Wonders are all around us

Billed as ‘The Birdwatcher’s Glastonbury’ – though I can’t help thinking that’s over-egging it a bit – this was a friendly, civilised event with parking for motorhomes on lovely, unspoilt farmland alongside Rutland Water.

You could buy clothing in a variety of shades of sludge-green.

You could buy binoculars, telescopes or cameras.

Or, like me, you could stuff your face with scones, jam and cream and wander round collecting free brochures and maps to plan future trips abroad.

What will stay with me was a talk by the writer and broadcaster David Lindo, known as The Urban Birder.

He began by quoting Proust: “The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.”

His point was that there are natural wonders around us every day, if we only bother to look out for them.

I knew what he meant, having drifted downstairs in my dressing gown the other morning to find a young sparrowhawk, still with a few white baby feathers among the brown, on the shed roof outside the kitchen window.

It must have been trying out its hunting skills, without success, on the diners at our bird table.

It sat for several minutes, gathering its wits, while I regretted that there wasn’t a camera within reach.

I felt much the same on Thursday evening.

Meandering with the dog through a field that would shortly become a temporary Birdfair car park, I turned to take in the view.

A young fox was sitting motionless by the hedge, watching us from a safe distance.

At that moment a barn owl swooped out of a line of tall trees, flew in a graceful circle close by, and was gone again. Another of those much-needed moments that just make you feel better.

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