I’ve always been fascinated by birds, ever since I was a little girl roaming the woodlands around my family’s farm in Sweden. They were ever-present, busy building nests, squabbling, probing, singing and taking refreshing baths in puddles of rain water. So I got to know them. I recognized their behaviour, their plumage, their song. A bird wasn’t just a bird to me. It was, for example, a woodpecker. And once I learned that there were different kinds of woodpeckers, it was a great spotted woodpecker – one who thought the metal sheathing on our telephone post produced a particularly pleasant timbre.
When I was twelve I drew a decent heron and at the age of fifteen I stole my father’s old Konica with tele (1500 grams). Now I’m carrying a very light compact digital camera with me, although a digital system camera is on my wish list.
Speaking of lists. I don’t have a life list, or garden list for that matter, but I try to take time to read up on the birds I see, take notes and draw them.
