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mayed at my ignorance, but too shy to seek other adult
help. It was silly to let this go on, so we worked our
way nearer to the Leader and the next time he stopped
with finger raised and head cocked to say "Do you hear
the chaffinch?" instead of looking away or pretending I
could, I swallowed foolish pride and whispered "which song
is it we're listening for?"
To our delight, he was not at all dismayed by our lack of
knowledge, and obliged with a demonstration whistle. From
then on he always made sure that we knew what was going
on and by the end of the afternoon we were excited to
find that we were beginning to distinguish one "Cheep,
cheep" from another "Cheep, cheep". Lie could not yet
put the right bird to the right •Cheep" but at least when
we listened we were hearing many different bird calls and
not just a mass of song. The highlight of that afternoon
for me was when someone drew my attention to a particular
tree. "What?" I whispered. "Look at the trunk!" they
whispered back. I stared at the bare trunk trying to see
how its bark might be interesting. Quite suddenly, a
long thin bird ran casually up it. My boys and I stared
in amazement at our first tree-creeper.
Hauing now revealed our abysmal ignorance to the learned
company, instead of being subjected to the scorn we had
anticipated, we found ourselves taken under the wings of
the varous experts (for they were not all ornithologists
we found), all eager to share their knowledge with us,
so that we could appreciate with them the miracles of the
world about us.
There was, for instance, a botanist, who was as happy
sharpening our observation by revealing hitherto unnoticed
(by us) details about buttercups and daisies, as he was
discovering rare botanical beauties. He was wearing a
green anorak and had his trouser tucked into great thick
socks, which tucked into great thick boots and he strode
through the undergrowth like it was Epping High Street!
At one time he was discussing with us the interesting length
of the spikes of some bugle my boys had pointed out, when
he stopped in his tracks and pointed to a minute patch
of blue away in the distance. "Just look at the spurs on
those violets!" Now, I do know a violet when I see one,
but their spurs are something which have somehow passed me by.