randombirder

It's taken a full 29 years to reach my 400th species as recognised by the british ornithologists' union.   Birding and observations of wildlife is never driven by numbers until you start adding up species lists, whether that be on day-trips, or holidays, or year lists, or local patch lists, or county lists, or country lists, or UK lists.  That's when a hobby can turn into an obsession. I remember the 2nd April 1992, the day I put pen to paper in recording the birds I'd seen.  Stockers Lake in Rickmansworth was where it all began.  I wish I still had those diaries - neatly demarcated with date, location and species.  It was the thrill of seeing birds I had poured over in books that my late dad kept in a small library of an eclectic assemblage of literature.  Probably more out of casual interest than any targeted passion for the world of avifauna. The 3rd of May 1992 and an early visit to Stockers Lake in Hertfordshire was met with excitable local birder...