Birding

I started birding at age eleven whilst living in Cornwall. I spent most of my time at Marazion Marsh and the Hayle Estuary. Given these sites are both local hotspots, I was quickly familiar with scarcities and rarities. In fact by the time I was fourteen I’d already seen Least Sandpiper, King Eider, Aquatic Warbler, Wilson’s Phalarope, Ring-billed Gull, Ring-necked Duck and Pectoral Sandpiper.

I spend the following thirty years travelling around the UK and Ireland trying to see rare and scarce birds. I became fascinated by bird identification with a particular interest in subspecies and geographical variants. When I wasn’t twitching rares I was trying to find my own, I occasionally succeeded in this. I also enjoyed some birding trips overseas and was lucky to see amazing birds with great friends in Spain, Turkiye, Republic of Georgia and West Asia.

Career and mental health

My career path mirrored my obsession with birds. I worked as a bird zoo keeper, nature reserve warden, bird surveyor and avian ecologist. This was until I became to ill to work. After thirty years of birding, my bipolar symptoms stopped me in my tracks. Certain aspects of the twitching scene and birding in general made my symptoms a lot worse, so I had no choice but to stop birding and twitching all together.

Ten years later and and I’m beginning to manage my symptoms a little better. I missed not birding, I missed the adventures, the community and I missed the identification challenges. I knew I had to have birding back in my life again. So I decided to tentatively dip my toe back into the water again.

This blog charts my return to birding whilst managing my bipolar and cPSTD symptoms. I hope you enjoy my posts, if you do, please feel free to post a comment. Thank you.

If you have any questions please do get in touch via the contact me page.