BIRDS

BRITANNIA

STEPHEN MOSS

HOW THE BRITISH

FELL IN LOVE WITH BIRDS

For Tony Soper

& Bill Oddie

Birders and broadcasters

par excellence

Contents

Cover

Title Page

Introduction

Garden Birds

Water Birds

Seabirds

Countryside Birds

Epilogue

Further Reading

Acknowledgements

Index

About the Author

Copyright

About the Publisher

Introduction

We British are more obsessed with birds than any other nation on earth. From feeding ducks in the park to listening for the first cuckoo of spring, from inspiring some of our best-loved poetry to filling our stomachs, and from boosting the economy to providing comfort during times of crisis, birds have long been at the centre of our nation’s history. This unique relationship between the British and our birds reveals as much about us as it does about the birds themselves.

As birder, author and cultural historian Mark Cocker points out: ‘Bird song, bird flight, birds’ residence around us, cements our relationship with them, and there is no equal in our landscape – and that’s why birds are so important to the British.’

Partly, as we shall see in the opening chapter, Garden Birds, our passion for birds is a result of the major social changes that took place during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, when our ancestors moved lock, stock and barrel from a rural, agrarian existence to an urban, industrial one.

Having shifted so dramatically from the countryside to the city, in just two or three generations, they developed a powerful nostalgia for the landscapes they had left behind, and for the wild creatures that lived there, especially the birds. In response, perhaps, to their sense of loss, they decided to create their own little piece of the countryside in their new home: and the British love of gardens began to blossom. With it came a new kind of relationship with the birds that visited our gardens; a relationship that today is still one of the closest and most meaningful of all our encounters with birds.

Jumping ahead to the final chapter, Countryside Birds, the strength of the British love of our countryside and the birds that live there is explored in greater depth. We discover how the birds of our countryside are inextricably linked with our appreciation of the landscape and what it means to us; how we celebrated their importance to us in many different ways; and how, as they have declined, this has threatened the very nature of what we mean by ‘countryside’.

But our relationship with birds has its darker side, too. The middle two chapters, on Waterbirds and Seabirds, reveal a more primal connection, expressed initially through the very basic need to hunt and kill birds for food and other commodities. Later this developed into the wider exploitation of bird populations for profit: whether for fashion or fertiliser, feathers or simply fun, the British have always been adept at making money out of birds. On a more positive side, the wholesale slaughter of these birds eventually prompted a reaction against such wanton cruelty, leading to the rise of the bird protection movement, in which the British led the world, and – along with our neighbours across the Atlantic in North America – continue to do so today.

The eighteenth and nineteenth centuries saw the development of a recreational interest in birds: largely taking the form of shooting and killing them for sport. But during the course of the twentieth century, and into the new millennium, our passion for birds took a more benevolent, and less destructive, direction. This was through the hobby, pastime or obsession (call it what you will) of birdwatching – or birding, as it is now more usually known. Again, Britain leads the world: with more than one million members of the RSPB, half a million people taking part in Citizen Science projects such as the Big Garden Birdwatch, and tens of thousands of enthusiasts actively going out to watch birds every weekend. Along with sport, cookery and gardening, birding has now become one of our major leisure activities, and in a world where our concern for the environment is growing, its popularity looks set to continue.

The impulses behind why we watch birds are almost as varied as the people who do it – few other pastimes cross quite so many social and demographic boundaries, appealing to people of all ages, backgrounds and classes. As the great ornithologist and media man James Fisher wrote at the start of the Second World War:

Among those I know of [who watch birds] are a Prime Minister, a President, three Secretaries of State, a charwoman, two policemen, two Kings, two Royal Dukes, one Prince, one Princess, a Communist, seven Labour, one Liberal, and six Conservative Members of Parliament, several farm-labourers earning ninety shillings a week, a rich man who earns two or three times that amount in every hour of the day, at least forty-six schoolmasters, an engine-driver, a postman, and an upholsterer.

A similar list compiled today would be even more wide-ranging and inclusive.

As to why we enjoy watching birds so much, perhaps it is because it appeals to many different human impulses and instincts, as Fisher rightly pointed out: ‘The observation of birds may be a superstition, a tradition, an art, a science, a pleasure, a hobby, or a bore; this depends entirely on the nature of the observer.’ Birds Britannia explores this eclectic passion, taking us on a journey from exploitation, through appreciation, to delight.

STEPHEN MOSS

Mark, Somerset

January 2011

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