Where were you when Kennedy was shot? Too young? Where were you when the Berlin Wall came down? Or when Margaret Thatcher resigned* All critical, epoch- making events, if you're old enough.

But harder to define are the equally important birding events. Where were you when you when Hen Harriers were reduced to one breeding pair in England? Where were you when the Scottish Government's wildlife policies were shown to be a sham. Or when the self- styled Greenest government ever proved itself to be masters of Newspeak

There's one that I can't answer, which defines the state of birds and wildlife in Britain. Where was I when I realised that the common, boring Housesparrow was clinging on by a thread?

Childhood memories are of massed flocks of them descending on my garden to eat the bread (I was young, it was before I became aware of bird food) and take a dust bath in the dry scrape I had made. During my hiatus from active birdwatching (women and drinking intervened) something happened to shake the fundamental foundations of what my birding was.

Now that i'm older, and wiser, I understand the wider context and inter- connectedness of different things. Knowing the reasons for things happening, doesn't make them any more palatable. We ask ourselves, what hope for the species who have always struggled, if we can't look after our commonest companions?

Now, I'm at a stage where even a single sparrow in the garden is something to note, a pair is a cause for celebration, and a trio will make my week.

With this in mind, this was a good week.



(* Answers: too young, worrying that there was going to be a nuclear war, and sitting in the car on the way to school- in that order)