drilling
As with London’s most common green spaces, residents have long resisted the developer’s threat of encroachment. But in this case, they are failing because part of the land has been sold to HS2 in 2021 and development has already begun.
The £42.5bn rail project will traverse 250 miles of the British countryside and has been flagged by conservationists as causing irreparable damage to other areas, including five internationally protected wildlife reserves, 693 native wildlife Conservation areas, 108 old-growth woodlands and 33 legally protected conservation areas Sites of special scientific interest according to a survey by The Wildlife Trusts.
From the far end of the field we could hear the HS2 excavator drilling. Some of the wildest parts of Scrubs are being excavated to create a passage. In protest, local residents formed “Friends of Scrubs” and fought the attack with the help of the London Wildlife Foundation, Lindo and other public figures.
“It’s a harrowing topic,” Lindo admits. “I’m so close to this place. It’s a part of who I am. I came here after a breakup. I came here straight after my dad died. It’s invigorating because you feel like you’re part of something—you Feel like there’s something out there that accepts you and loves you unconditionally.” Bird watching is clearly not just Lindor’s hobby. It’s a way of protecting the landscape he loves.
respect
“I’ve spent 25 years researching this place and putting my findings on a map for the public to record. Other birders come here and don’t make their records public – and then developers will exploit the gaps in the data. Past Without this development, I’ve seen over 150 different species of birds here.
In summer we can house up to 250 goldfinches. These biblical numbers have now changed. This is very rare. You can see the changes for yourself. This is due in part to habitat loss, hunting along migratory routes, climate breakdown—all of these problems at the same time. I owe this place respect. I just want to talk about it as much as possible. “
We witnessed a flock of scavengers mobbing a magpie in the distance. We also happened upon the rare sight of a short-eared owl being attacked by a crow mid-flight. Lindor believes that the nearby men’s prison once fed the crows, which contributed to the increase in the number of crows. “They’re just bullies,” he said of the fighting birds. “But all the birds here are always threatened,” he added.
uninhabitable
“There used to be fewer people, fewer dogs, fewer people flying model airplanes. Some of the broader threats to the birds are agricultural pesticides, modern buildings with no nesting space, and clearing of hedges.”
Over the past 50 years, tree sparrows have declined by 95%, starlings by 71% and thrushes by 56%, according to the RSPB. To make matters worse, 3.8 million birds died in the UK’s largest outbreak of bird flu last year. We heard parakeet calls and parakeets. We also found a jackdaw and a scavenger crow flying in the same flock. “They don’t usually hang out like that,” Lindor commented.
“It’s odd that Jackdaws should be recognized members of Team Crows,” I said. Lin Duo was not surprised. “The thing about bird watching in an urban area is that if you open up and open up, you can see anything. For anything in life, you have to be mentally fresh.”
We saw a blue tit hopping on a bare branch. A herring gull flew overhead. We can hear the high-pitched call of the long-tailed tit. But in reality, we can only capture fragments of the lives of these birds. While many bird species do not migrate at all, some of them spend their entire lives traversing some of the most inhospitable landscapes.
evolution
For example, swallows have an average lifespan of 4 years, but they can naturally live up to 22 years if they survive all threats to their survival. Each year they embark on a 200-mile-a-day trip from the fields of England, through western France and Spain, into Morocco, then across the Sahara desert and the Congo rainforest – and on to southern Africa and Namibia.
“I’ve traveled to different points along the migratory routes of these birds, whether it’s in Africa or Asia, and I can still find those birds,” Lindor told me. “So when people say birds adapt to cities, it’s hard to say because birds come from all over the world. It doesn’t matter where the bushes are as long as they can eat and nest.
“We don’t really know where the birds are going, what they’re seeing. In some ways, birds are adapting to cities by creating smaller territories, or changing their calls due to noise pollution – but climate breakdown is a It’s a much harder thing to solve because evolution doesn’t go as fast.” As I learned more about bird behavior, I felt a little sad for the daily struggle they face to survive.
connect
“Every living thing has a story,” Lindor said. “But I have a problem with the way the media sells nature to us. It’s just entertainment, there’s no connection at all. You watch stuff in the Serengeti, but it doesn’t compare to what’s happening on Dalston High Street or wherever you are Nothing. That little planter on your windowsill has everything to do with the Congo, the Amazon, the Antarctic, the Siberian taiga.”
Lindo is currently establishing The Urban Birder NDM Foundation (named after his birder friend Nigel David Mill), whose charitable mission is to connect children in inner Britain to nature.
“It’s not about busing kids into the countryside, it’s about getting them actively involved in urban wildlife sanctuaries,” he said. He hopes the project will eventually scale globally.
limit
My bird watching time with Lindo is coming to an end. We saw close to 30 different bird species in such a short period of time and he added the field data to eBird.
Bird watching requires us to be attuned, present and alert to our surroundings. Lindo says many of these skills apply to his everyday life as well. “In my world, a lot of people are skeptical and scared and don’t want to do anything new.
“But I’m interested in pushing boundaries and having a voice, and I’m not afraid to bring up what I need. I don’t know what path I’m on, but I have to, and I’m not going to let anyone talk me out of it. Right now I have lived such a life that even if I die tonight, I will not regret it.”
the author
Yasmin Dahnoun is Assistant Editor ecologist. You can find out more about David Lindo’s work and become part of The Urban Bird World’s global community at www.theurbanbirderworld.com. This article first appeared on latest issue Revival and Ecologists Magazine.
