For day nine of 30 Days Wild, I look back to childhood advice…

Do you remember learning to cross the road? There have been various public information campaigns down the years to help stop kids from being run over. Which one you remember probably depends on how old you are. I think all of them contain the simple advice to, “Stop, look and listen,” though. It’s a useful suggestion even if you don’t have a road to cross and is also especially pertinent for those keen on wildlife.

I’ve been looking through my old bird log notebooks lately. They are nothing fancy, just little pads where I write down what birds I’ve seen at a certain place on a given occasion. They are also a great memory jogger and reminded me of how I was lucky enough to see a cuckoo in the same spot two years running. It was at the RSPB’s Pulborough Brooks nature reserve in Sussex. Annoyingly I didn’t write down EXACTLY where I saw it, but I recall it was on a post at a bend in the path.

Today is my anniversary of first seeing said cuckoo, hence this piece. The connection between that and learning to cross the road is a simple one. You hear a cuckoo, it makes you stop for a better listen and if you stop long enough and look all around you might see the cuckoo.

Don’t wait for a cuckoo to try. It works for other birds too. If you want to see more wildlife; to get to know some creatures by sight and sound so you really feel connected with nature – then ‘stop, look, listen’ is a worthwhile mantra.

Pic credit: Cuckoo by Nick Ford/nickpix2012 is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0