Worried that nature reserves aren’t for you? Augustus Collection is proud to support RSPB – Natures Voice. The RSPB speaks out for birds and wildlife, tackling the problems that threaten our environment. It is the largest wildlife conservation organisation in Europe with over one million members. Wildlife and the environment face many threats. Their work is focused on the species and habitats that are in the greatest danger. Add your support and join here https://www.rspb.org.uk/applications/join/express
Perhaps you thought that bird reserves were for birdwatches: the hard-core who travel about the country seeking rarities and sneering at robins and chaffinches: an intimidating band with binoculars that cost a fortune and telescopes like bazookas. And that, perhaps, is why you don’t go to RSPB bird reserves. They’re made for the in-crowd and you are part of the out-crowd. You know such places aren’t for you. If you thought that, you couldn’t be more wrong. The most important thing is the birds, the third most important thing is you. I’ll come to the second most important in just a moment, but the people who can tell a Lapland bunting from a reed bunting at a thousand paces are not the ones who matter most. When I say bird reserve, I mean nature reserve. That’s the preferred terms these days: conservation is too important to be narrow-minded. The most fabulous sight I have had at my local reserve, Minsmere in Suffolk – perhaps the most famous RSPB reserve in the country – is not a bird at all, but the tree otters I watched playing for a full hour. A moth that was found at the reserve, the first record for this country, has been called the Minsmere crimson underwing. Often when I drop in to Minsmere, I find myself walking away from a chosen spot because it’s crowded with people who know almost nothing about birds: children. These are the second most important living things at an RSPB reserve. Conservation is about looking after wild places and wild creatures: trying to ensure that they have a future. How do you define future? By the babble of noise and a teacher’s voice trying to keep the excitement within bounds. Children are the future, and if wildlife is to have one as well, it needs children. Perhaps the most important thing that any conservation organisation can do is to show children the wild world. It is in childhood that we are most receptive to learning, and in particular, to learning how to love the wild world. Perhaps some of those babbling children will support conservation as grown-ups, perhaps that will find a career in conservation. Show them an avocet, let them listen to a nightingale: then stand back and let them do the rest. Meanwhile, I walk on to another favourite spot and look for my own good birds in my own good way. In late spring and summer, Minsmere is full of grown-up visitors who don’t have a clue what they’re looking at. They just know that it’s supposed to be a nice place to go. You see them walking about in holiday clothes, and no, they don’t stick out like a sore thumb: there are generally plenty of them. Sometimes they have binoculars; sometimes they have hired a pair, sometimes they haven’t. Just enjoying a nice place, a nice view, the sound of birdsong. For most, this is a good experience; for some, a very special experience, one that stays with them. And for a few, a life-changer. Some will
have joined the RSPB that day: others have realised what doors their membership card can open for them. Sometimes they are pushing a pushchair, often they are bringing children. An no doubt some of these people go away feeling that they didn’t really get it, while others feel quite different. Most will feel a little better disposed to wildlife and its conservation and some will fell inspired. They might want to visit many more reserves: they might join the great network of RSPB volunteers – more than 17,000 of them – that look after people, or work on the reserves, or count birds. You might well bump into a volunteer who is there to tell you what birds you’re looking at, making your experience still more vivid. Simon Barnes is a writer on the environment and sport. His “bad birdwatcher” books are bestsellers. About Augustus Collection Founded in 2011, The Augustus Collection is a professional umbrella sales and marketing company incorporating specialised programs and platforms for fashion, hotels to the European marketplace. Augustus Couture , an Augustus Collection brand dedicated to fashion featuring “Style Me” personal shopping services in London, an online fashion store “The Look”, and online fashion blog “Couture Novus”. Augustus-Lite is a customised sales, marketing and development program available to business operating within the fashion, travel and tourism industries, featuring a dynamic portfolio of over independent hotels, travel technology firm BookingCore, and the world’s largest affiliate marketing program AffiliRed. For more information about Augustus Collection, visit its website at http://www.augustuscollection.com