Phil Brown interviews Craig Fulcher
Meet Craig Fulcher Biographical note: Suffolk born and bred. Now aged 36, he reluctantly works in between his SORC duties, bouts of birdwatching and birding holidays several times a year around the world.
How long have you been birdwatching? I first got involved with my father. When I was very young we used to fish together most weekends and, whilst you’re sitting on a bank for hours on end, you can’t help noticing what’s going on around you. So, little by little, I became familiar with wildlife and was especially interested in birds. The Kingfisher was a special favourite of mine back then. Time went by and, at around the age of nine, my father and I decided to take up birdwatching during the autumn and winter when fishing wasn’t so attractive. It was then that we joined SNS and I went on many trips being led by Philip Murphy - then and now a SOG stalwart. What’s your earliest birding memory? That would be observing the Great White Egret from the Tree Hide at Minsmere in 1986 - I think? It was a real rarity and the hide was chocker full. So how did this interest then develop? It was because of the bird trips that I got a really good taste for birdwatching. And twice a year, dare I mention it, SNS used to cross the border and visit Norfolk. By the time I was in my early teens, as I got more heavily into birding than dad, I used to beg for lifts all over the place. In the early 90s I somehow found myself acting as an unofficial recorder for the Gipping Valley that gave me a real feel for bird data, plus an inkling of how vital it is as the basis for bird conservation. But, by the middle of that decade, all this came to an end as I become far more interested in all the usual teenage pursuits! What happened next? Well, I call this period my ‘sabbatical’ because, for the next ten years or so, I pursued other kinds of birds.
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THE HARRIER – M arch 2013
Understood, so how’d you get back into birding again? Well I don’t think you ever totally lose interest. I believe it was in 2003 when a work colleague mentioned there was a roost of Long-eared Owls at Lower Holbrook and would I like to see them? As they had been a favourite of mine I went up into my loft to retrieve my old bins and boots, dusted them down and accompanied him to the roost. I was immediately hooked again. Though fishing remained a draw, I realised birding was easier to slot into a day. Also I quickly found that it was as if I had been in hibernation, because I found all of my earlier studying paid off and my bird ID skills and call/song knowledge came back very quickly. Then what? Well it just got more serious. Now I work hard and bird hard too. I suppose I take between four or five birding holidays each year. And, as I’m a bit of a control freak, I like to do all the planning - I’m so thorough my fellow travellers have taken to referring to me as ‘Fulcher Tours’. So where have you been? Excluding the UK trips, I’ve been to Israel, Morocco, Western Sahara, Egypt (twice), Turkey, Greece, Finland, Norway, Madeira, China and five times to the USA (California twice, Oregon, Texas and Florida).
