A Girl & Birds
Supported by Eric Hoskings Trust
Birds are many people’s first point of contact with the natural world. These feathered pom-poms, colourful splashes darting between branches or buildings brighten people’s days, and offer a joyful way of engaging with wildlife.
A former licensed trainee bird ringer, ornithology was both formative during my teenage years, and highly destructive in my early adulthood.
A Girl & Birds explores this from the perspective of a young woman trying to reclaim her identity and love for ornithology.
Birds saved my life. There’s nothing unusual about that. Increasingly, many people find solace, peace, and hope in birds and the natural world. What’s more unusual about my situation, is that it was birding that caused my life to need saving in the first place.
Ultimately, I felt alone – isolated.
From flightless penguins and the round hairy and almost-blind Brown Kiwi, to the elegant arrow-like Arctic Tern and the bundles of angry fluff which are the pygmy owls
They are these shadows that haunt me at the back of my mind, following me like a persistent crow
Ringing the warbler was like putting on a pair of well fitting gloves; you never forget how to ring
For five years, I never looked back
I felt like I had lost my identity.
A kind of grief you’ll never get over is losing the person you once were, without any preparation at all.
As part of this project, many brave individuals came forwards with their own quotes - both positive and negative - documenting their experiences within ornithology, bird ringing, and the nature conservation sector. These quotes are anonymous and illustrated - a selection of which can be viewed below.
