Birds: I Should Know More About Them

Published by Stephen Milward in Science And Technology · Friday 13 Mar 2026 · 2 minutes
Tags: birds, knowledge, nature, wildlife, avian, education, conservation, birdwatching, species, habitat, John, James, Audubon, drawings, paintings

I've always been frustrated by my lack of knowledge about birds. Not the birds of the Andes or Amazon forest, but of my own location, which includes Sherwood Forest. The ordinary birds that we all know by name, but know little else besides. Blackbirds, Robins, Sparrows, Thrushes, Starlings and more. I see these birds every day in the garden, but what do they do when I don't see them, away from my gaze?

I can remember as a small boy that my Mum would give me bacon fat to give to the birds. Before I got back to the door, the garden was full of birds, all jostling for position to get the food. Noisy, almost angry birds! The mayhem didn't last long, but I never really knew the bird's names. I was awful in identifying birds and honestly, I still am. It's something that I find annoying.

I tried to interest myself in the subject by having small books about birds, but I didn't make the most of that. My uncle even had an aviary that I remember going inside and cleaning, but still I didn't take enough notice of the birds. I've regretted that ever since.

So now I'm in my elderly years. I love the illustrations of American birds by John James Audubon (i). Denise won a prize at school and bought a book of his drawings with it.

Gyrfalcons By John James Audubon (ii)

Years later, we went to Thorsby Park and had an afternoon with owls (probably my favourite birds). That was really great and it was wonderful to experience the birds at such close quarters.

Stephen With Owl, Thorsby Park

I'm going to try again to find out more about the wonderful world of birds. If you would like to learn more, you can start by visiting these websites and start your journey:

Hawkeye Falconry UK

RSPB

CornellLab Birds Of The World

(i) Wikipedia: John James Audubon

(ii) Gyrfalcons By John James Audubon - Birds of America, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=24166341