A Beginner’s Approach to Natural History
One of the exciting things about becoming an amateur naturalist — a student of natural history, and a keen observer of animal and plant life around oneself — is that the world suddenly seems to become much larger.
When you go for a walk, not knowing their names, all you see is birds. Sure, you recognise your standard pigeons and crows, but that’s about it. They might be different sizes and loiter in different places, they might have different feathers, but that’s all they are: birds.
But once you learn their names? Once you know the difference between them? Then, you don’t see birds anymore: you see the wood pigeon and the ring-collared dove, the coal tit and the great tit, the robin and the song thrush, the jackdaw, the rook, the magpie… The world seems that much larger, and that more densely populated.
And you can make the world larger still — you can stop seeing trees, and start seeing oaks, maples, birches; you can stop seeing butterflies, and start seeing cabbage whites, painted ladies, red admirals; you can stop seeing weeds, and start seeing spleenwort, herb robert, ragwort, red valerian, and countless others.
By no means do I know the names of everything I see out on a walk, or even out the front of the flat, sometimes, but just knowing a handful of names makes the world seem that much…
