I have just completed my 32nd year as a naturalist and in this time have studied recorded and written about my observations in the vain hope that I can encourage young and old wildlife enthusiasts to become a field naturalist. One question I get asked is why did you become a Naturalist? Well it was due to being bullied by a certain individual who forced me to hide in the countryside during the school holidays and weekends where I soon became interested in the world around me. The village children never went into the countryside so it was all my own. Sunday afternoons I would walk the beach at Kessingland to clear my mind and relax and mentally prepare me for another week at school being pushed around.

Kessingland Beach

Here I would find dead birds sometimes with rings on the legs. I wrote letters to the Natural History Museum in London who told me that these birds, often thrushes had been ringed in Scandinavia. It soon had me visiting the Kessingland library looking for books on bird migration.

As a Christian too I believe God gave me the gift of becoming a naturalist and an enquiring mind and publishing my work for others to learn from and follow in my footsteps.

Sadly youngsters are not taught even basic botany so my thoughts are often about the future of our science.

Even some Natural history societies are folded folding or on the brink of financial breakdown.

However much we yearn for others my life as a naturalist has been documented in my diaries writings and records and my legacy will live on well after my own demise.

Colin Jacobs
[email protected]
becclesnaturalist.blogspot.com

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