Bower Birds

We watched one of the many David Attenborough DVDs that mum sent through for the boys tonight – part of his ‘Attenborough in Paradise And Other Personal Journeys’ series. This one was on Bower Birds.

I just checked on Wilkipedia to see exactly how old Sir DFA is (81) and found out he was born on 8th May – the same as my grandmother, which makes me even more fond of him. What an amazing lifetime’s work. There he was on the DVD, a little bit slower than he used to be, but still the same David, explaining gently to camera as he traipsed through some Australian subtropical forest, the fascinating details behind the behaviour of the male bowerbirds in that neck of the woods.

His enthusiasm and his passion for his subject make his ‘work’ appear effortless, though as anyone who’s ever sat in on a natural history edit knows, this is far from the case – it’s damn hard work, usually in extremely uncomfortable conditions, needing endless takes and extreme dedication and determination on the part of both the presenter and the crew. But I’m sure David has inspired numerous people interested in the natural world around them to at least consider the possibility of following in his footsteps – and inspiration is one of the keys to unleashing your imagination and daring to dream, which in turn will lead to other possibilities and ideas, and amazing achievements in the future by people other than DFA.

Motivating and inspiring someone so much that they naturally get into a groove that fits, and then run and run with it is, in my opinion, one of the most amazing gifts anyone can hope to give. In DFA’s case, it’s not just his films – the physical artefacts of his work – the boundaries they have broken, the new standards they’ve trailblaized, the contribution they’ve made to natural history or the generations of people that have watched and loved them. It’s his personal enjoyment, commitment and continued love of the whole thing – you imagine (or know) that even if he wasn’t getting paid, he’d want to do it anyway. We should all aim for that.

At the same time, the male bower birds themselves were quite inspiring – they build intricate structure-sculptures out of twigs and branches to display their prowess to passing females. To stand out from the crowd, they decorate their displays with what appears to be a very personal selection of little collections of the finest ‘gems’ to hand – a little pile of blue berries on the right, some soft green lichen neatly stacked inside, and some shiny cicada skins massed in the entrance… what an installation piece!

Dreamily, as DFA sat patiently waiting in the woods, first in Queensland, then in Dartmoor, then in New Guinea, I imagined contentedly spending the rest of my life with an unlimited supply of plane tickets and a Canon EOS, documenting every different type of bowerbird around the globe, then printing hige glossy prints and installing hundreds of them en masse in a white cube gallery in an overwhelming display of variety and repetition. I then lingered on thinking for a moment of the idea of building using the bowerbirds stick by stick technique with different materials and on a different scale – miniatures, huge ones and all the sizes in between – what would that be like? What collections of objects would you choose for decorating your bower?

And off my mind went, in a gentle explosion of images… what fun. And all the while, I learnt quite a lot about the habits and habitats and peculiarities of a particular and unique species of bird. Which you never know, might come in handy one day.

So thank-you David Attenborough, for sharing your paradise – it’s a wonderful place to be.