Yes, I am a birdwatcher. I roam the countryside wearing dark clothing and looking highly suspect but I'm completely harmless, I started birding in Hong Kong when I was 17. I got dumped by my girlfriend and needed something to occupy me. Two of my friends (Mark Bezuijen and Paul Crow) were both wildlife mad so we used to head into the counrty parks together. I used to be up at Mai Po marsh or off to Tai Po Kau every weekend. Hong Kong was one hell of a place to start birding, it has completely spoilt me. On an average days birding in Mai Po you could see a couple of species of eagle, kite, Marsh Harriers, Dalmation Pelicans, waders by the thousand, many egret species. ducks, gulls, shrikes.

Far to many things to see. I find birding in the UK a little tame by comparison- not much chance of seeing a White-bellied Sea Eagle fly past your bedroom window. I did lots of birding in Northern Ireland, I was a member of the Coleraine RSPB group which organised lots of trips to Donegal and other areas. The best day I ever had there was in the winter of 1994. We where heading to Inch Island when we passed a field with a huge flock (like tens of thousands) of finches. We pulled over and scanned through the flock. There were more birds than could be coped with- Chaffinch, Greenfinch, Linnet, Twite, Reed Bunting, Brambling, Bullfinch, Goldfinch, Redpoll and some really strange individuals which were almost impossible to pin down. There was one very pale bird- looked like it could have been a Desert Sparrow or something really spectacular like that. Most likely it was just a leucistic Chaffinch or the like, who knows! The birds were all attracted by a field of flax that had been left to go to seed. What was just as impressive was watching Buzzards, Sparrowhawks and Kestrels dart in and out of the flock picking off birds.

I'm no longer a lonely figure, mourning my misfortune at being tossed aside by women either. I now have Jane to go birding with- thats right a girl who goes birding too! You do get them apparently. So the two of us head off when we can to the countryside. Jane seems to pick up on things that would have missed, either having two sets of eyes increases the chances of seeing birds considerably or I've been missing half the birds around. Thanks to her I saw a Lesser Spotted Woodpecker- I've been trying for two years and Jane just points it out one day and goes "Look!". We had a very good birding trip to Florida, if you get the chance go- it's amazing. We were in Portugal this summer and had a great time too. Cheap food, wine and loads of birds.

Best of all, I now have a car! Man, does it make getting out to the good places easy. No more buses and trains and long hikes just to get where you want to go!