It shows the incredible appetite there is for communities such as Flock Together, “which makes you ask why it didn’t exist before.” Can he stay in touch?Įvery time they go out, Olanipekun says, people stop and say hello. He wants to set up a voluntary group of Black Londoners to work on conserving the waterways. They tell him about Flock Together he reaches into his backpack and pulls out a cap that shows he works for the Canal & River Trust. He spots Perera and Olanipekun, and in a moment of instant kinship, asks what they’re up to. Walking through an underpass, we meet a man on a day out with his family. “It means I won’t waste any food.” We had 80 people turning out in the rain last December Ollie Olanipekun After some thought, Perera decides on the bearded vulture, which can swallow and digest bones. Olanipekun envies the golden eagle’s impressive eyesight. We begin talking about abilities we’d like to take from birds. “They have the brain capacity of a human five-year-old,” Olanipekun agrees. Perera won’t pick a favourite, but admits he does enjoy watching crows, because of their intelligence. Olanipekun’s favourite bird is the “beautifully majestic” barn owl, which can hear the heartbeat of the mouse from several metres away. Olanipekun also advises beginners to just enjoy themselves without stressing too much about results – to spend time soaking in the environment and the sounds of nature.Īs we walk, we exchange (or in my case, learn) bird facts. What advice do Perera and Olanipekun give to first-time birdwatchers? There are small tricks, like cupping your hand around your ears to help you focus on birdsong. Perera keeps them all for his collection. We see hints of bird life on the path, teasing us as we walk: black and blue feathers from a magpie a brilliant green one from a parakeet. It is clear but windy today, which means that many are hiding. Photograph: Christian Sinibaldi/The Guardianīirdwatching, I soon discover, calls for patience. The writer, left, with Nadeem Perera and Ollie Olanipekun. “Of course you’re going to think that’s not for you.” Olanipekun, who turned to birdwatching when he was 28 to escape pressure from work, doesn’t blame them: the typical birdwatcher is still seen as someone white, elderly and middle-class. Their friends refused to join, thinking it was a “white thing”. When Perera took it up at 15, after becoming fascinated by a woodpecker, “everyone thought it was the strangest thing to be doing, ever,” he says. Olanipekun, 37, an advertising executive, and Perera, 28, a youth sports coach, were both avid birdwatchers, but were used to going alone. As we walk, Olanipekun and Perera talk about what brought them together. And a study commissioned by the RSPB found that two-thirds of Britons had found solace in watching birds over lockdown. Last January, the charity’s annual Big Bird Garden Watch, which encourages participants to note sightings in their own backyards, brought in a million eager birdwatchers – double the usual number. People were looking outside and wanting to know what they were seeing.” More than 50% of those were on pages looking at bird identification. Helen Moffat of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) says: “Our website had 70% more views than usual over the first lockdown. The wetlands is also home to one of the UK’s largest colonies of grey herons, and every evening a flock of parakeets make their way there to roost in the trees.Ī Flock Together walk in June at Chobham Common – a rare heathland habitat in Surrey. At this time of year, you might be able to see redwings and fieldfares arrive from colder parts of Europe for the winter. “We had 80 people turning out in the rain last December,” Olanipekun says with a grin. I ask whether demand stays high in the winter. They estimate that on each walk, 60% of the group are first-timers. Since then, they have regularly taken bigger groups of birdwatchers to woodlands across the south of England, from the Surrey Hills to the Essex marshes. In June 2020 they brought 15 people to this very same spot for the first outing of their collective, Flock Together, a birdwatching club that organises monthly walks for people of colour. So when I arrive at east London’s Walthamstow Wetlands on a cloudy November day to meet Ollie Olanipekun and Nadeem Perera for an afternoon of winter birdwatching, I am already apologetic for all that I do not know.īut it’s fine: Olanipekun and Perera are used to showing beginners around. It would be fair to say my knowledge of birds doesn’t go much further than the varieties mentioned in Old Macdonald Had a Farm. My childhood did not involve any education in the outdoors.
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