In this issue of The Inside Track, Hilary Bradt discusses a lifelong fascination with the natural world, beginning with the excitement of discovering birds’ nests as a child. From those early encounters grew a deeper interest in that would later inspire our very own series of wildlife guides...

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There is a current discussion on Radio 4 about which native animals should feature on our bank notes. I was listening to an enthusiastic proposal for a long-tailed tit – a tiny bird with a tail twice as long as its body – and was transported back to my childhood when spring meant only one thing: birds nests.

It wasn’t about egg-collecting, I hasten to say, but the delight of watching eggs hatch into chicks, and chicks grow into fledglings taking their uncertain but still miraculous first flight.

I disciplined myself not to start looking until 1st April – which had its own risks since one year the boy next door told me he’d found a chaffinch’s nest – one of my favourites – and would show me.

But...April fool.

I could recognise all the most common birds - the rather sloppy nest of the blackbird, with its greenish-blue speckled eggs, the architecturally-sound mud-lined creation of the song thrush, and the gorgeous bright turquoise eggs of the hedge sparrow, aka, dunnock. Robins would be found in picturesque places like discarded flowerpots, blue-tits were faithful to my tit box which had a removable lid so I could check on progress, and the chaffinch was (almost) the bullseye because it built such a beautiful moss-covered, hair- and feather-lined, cup-shaped nest.

But the one I longed to come across was that of the long-tailed tit, which I knew from my bird book was a complete domed house, constructed of moss and lichen, cobwebs and thousands of feathers like a soft oval version of my tit box, with a hole at the side. I can still remember when I found the nest, in the hedge up our lane, at eye level but hidden from most eyes.

And it was my very own discovery.

Fantastic!

I still look for birds’ nests but no longer have the eagle eyes of childhood. But my continuing interest in nature spawned our wildlife guides and I am so happy that Bradt was the first to describe the natural wonders of Madagascar in a pocket guide, followed by the Galapagos Islands: places that I knew well as a tour leader and recognised that there was a gap to be filled between serious field guides from specialist publishers and the brief natural history sections in our books.

This fledgling series has now reached 13 and is still growing.

How wonderful is that?

Until next time,

Hilary

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Bradt Guides
31a High Street
Chesham
Buckinghamshire
HP5 1BW
United Kingdom
​info@bradtguides.com​

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