L Gerrard Notes

It was early spring, and doom scrolling had taken over my life. The glow of social media posts about wars and a dying planet constantly lit my face. I became overwhelmed by a sense of dread, and something had to change. I decided to remove everything that wasn’t essential from my phone. Then I came across the Merlin app, which I had downloaded the year before to identify a bird I’d heard in the garden. Something told me I should hold onto this app.
A few days later, Charlotte and I were aimlessly strolling along the Thames Path when we stumbled across Greenwich Peninsula Eco Park. Being the curious people we are, and seeing that it was free to enter, we decided to have a look around. Stepping through the entrance felt like being transported into a different world. It was so green. Who knew such a wild place existed in a part of London that normally felt so stale? Raised wooden walkways led us through areas surrounded by trees, bushes, reeds, and tall grasses. Instead of hearing the sounds of the city, we heard only the birds and the wind.
As we explored, we found a hide and sat for a while. I had never set foot in a hide before, but something about that cobweb-filled shed felt so inviting. We watched small, incredibly agile seagulls swoop past the hide. Charlotte found a folder with pictures and information on the birds we were likely to see. “They’re common terns!” Then I remembered Merlin and fired it up: reed warblers, coots, moorhens, great tits, parakeets, wrens, and a grey heron. This blew my mind. I had never stopped to really look at birds before. There were so many, and they were all so different. We looked through the rest of the folder in the hide and saw every bird we could potentially spot there. It was the first feeling of hope I’d had in a long time.
We soon started going for walks on our local common, where we discovered kestrels, common whitethroats, and our new favourite, long-tailed tits. There were birds we could hear but couldn’t find, but that only made the search more exciting. I started looking for other places to visit and read about RSPB Rainham Marshes, a huge wetland just down the river. When we got there, we hired a pair of binoculars each and joined a tour with a man we now affectionately call Uncle Pete. It was an incredible day, seeing and learning about birds I’d never even heard of. I hadn’t realised there were that many species in the UK. As soon as we got home, we ordered our own binoculars. We were hooked.
About nine months and over a hundred species later, birding has changed my life. It made me fall in love with the natural world of the British Isles. It gave me a chance to escape the harshness of the modern world and even gave me hope for the future. It started to feel happier and calmer in all aspects of my life because I knew I was only ever a couple of days away from going out to discover new birds. Birding also provided the perfect moment to ask for Charlotte’s hand in marriage…but that’s a story for another day.