I wake up every morning and feed around a hundred wild birds on my property. I can keep the species near other co existing species. Hummingbirds get a special section, small birds get a special section with seed, and the larger birds (and squirrels) get black oil sunflower seeds and walnut. Thank you for filming this, I enjoyed it.
Birder from Montana, US here, appreciate yall spreading the awareness of the importance of protecting our local species, everything from our plants to birds. Its hard not to feel hopeless sometimes but its very encouraging hearing people experiencing the same things even if you are half a world away
it makes me so happy to see people around my age enjoying the same things I do! Birdwatching or going out and exploring nature have been the biggest gifts for my health and wellbeeing and i think this love for nature benefits our beautiful world as well - so i'm glad to see this message beeing spread
Thank you for making such a lovely and critical documentary. I've been able, with a $3,000 grant from Audubon, to create an "urban oasis" in my local and neglected park, where invasive species were ruining the open spaces and killing trees. I'm hoping to add a water feature, even if only a vernal pool, and I'm dedicated to doing all I can to help create nourishing and safe spaces fro all the local and migrating wildlife. This is in New Haven, CT, very near an expanding airport, unfortunately. Let's all do our part to help wildlife survive and thrive!
Fantastic film, beautifully filmed and edited! It was a joy to hear the birdwatchers, their love of nature and especially the importance of conservation due to the very serious decline of birds and wildlife. The images were all stunning, some so special like the grebe feeding its young one and the gosling under her parent's wing. Very Glad to hear the film's popularity as its urgent concern will be out there and hopefully welcome a change in communities and beyond. Thank you for posting this wonderful film. Greetings from New York City.
I’ve always loved birds but when I found out I could contribute to science/conservation with birdwatching, I became addicted. I realized people of all genders, ages, ethnicities, etc are also birdwatching (not just retirees). It’s a vibrant community! When I birdwatch solo I usually run into other birders who direct me to anything special.
What a beautiful short documentary, well deserving of the awards and plaudits. I love how it is centred on one site, and a few people familiar with it. Also, that it was an urban site, and didn't just present stereotypical birders. I'm not a little jealous of the extended Cetti's Warbler song at the beginning. I do sound recordings now, and they are my bogie bird. They spend all their time skulking in cover, and their song just tends to be a short burst. Where I never have my sound recording equipment with me when they sing for longer. Natural History, as been my thing since I was a child in the 1960s, and I am well known for my commentary and analysis on the climate and ecological crisis, especially biodiversity decline. I simply mention this, so you know the appreciation is from a deep place.
Incredibly well made documentary - loved every bit of it and to hear the stories of people who are just as much in awe of nature as I am myself. It was especially inspiring to see people my age enjoying the things I love most.
Bravo Sir! Please let the ladies know we are cheering them on from the sidelines! To combat the despondency they may wish to reach out to a sportswoman to know how they handle such emotions and keep going, I’ve seen Matthew Pinsent and Ben Kay give presentations in this regard for business so perhaps it’s something that Natasha Hunt or Natasha Jonas could do for these women Great to see the care, passion and commitment coming through and that people from a wide range of ages, backgrounds and locations can find common cause in protecting that which we all love - a lesson to us all
After being in a massive metropolis in the Sonoran Desert for 8 years, I finally discovered a birding oasis nearby: Riparian Preserve at Water Ranch. It looks tiny on Google Maps but is amazing, having had over 200 bird species. I got out there with my new (used) DSLR and took 400+ photos, saw water birds, a Bald Eagle, Green Heron......In 1986 the new town of Gilbert decided to use 100% or it's reclaimed effluent to educate and create this Preserve :)
I love all the people on here and in the video that are passionate about saving the environment. One of the easiest and most consequential ways to do that is to substantially reduce the use of meat and dairy. They are a huge reason that so much woodland and wetlands are plowed under. There are 21 meals a week. Just removing meat and dairy from 5 meals would help immensely. So if you truly care, make the connection. 🤷🏻♀️
It is so important to make people realise that nature is all around us. I made a film about the nature in a small citypark in The Netherlands called Natuur in de buurt (nature in the neighbourhood). It’s available for watching on my channel (subtitled in Dutch so available for RUclips translation in English). Enjoy!
This is a great video. The interviews and information was really well done. Going to share this with former colleagues I worked with in protected areas management here in Canada.
Fantastic film, beautifully shot, loved it. (and apologies for being that annoying person who's phone alarm went off next to you during Lira's interview!)
Ugh. Birdwatching is what started the crippling misophonia I have now. I took Ornithology as a Biology undergrad and enjoyed it very much, despite the professor having extremely high standards, informing us from the start that it would be very hard to get an 'A.' A major portion of the grade would be for identifying bird calls and songs, which he would test in-class using recordings, as well as in the field (you could get bonus points that way). Well I took it to heart, and wound up doing so well that at the end of the year the professor announced that I was the class "call girl," LOL. And yes I got an 'A' for my coursework overall. Birds are endlessly fascinating. -But I seemed to have broken my brain a little. From then on, I could no longer "drown out" sounds, and I already had ADHD so this was bad, bad news. I now must live alone and limit my time around others, and still I can have sounds utterly derail me. The worst is when there's multiple ones happening simultaneously. Just recently I abandoned my shopping cart in the grocery store, due to the combination of a phone going unanswered at the back of the store, a mobility scooter's low-battery beeping at the front of the store, and another shopper carrying on a speaker phone conversation in the aisle beside mine. It reaches a point where my flight-or-fight kicks in, and the only acceptable reaction is 'flight,' so that's what I do. Incidentally I do still enjoy listening to and identifying bird calls, but only if I have nothing else to do.
Audrey it all seems very familiar to me, the world can overwhelm me and retreating to a quieter place is my only option. I have a genetic trait called HSP which is shared by 20 - 30% of the population to various degrees. I suggest you look into it there might be some help for you there. And yes for me also birding and being out in nature is one of the things that help me to manage.
Wow Audrey that sounds really awful. But it breaks my heart that it seems like you blame the birds for what could be a very complex onset of a combination of physiological & perhaps genetic challenges. Glad you got an A in the class. But perhaps the professor’ dare broke your brain ~ not the birds.
@@Alexandra-qr1nx LOL it's not like I have a personal grudge against the birds for it. But yes it absolutely came from listening so intently to the variety of sounds in my environment, in order to make out different bird sounds, especially ones in the distance. I was doing it every day for months and then I couldn't hearing EVERYTHING acutely.
I hate work and sleep and cooking and eating interrupting my birdwatching tours 🙂 There is nothing more important to me and by far nothing more exciting!
Share the world -leave space for nature .. uk has only so much space for humans -they must leave room for nature -when we build we must incorporate nature into our designs - inclusive not exclusive . This is the future. No more ugly urban sprawl
thank you for the lovely gift which made me laugh for the goodness of the developed urban wetland = please make more of these = and for the funny comments by one of the women. We need a world-wide green movement, pushing the Green idea at the government more strongly, with the best intelligence and most realistic guidance to save our planet's atmosphere and the life of thousands of species now entering the final stage of extinction. Swifts and Swallows and warblers -- we can only protect these precious gifts from God if we protect them all the way to Africa, in Africa and all the way back again -- we need a world-wide movement with people sharing the same consciousness on this issue -- I appeal to Mother Church for help and to all the governments of the world. Join this work, all the cleverest boys and girls = we need you! We need the brains and we need the courage!❤
Sadly "Greens" political parties have other priorities than conserving wildlife and their habitats. The practical issue is that protecting nature costs money, while exploiting it can make you rich...
It's sad that most people only care about their own lives, their property, vehicles, video devices, money and prestige. Wildlife is at the bottom of human interests. Shouldn't be, but is. Personally, I'd rather have birds for neighbors, even the noisy crows who steal my chicken's feed.
Stop with the discrimination stuff there is no restriction to nature but in your own head. I grew up in the Black Country and did bird watching on the bus!
Sadly access to nature is very unequal in the UK: www.health.org.uk/evidence-hub/our-surroundings/green-space/inequalities-in-access-to-green-space#:~:text=People%20from%20minority%20ethnic%20groups,most%20access%20to%20green%20space
Hmmm, I didn’t hear anything in this video about descrimination. That word indicates an active effort to exclude a group of people from something. What was described, is that there isn’t a representation of disadvantaged folks and people of color. For various reasons that’s true, unfortunately. But fortunately there are now many organized efforts to engage those populations in birding, restoration efforts and other citizen conservation activities.
Unfortunately access to nature is highly disproportionate in the UK: www.health.org.uk/evidence-hub/our-surroundings/green-space/inequalities-in-access-to-green-space#:~:text=People%20from%20minority%20ethnic%20groups,most%20access%20to%20green%20space.
@@SamStone1964 sure thing! This Natural England briefing note is quite useful. It lists reasons why poor English people do not have the same access to nature as wealthier people on page 6: publications.naturalengland.org.uk/file/6460475016740864
Strongly disagree. This is literally a short film about birdwatchers - look at the title! There's plenty of footage out there of birds and wildlife. This one is about people.
A point of advice: when making a romanticised video about birds and nature try to avoid images of introduced and invasive species as these can be really harmful to other native birds
I wake up every morning and feed around a hundred wild birds on my property. I can keep the species near other co existing species. Hummingbirds get a special section, small birds get a special section with seed, and the larger birds (and squirrels) get black oil sunflower seeds and walnut. Thank you for filming this, I enjoyed it.
Thanks for doing what you do to help wildlife. I’m jealous you have hummingbirds, we don’t have them in the UK!
Fantastic
Me too! Its It's good to learn that if you provide food, water appropriately for birds, that indeed you will enjoy a hundred birds....each day.
that actually is more harming to birds than it is beneficial…
Birder from Montana, US here, appreciate yall spreading the awareness of the importance of protecting our local species, everything from our plants to birds.
Its hard not to feel hopeless sometimes but its very encouraging hearing people experiencing the same things even if you are half a world away
it makes me so happy to see people around my age enjoying the same things I do! Birdwatching or going out and exploring nature have been the biggest gifts for my health and wellbeeing and i think this love for nature benefits our beautiful world as well - so i'm glad to see this message beeing spread
@@joanaburri5285 amazing! I’m so glad it resonated with you :) thanks for watching and I hope you keep enjoying nature!
Thank you for making such a lovely and critical documentary. I've been able, with a $3,000 grant from Audubon, to create an "urban oasis" in my local and neglected park, where invasive species were ruining the open spaces and killing trees. I'm hoping to add a water feature, even if only a vernal pool, and I'm dedicated to doing all I can to help create nourishing and safe spaces fro all the local and migrating wildlife. This is in New Haven, CT, very near an expanding airport, unfortunately. Let's all do our part to help wildlife survive and thrive!
Fantastic film, beautifully filmed and edited! It was a joy to hear the birdwatchers, their love of nature and especially the importance of conservation due to the very serious decline of birds and wildlife. The images were all stunning, some so special like the grebe feeding its young one and the gosling under her parent's wing. Very Glad to hear the film's popularity as its urgent concern will be out there and hopefully welcome a change in communities and beyond. Thank you for posting this wonderful film. Greetings from New York City.
Thanks so much, it’s so exciting my little film from London is reaching audiences all over the world!!
Bird song is nature's own music. Lovely!
they would thrive without us, but we're lost without them !
This 100%!
Every birdwatcher has their own stories. Nice documentary that brings out birdwatchers things about the birds and wildlife
Every day I feed wild birds on my property ( my "oasis" )
Love them!
I’ve always loved birds but when I found out I could contribute to science/conservation with birdwatching, I became addicted. I realized people of all genders, ages, ethnicities, etc are also birdwatching (not just retirees). It’s a vibrant community! When I birdwatch solo I usually run into other birders who direct me to anything special.
Absolutely brilliant video - so well put together. Well done to you all.
Thanks so much for watching it - I’m glad my time was well spent!
A fantastic documentary, I'm glad to see younger folk also taking an interest and learning how good nature is for the mind
What a beautiful short documentary, well deserving of the awards and plaudits. I love how it is centred on one site, and a few people familiar with it. Also, that it was an urban site, and didn't just present stereotypical birders. I'm not a little jealous of the extended Cetti's Warbler song at the beginning. I do sound recordings now, and they are my bogie bird. They spend all their time skulking in cover, and their song just tends to be a short burst. Where I never have my sound recording equipment with me when they sing for longer. Natural History, as been my thing since I was a child in the 1960s, and I am well known for my commentary and analysis on the climate and ecological crisis, especially biodiversity decline. I simply mention this, so you know the appreciation is from a deep place.
Thanks so much for taking the time to watch it, it really means a lot!
Thanks so much . I enjoyed watching. A birdwatcher from Iran
Thanks so much for watching! I would love to experience the nature of Iran!
@thomaswinward 🕊🌍💚 sure . There is an endemic bird in Iran. Ground jay and ....
Really great little documentary - thanks!
Great little documentary, really enjoyed it. Good work!
Incredibly well made documentary - loved every bit of it and to hear the stories of people who are just as much in awe of nature as I am myself. It was especially inspiring to see people my age enjoying the things I love most.
Wow what kind words! I’m glad my work resonated with you.
What a brilliant programme, loved it all. Well done to all involved and Clare is fab!
Bravo Sir!
Please let the ladies know we are cheering them on from the sidelines! To combat the despondency they may wish to reach out to a sportswoman to know how they handle such emotions and keep going, I’ve seen Matthew Pinsent and Ben Kay give presentations in this regard for business so perhaps it’s something that Natasha Hunt or Natasha Jonas could do for these women
Great to see the care, passion and commitment coming through and that people from a wide range of ages, backgrounds and locations can find common cause in protecting that which we all love - a lesson to us all
After being in a massive metropolis in the Sonoran Desert for 8 years, I finally discovered a birding oasis nearby: Riparian Preserve at Water Ranch. It looks tiny on Google Maps but is amazing, having had over 200 bird species. I got out there with my new (used) DSLR and took 400+ photos, saw water birds, a Bald Eagle, Green Heron......In 1986 the new town of Gilbert decided to use 100% or it's reclaimed effluent to educate and create this Preserve :)
Beautiful Thomas, thank you so much for this delightful work.
Thanks for watching!
I love all the people on here and in the video that are passionate about saving the environment. One of the easiest and most consequential ways to do that is to substantially reduce the use of meat and dairy. They are a huge reason that so much woodland and wetlands are plowed under. There are 21 meals a week. Just removing meat and dairy from 5 meals would help immensely. So if you truly care, make the connection. 🤷🏻♀️
fantastic thank you
It is so important to make people realise that nature is all around us. I made a film about the nature in a small citypark in The Netherlands called Natuur in de buurt (nature in the neighbourhood). It’s available for watching on my channel (subtitled in Dutch so available for RUclips translation in English). Enjoy!
Beautiful footage!
Beautiful, poignant. A deeply important reminder of our own need to be connected to, and protective of, nature.
As a part time Twitcher from New Zealand...this is lovely.
Ohh I bet the birds in New Zealand are amazing, I’d love to visit!
@@thomaswinward yes they are, although we have the same sort of pressures as the UK but maybe a few less people....
This is a great video. The interviews and information was really well done. Going to share this with former colleagues I worked with in protected areas management here in Canada.
If they want a video of their own tell them they can contact me!
Beautiful. Such a hearty storytelling. Thank you, deeply.
So glad you liked it :)
Beautiful and hopeful. Sharing this!
Truly awesome! Well done.
Heart warming. we cant and we must not give up.
Thank you Thomas.
You’re very welcome! Thank you for watching.
Great documentary, great lesson. Thank you very much
I’m so glad you enjoyed it. Watching it means a lot to
Fantastic film, beautifully shot, loved it. (and apologies for being that annoying person who's phone alarm went off next to you during Lira's interview!)
Haha I didn’t know that was you!! No problem at all, adds to the busyness 😅
This is wonderful. Thank you from Cape Town.
I'm so glad you liked it!
Thanks for the great film
thanks for watching!
Excellent. Thanks
Brilliant ❤
Fabulous.
Great video!!!!
Ugh. Birdwatching is what started the crippling misophonia I have now. I took Ornithology as a Biology undergrad and enjoyed it very much, despite the professor having extremely high standards, informing us from the start that it would be very hard to get an 'A.' A major portion of the grade would be for identifying bird calls and songs, which he would test in-class using recordings, as well as in the field (you could get bonus points that way). Well I took it to heart, and wound up doing so well that at the end of the year the professor announced that I was the class "call girl," LOL. And yes I got an 'A' for my coursework overall. Birds are endlessly fascinating.
-But I seemed to have broken my brain a little. From then on, I could no longer "drown out" sounds, and I already had ADHD so this was bad, bad news. I now must live alone and limit my time around others, and still I can have sounds utterly derail me. The worst is when there's multiple ones happening simultaneously. Just recently I abandoned my shopping cart in the grocery store, due to the combination of a phone going unanswered at the back of the store, a mobility scooter's low-battery beeping at the front of the store, and another shopper carrying on a speaker phone conversation in the aisle beside mine. It reaches a point where my flight-or-fight kicks in, and the only acceptable reaction is 'flight,' so that's what I do.
Incidentally I do still enjoy listening to and identifying bird calls, but only if I have nothing else to do.
Audrey it all seems very familiar to me, the world can overwhelm me and retreating to a quieter place is my only option. I have a genetic trait called HSP which is shared by 20 - 30% of the population to various degrees. I suggest you look into it there might be some help for you there. And yes for me also birding and being out in nature is one of the things that help me to manage.
Wow Audrey that sounds really awful. But it breaks my heart that it seems like you blame the birds for what could be a very complex onset of a combination of physiological & perhaps genetic challenges. Glad you got an A in the class. But perhaps the professor’ dare broke your brain ~ not the birds.
@@Alexandra-qr1nx LOL it's not like I have a personal grudge against the birds for it. But yes it absolutely came from listening so intently to the variety of sounds in my environment, in order to make out different bird sounds, especially ones in the distance. I was doing it every day for months and then I couldn't hearing EVERYTHING acutely.
Wouldn't ear plugs muffle the irritating sounds enough for you to be able to function in public? They enable me to sleep near a snorer. 🤷🏼♀️
Great video mate, loved it
@@georgeecology thanks so much for taking the time to watch it!
Cetti's warbler
Yes!!
Thanks, I couldn't remember which species it was! 10 years have gone since I have seen and heard them...
I hate work and sleep and cooking and eating interrupting my birdwatching tours 🙂 There is nothing more important to me and by far nothing more exciting!
@@TheJacksnipe I love your passion!!
don would be proud
Share the world -leave space for nature .. uk has only so much space for humans -they must leave room for nature -when we build we must incorporate nature into our designs - inclusive not exclusive . This is the future. No more ugly urban sprawl
thank you for the lovely gift which made me laugh for the goodness of the developed urban wetland = please make more of these = and for the funny comments by one of the women. We need a world-wide green movement, pushing the Green idea at the government more strongly, with the best intelligence and most realistic guidance to save our planet's atmosphere and the life of thousands of species now entering the final stage of extinction. Swifts and Swallows and warblers -- we can only protect these precious gifts from God if we protect them all the way to Africa, in Africa and all the way back again -- we need a world-wide movement with people sharing the same consciousness on this issue -- I appeal to Mother Church for help and to all the governments of the world. Join this work, all the cleverest boys and girls = we need you! We need the brains and we need the courage!❤
Sadly "Greens" political parties have other priorities than conserving wildlife and their habitats.
The practical issue is that protecting nature costs money, while exploiting it can make you rich...
It's sad that most people only care about their own lives, their property, vehicles, video devices, money and prestige. Wildlife is at the bottom of human interests. Shouldn't be, but is. Personally, I'd rather have birds for neighbors, even the noisy crows who steal my chicken's feed.
Stop with the discrimination stuff there is no restriction to nature but in your own head. I grew up in the Black Country and did bird watching on the bus!
Sadly access to nature is very unequal in the UK: www.health.org.uk/evidence-hub/our-surroundings/green-space/inequalities-in-access-to-green-space#:~:text=People%20from%20minority%20ethnic%20groups,most%20access%20to%20green%20space
Don't think there's racism in bird watching maybe it's just different nationalities are not interested
Hmmm, I didn’t hear anything in this video about descrimination. That word indicates an active effort to exclude a group of people from something. What was described, is that there isn’t a representation of disadvantaged folks and people of color. For various reasons that’s true, unfortunately. But fortunately there are now many organized efforts to engage those populations in birding, restoration efforts and other citizen conservation activities.
@lous3772 they mentioned it I must b deaf o well
Bird watching costs nothing. It has nothing to do with your race, ethnicity or bank account ffs.
Unfortunately access to nature is highly disproportionate in the UK: www.health.org.uk/evidence-hub/our-surroundings/green-space/inequalities-in-access-to-green-space#:~:text=People%20from%20minority%20ethnic%20groups,most%20access%20to%20green%20space.
@thomaswinward
Please provide statistics for poor English people.
@@SamStone1964 sure thing! This Natural England briefing note is quite useful. It lists reasons why poor English people do not have the same access to nature as wealthier people on page 6: publications.naturalengland.org.uk/file/6460475016740864
@@thomaswinward
Thank you. I'll take a look. But the fact remains that anyone can walk to a park or pond (unless they can't walk).
@@SamStone1964 for sure! It’s the best free activity there is!
The wildlife is wonderful. Unfortunately listening to humans was given priority over the actual birds. More birds' voices, fewer humans' voices.
Strongly disagree. This is literally a short film about birdwatchers - look at the title! There's plenty of footage out there of birds and wildlife. This one is about people.
This was lovely until the race theory smashwd into it.
Thanks for the feedback!
Yes. How DARE these people talk about their experience. Scandalous!
How many of these people eat chicken? 8/10.🤷🤦🏽🤔
Why? The race card in a birding video? Very sad indeed.
A point of advice: when making a romanticised video about birds and nature try to avoid images of introduced and invasive species as these can be really harmful to other native birds
Thanks for watching! It’s not romanticised, it’s an accurate depiction of the state of the UK’s environment.
I was enjoying this until race was brought into it, then turned it off
Glad you enjoyed the bit you saw!