I think it’s fair to say that birds have always inspired people. From ancient cave paintings to Shakespeare’s lark, arising from sullen earth to sing hymns at heaven’s gate, they permeate our cultures around the globe and are infused into our music, writing and art. My home reflects this – as I’m sure many of yours do too. I have an oil painting of Swallows on Skye on one wall and a wooden sculpture of a Great Northern Diver atop a chest of drawers, a memento from a trip I took to Canada when I was 18.
Our encounters with birds are life affirming, creating memories that stay with us and give us a very real emotional connection to the natural world.
Beccy’s Loon (Great Northern Diver) sculpture. Photo: Beccy Speight
One of the first places I was taken when I became the RSPB’s Chief Executive was to our nature reserve at Snettisham in Norfolk. Each autumn, tens of thousands of Knot descend here after spending the summer in the high Arctic, fuelling up on the rich tidal mud of the Wash. When the geography and tides align, you can witness one of our most stunning avian spectacles – a swirling, mesmerising mass of sound and form – and a feeling that these birds are creating their very own transitory art.
These open landscapes that lie on the English east coast – places like the Humber, The Wash, the Suffolk and Essex coast and the Thames Estuary – are globally important for migratory birds. Which is why we’re supporting the bid to have these East Coast Wetlands recognised as a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Such a designation would, of course, help with the future protection of these important places and the nature that lives there. But for our migratory birds, we must go further.
Migratory birds know no boundaries, especially not political ones, and cross numerous countries during their annual cycle. We step in to help when no one else can, and we always make sure that we help build the capacity of smaller, in-country partner organisations, so that we leave a longer-lasting legacy of conservation action. That is why we work globally with many of our BirdLife International partners along birds’ migratory routes from Iceland to South Africa, from Portugal to Kazakhstan, to ensure they have the places they need to help them complete their amazing journeys.
‘Our encounters with birds are life affirming, creating memories that stay with us and give us a very real emotional connection to the natural world’
In practice, this involves concerted, co-operative international action involving every conservation skill – science and monitoring, site and species management on the ground, public education, campaigning and influencing government action, including through international agreements.
With the next meeting of the UN’s Convention on Biological Diversity fast approaching at the time of writing [find out how it went here], we need to see the new UK Government stepping up as an environmental leader on the global stage, delivering the commitment made to protect 30% of land and sea for nature by 2030 and participating more widely in efforts to protect global biodiversity.
It’s only by working together across cultures, politics and nationalities that the nature we all love and are inspired by will continue to do just that for all the future generations to come.
