Back to birdwatching school

‘Two willow warblers are described as ‘elegists for a previous world, singing their anthems for the lost’.

- Kate Green

FOR many years, Adam Nicolson, of impeccable landscape and natural-history writing pedigree, ignored birds. Schooled by his father to admire the view rather than the flora and fauna within it, birds seemed incidental to the main picture. In this charming account, he explains how he remedied the oversight by building a hut in an isolated part of his farm to immerse himself in their world—in other words, to attend bird school. What follows is a mixture of natural history and philosophy, first-hand observation and second-hand recycling, as well as expounding upon the latest avian science. The occasional eccentricity mingles with seriousness of intent.