17
FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF THE FIELD CLUB
I viewed our boys' membership of the Young Ornithologists
Club (Y.O.C.) with mixed feelings. I was pleased they
were keen to get out into the field, as they say, rather
than waiting for the field to be brought to them in a
little flickering box. It certainly seemed more healthy
to be striding across the country in all weathers, rather
than sitting indoors. On the other hand at 7 years and
8 years, the boys were not old enough to travel on their
own to meetings, which meant I would have to take them,
which in turn meant that my disabled husband would either
have to stay at home alone or come with us and probably
be obliged to stay in the car alone.. Since we live in
a suburban area it seemed to involve me in a lot of extra
work just to spend several hours watching sparrows.
Ironically it is my husband from whom the boys had got
their love of the countryside and in the end it was
nostalgia for the days when I used to plod for miles over
hill and dale, smiling bravely despite blistered feet and
breaking back, in the wake of my tireless beloved, that
persuaded me to gird my loins and take up my flask of coffee
and follow Mr. Parker, the Leader of the Y.O.C. Branch,
whose meetings are combined with the Essex Field Club.
As my Husband, George, had anyway to be at work on the
day of the first meeting, I and the boys went on our own
to meet the Essex Field Club and other Y.O.C.'s. Everyone
looked terrifyingly business-like and knowledgeable, and
were so hung around with binoculars, cameras, specimen
boxes, notebooks and reference books, that I felt ridicul-
ously undressed with only a packet of sandwiches, a flask
of coffee and two boys.
The introductions having been made, we set out. Not wishing
to display my ignorance before such a learned looking
assembly, I kept very quiet to begin with. We walked
slowly through the Forest, stopping every now and again
while everyone listened to interesting bird songs. "There's
a yellow hammer!" someone would say, head on one side
pointing vaguely to the right. "And there's the answer"
would exclaim another delighted party member. All I could
hear, of course, were thirty thousand sparrows going "Cheep,
cheep". My offsping turning to me for guidance were dis-