I am sure I'm not the only one that's getting impatient and excited at the moment. Ever since we said goodbye to the rutting stags, the stage-frightened badgers, the whirlwind of will-they-won't-they antics of the Supergeese and Martin Mere at the end of Autumnwatch 2006, I've been unbearable to live with. I need my fix, and I need it now. I've been filling in time nicely, visiting RSPB/WWT places, enjoying the action from my own garden bird feeding station (the J.F. Dovaston Feeding Station is its official name), watching said birds impersonating Bill Oddie, going into the field, erm... garden impersonating Simon, reading BBC Wildlife and Bird Watching magazines, bird books aplenty and watching Big Cat DVDs just to while away the hours and to learn as much about bird and animal behaviour / identification as possible. I have learned oodles of stuff about birds and get great pleasure sitting there in front of the television, DVD or video about wildlife on with yet ANOTHER takeaway pizza being consumed with great vigour.
What is making me so restless, difficult to live with and neurotic? The getting-ever-nearer Springwatch 2007! I am not sure why this programme has me captivated, but it's seriously addictive viewing. I came across it in its second week of its run last year, which was also the time I got seriously into birdwatching. I go to my local RSPB reserve at Freiston Shore as many Sundays in the year as possible. Perhaps it's because I got all gooey and maternal over the baby Blue Tits, that I admired the chemistry between Bill, Kate and Simon, or that I really, really, DESPERATELY wanted to be on the farm with Bill and Kate AND on Shetland with Simon at the same time looking at all this wildlife beauty, or possibly because Casanova the pied Flycatcher's antics amused me. Whatever it was, I wanted more of it. Heck, in my most egocentric moments of the series, I imagined myself as Spring/Autumnwatch's fourth presenter (with my back garden as the 'studio'), sharing my love of birds and nature with the viewers, enthusiastically espousing over barn owls, engaging in banter with Bill, Kate and Simon and pondering the futility of going once more in vain, wildly optimistic hope to the badger setts!
What an inspiration Springwatch has been to me. It is Springwatch that yanked me out of my owls-only attitude towards birds, put the J.F. Dovaston Feeding Station in my back garden, gave me a wonderful sense of achievement and delight when the first Goldfinch appeared at the Dovaston, enrolled me in the RSPB, spotted me more than 150 different bird species last year, walked me round RSPB Freiston Shore, Fowlmere, Frampton Marsh and Titchwell Marsh, secured another year's membership of the World Owl Trust, sparked a determination to one day enter the Birdfair's annual 'Bird Brain of Britain' quiz and endowed me with a mission to commit the rest of my life to bird welfare and conservation. Oh, give me nature unbridled, unconstrained and the majesty of the wonderfully relaxing dawn/dusk chorus!
So come on, Mother Earth - spin faster, faster and faster still to make Springwatch 2007 arrive in the next hour!!! I cannot wait for any more rotations of the Earth for it! HURRY UP!!!!!!!!
