The joy of birdwatching

It’s as if they’re telling you to stop and look around: journalist Jeannette Jonker tells us why she loves spontaneous little get-togethers with robins, jays, starlings and other birds.

It was my meeting with Dutch writer, comedian and bird enthusiast Hans Dorrestijn years ago that changed my view of birds forever. I was interviewing him about a bird guide he had written. Now and then he would jump up to peer out of his kitchen window with binoculars. “Look at that beauty!” he’d cry. I had no idea what to look at, but his enthusiasm was so contagious that I’ve been marveling over birds ever since.

Dorrestijn’s bird book (in Dutch only) begins with an ode to the long-tailed tits (Aegithalos caudatus). He writes that the birds are constantly in conversation with one other. He also explains that sometimes one might talk to itself, expressing how satisfied it is with its life: ‘Wonderful day, really wonderful day. Lots of tasty mosquitoes here. Those little ones with lots of juice’.