I have been generally appreciating the natural world ever since I was a little boy. Growing up in urban north-west London and being into nature wasn’t the done thing in those days. I was certainly a bit of an oddity, but I revelled in watching the wildlife that lived in my neighbourhood. This was despite the ribbing that I received from other kids, and despite being told that I needed to go to the countryside to be around nature. It was my release, my sanctuary.
However, I also had a problem. As a toddler, I contracted a bad case of mumps – so bad that it left me profoundly deaf in my left ear, as my aural nerve was irreparably damaged. In effect, since then, I’ve lived my entire life listening to the world through one ear. That ear, my right ear, has developed to do the work of one and a half ears. Its sharpened abilities allowed me to live a near-normal life – outwardly, at least. I could hear most things in daily life and could enjoy music. More importantly for me, I could hear the sounds of the birds that I so loved.
There was a flipside to my deafness, though. If you spoke to me on my left side in a low tone without me realising, I wouldn’t hear you. Put me in a crowded environment and I would fall silent, actively avoiding talking for fear of not being able to follow conversations. Listening to music through headphones was problematic because I couldn’t appreciate stereo surround sound. I heard music in mono.
‘One of the first signs of hearing loss is not being able to hear the birds’
Meanwhile, out in the field and particularly in woods, although I could hear the birds I often could not exactly pinpoint where they were calling from. After much coaxing, very recently I finally tried wearing hearing aids to see if they could help me. Previously, I had thought that I was beyond help. I just got on with it. I had held a stigma towards hearing aids. They were for old people, no?
Hearing loss and enjoying nature are two things that would not seem to go together well. We all take hearing and seeing nature almost for granted. After all, that’s what nature’s about. It’s to be heard and seen.
But many of us suffer from hearing loss, and the stats speak for themselves. One in three of us have hearing loss – often without even realising. Eighteen million adults have hearing loss or tinnitus; indeed, it’s estimated that a further three million of us are unaware that we have a hearing issue. Although hearing loss is often associated with people over the age of 50, it also affects people who are much younger – it could be caused by many factors, from disease, as was the case for me, to constant exposure to loud noise.
Listen to the Goldcrest’s song
Goldcrest song. Audio: Patrik Åberg (Xeno-canto)
And one of the first signs of hearing loss is not being able to hear the birds. When it starts, you might just think that there are fewer birds around. Then, when you get older, birds with calls at the higher end of the sound spectrum, such as Goldcrests, become inaudible.
Wearing hearing aids – or ear binoculars, as I now call them – has opened up a whole new and unexpected world for me. I now hear all the birds louder and clearer. Plus, I’ve become much better at pinpointing where sound is coming from. They’ve enhanced my life. They’ve made me realise that, if you have bad eyes, you’d rush to the optician, and that our ears are just as important. Therefore, my message is simple: get your ears checked. Live your life to the fullest and hear as much of nature as you can when you’re out. There is no stigma attached to looking after your ears. Love your ears!
