & ink drawing of the 1985 Little Whimbrel from my 'big notebook' of the time |
In 1986/87 I spent a year working as an assistant warden at
Sandwich Bay Bird Observatory in Kent. This was another quantum leap in my
birding, packing what would be several years' worth of experience for most
people into just 12 months. And I could hardly believe that I was being paid to
watch, count and ring birds every day. It wasn't all fun, of course; I've never
been much of a morning person, so I never enjoyed getting up before dawn every
day during migration periods, and you might not believe it, but even birding
can sometimes become a chore when it's your job! But on the whole it was a
great experience, and I would say to any young birder, if you get a chance to
stay at an observatory, let alone work at one, make the most of it.
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| Stilt Sandpiper twitch, Cliffe, 1987. My Dad's Mk II Cavalier, Jeff's Hertel & Reuss scope, and my dodgy 80s hairstyle, glasses and moustache! |
In 1990 I visited Scilly for the first time, and my British
list, already over 300, shot up by 11 new species in a fortnight, including
Black-billed Cuckoo, Upland Sandpiper, Swainson's and Grey-cheeked Thrushes and
Isabelline Wheatear. All birds I had barely heard of 12 years earlier in pre
Shell Guide days, let alone thought I'd ever see.
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| Grey-cheeked Thrush twitch, St Mary's, October 1990 |
And somewhere along the way I had become a full time bird
artist and illustrator, mostly by accident it has to be said, having decided
that doing a 'proper job' wasn't for me. But that's another story in itself.
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| Bluethroat cover of BB, April 1990 |
Throughout all this time technology was moving on, although
we were still another ten years away from mass ownership of computers, mobile
phones and digital cameras. But I think it's important to remember that, great
as all this technology is, birding is essentially no different now to what it
was 25, 50 or even 100 years ago. At its most basic, going out to watch birds
with a pair of binoculars round your neck and a notebook and pencil in your
pocket doesn't change, and that's what it's really all about.
-Andy Mackay
Andy is a freelance artist and writer, and the creator of the NGB Little Egret logo. Interested in birds since early childhood, he no longer twitches, but prefers to find his own birds on his local patch (Eyebrook Reservoir, on the Leicestershire/Rutland boundary) or further afield. If not watching, painting or writing about birds he is most likely either mothing, listening to Test Match Special or doing the Guardian crossword.
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