W.H. Hudson, the naturalist, once went to St. James’s Park in London because he wanted to see birds. He saw a girl of about 10 who was showing two younger children the geese. The girl’s joy was obvious. Watching birds enlivened her in some way. It made her feel more alive, more connected to life. Her enthusiasm struck Hudson.
The picture was in my mind all that day, and lived through the next, and so wrought on me that I could not longer keep away from the birds, which I, too, loved; for now all at once it seemed to me that life was not life without them; that I was grown sick and all my senses dim; that only the wished sight of wild birds could medicine my vision; that only by drenching it in their wild melody could my tired brain recover its lost vigour.
Hudson acted on that thought. He found a village that was a 20-minute walk from a station an hour from London and spent some time there.
I think watching birds is good for your mental health. I think this would be a better country if we could teach our fellow citizens to watch birds.
• Source: William Henry Hudson, Birds in a Village; Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Company, and London: Chapman & Hall, 1893.
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