Birders: Tales of a tribe by Mark Cocker, Jonathan Cape, 拢15.99, ISBN
0224060023
MY SHELVES are laden with hundreds of volumes on birds, but hardly any about
the birders who watch them, making this little book about as rare as a harlequin
duck on the Humber. There鈥檚 no real plot, nor is there a discernible sequence to
the chapters, but it鈥檚 intensely readable, often very funny, and for those who
know or even live with birders, highly enlightening. If you鈥檝e wondered what
makes an obsessive birder tick (and ticking new birds on your list is what it鈥檚
all about), read this book and all will be explained.
Tracking down rare birds is seldom easy. Most are migrants, and nearly all
seem to choose out-of-the-way places to alight. What is clear is that the
greater the pain, the more intense the pleasure. Mark Cocker has lots of
real-life adventure stories to tell in Birders, some hilarious, others
horrifying. My favourite is the story of the trio of twitchers who had the
misfortune to be sprayed with muck by an irate farmer while they were trying to
catch sight of a black-winged pratincole. They did eventually spot the bird,
only the 14th seen in Britain.
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Other stories are less happy, revealing that birding isn鈥檛 only horribly
addictive, it鈥檚 also dangerous. We read of the death of David Hunt, killed by a
tiger while leading a birding group in India鈥檚 Corbett National Park in the
foothills of the Himalayas, and other fatalities suffered by British birders in
their sometimes hazardous quest.
However, as Cocker makes clear, finally seeing the elusive quarry makes the
risks and the hardship all worthwhile: the pleasure generated can be almost
religious in its intensity.
