GETTYA delightfully coloured Kestrel lands on a post
In an age when driving cars at extreme speeds, hitting small white balls into grassy holes and making show ponies dance are all regarded as sport, it's surprising the art and science of finding and identifying birds has not become an Olympic event.
One thing that detracts from birding's profile as a modern-day pastime is the singular lack of kit.
You need nothing other than your senses to enjoy the colours, shapes and sounds of nature's showiest creatures.
A delightful book published this year goes some way to dispelling the notion that birdwatching is devoid of a cultural and material heritage.
Opening a copy of David Callahan's glorious A History of Birdwatching In 100 Objects over the Christmas holiday is bound to have brought a smile to the face and the warm glow of enlightenment to many a birder as it charts mankind's fascination with feathered creatures through the ages, from early rock painters 45,000 years ago to the digital age.
Space and an inclination not to spoil readers' enjoyment of this most enjoyable compendium prevent me from listing all of the 100 objects chosen by the author.
I still remember the thrill when the club's Bird Life magazine dropped through the letterbox, promising many hours of happy reading
That said, to whet the appetite I have chosen two of the listed iconic objects that have helped shape my own journey from schoolboy PG Tips bird card collector to twitcher, local patch-worker and, latterly, weekly birdwatching columnist.
Putting aside breakthroughs in optical and camera equipment as well as other technical advances, the two birding items I have selected from the book are still as dear today as when they became part of my birding life a good few years ago.
The first is the metal YOC badge that denoted me joining the Young Ornithologists' Club back in 1968. In the shape of a hovering kestrel, the badge always reminded me of an RAF pilot's wings and I wore it on my bobble hat with a sense of patriotic pride.
In the Sixties, the YOC was the junior wing of the RSPB, which today goes under the name of the Wildlife Explorers.
I still remember the thrill when the club's Bird Life magazine dropped through the letterbox, promising many hours of happy reading.
Many books have played their part in my birdwatching rites of passage but John Gooders' classic Where To Watch Birds, first published in 1967, still holds a special place on my bookshelf with its details of far-flung parts of the British Isles and birds that seemed so exotic, such as Scotland's golden eagles, Welsh red kites and the riches that awaited at East Anglian reserves such as Minsmere and Cley next the Sea.
A History Of Birdwatching In 100 Objects by David Callahan (Bloomsbury, RRP £20). See Subbuteo Natural History Books for more details: www.wildlifebooks.com IN ASSOCIATION WITH? For details of how to care for wild birds visit the CJ WildBird Foods website at birdfood.co.uk/SE or you can call 0800 731 2820 for a free Catalogue Of Garden Wildlife.
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