I remember once telling a good friend that I found British birds boring. The blasphemy of that sentence now gives me the shivers. 

After saying this most unholy of sentences, he challenged me and said he'd prove that wasn't the case. Due to my preconceptions that all the best wildlife was living off of our little island, I was beginning to think that there was no way my friend could convince me that British birds were interesting, but oh boy was I wrong.

I started to look closer at birds, listening to their calls, songs, behaviours, flight patterns and picking up feathers, egg shells and disused nests and very quickly I was entranced. The patterns, the sounds, the colours, the nuanced behaviours of each species. 

British birds are in no way boring.

Since becoming an ecologist I have become more and more fascinated by this species group. I joined breeding and wintering bird surveys through consultancy work and began to develop the all important skills in becoming a birder. Identifying birds by sight is a skill in itself, but by far the most important skill is using your ears. Many people say that to be classified as a true ornithologist you have to be immersed in it from a young age. That may be a big help in identifying bird calls, as its very much like learning languages, however don't let that put you off if you're an aspiring birder. I only truly started to use my ears at the age of around 22 (a ripe old age in a traditional birders view). It is always possible to learn bird song, but the most important part is to get out there, listen and learn (and if you can, bring an experienced friend along to tell you what you are hearing....). 

My ears have helped my identify hundreds of bird species and pinpoint their locations, allowing me to not only record behaviours, locations, numbers for fieldwork, but also just to enjoy the birds themselves. 

The other tool that has helped me on my journey is my now tattered 2nd edition of the Collins Bird Guide (my version of the bible), which has helped me learn, identify and appreciate a whole variety of bird species in Britain. Currently the BTO lists 619 British species recorded in a wild (or apparently wild) state in Britain, with the Collins guide listing 720 species across Britain and Europe. That's an amazing number of birds to fall in love with. 

Birding is something that I can now no longer switch off. I'm constantly listening, even if subconsciously. I'm identifying birds out of my open bedroom window, during the walk to the station and even whilst driving (as I wrote this sentence I found myself watching birds in the reflection of my monitor on the neighbours rooftop). Given my inability to switch off, I feel almost constantly connected to the natural world, a key part of what keeps me calm and happy and forgetting other potential stress inducing events. 

I think there's a birder inside all of us, waiting to be tapped into. It's part of our DNA, honed through the process of evolution (much like my fascination with botany, which I'm sure I'll also chat about at some point).   

Top bird highlights:

• White tailed sea eagle hunting greylag geese over the Barra Sound. 

• 6000+ dunlin circling overhead at Portsmouth Harbour. 

• Juvenile peregrine delivering a black headed gull to my feet during one of its practice hunts.  

• Swift screaming parties over Hamble of an evening.

• Starling murmurations over the HMS Warrior. 

• The first cuckoo of every season. 

• Bird ringing - handling blackcap, chiffchaff, goldfinch, blackbird, robin, greenfinch, great tit.