My Birding Life

Ask any birder or naturalist that lives in Norfolk if they know the name Moss Taylor and invariably, they will say "yes", and I suspect the majority will have met him too, and of these many know him as a friend. He is a man, on first meeting, you are unlikely to forget!

Moss has been a keen birder since 1953 and a Norfolk resident from 1969 to the present day. He has also been a qualified ringer for over 50 years, only recently surrendering his permit after some of the most pioneering ringing endeavours seen in Norfolk in the 1970s and 80s.

He is perhaps best known though through his prolific publishing efforts – some 10 book titles to date not to mention 850 other articles for magazines and newspaper columns. It would be a mistake to think that his latest offering My Birding Life is no more than a birder reminiscing about the past and the good old days! Having said that it is very obvious from his accounts of birding in Norfolk in the 1970s that they were indeed glorious, good old days. The history of Norfolk birding on the North Norfolk coast is rich and extraordinary as illustrated in Moss’s accounts and I defy even the hardest nosed young birder not to be amazed by the birds recorded in that decade but also by the events and personalities involved in establishing what we now take for granted as the mainstream channels for our birding news.

What is important in these historic accounts (chapters 4,5 and 6) is that they are now documented for posterity’s sake, rather than lost and forgotten, thanks to Moss’s detective work and his obsessive interest in finding and obtaining historic documents, photographs and artefacts – everything from notebooks from Nancy’s Café (Cley) and Richard Richardson illustrations and paintings to old and rare Norfolk natural history books.

Moss is also a much-travelled birder to many parts of the world. His early excursions were to remote parts of North Africa as part of ringing expeditions to study migration, where members, on one expedition, came perilously close to losing their lives due to flash flooding, His later travels were tame and more measured by comparison, either on organised birding tours or as a lecturer on cruise ships. Even if organised tour trips and cruise ships aren’t your thing you will still find these accounts fascinating and full of incidents and humour!

Although I have known Moss for nearly 50 years, what I had not appreciated about him is his phenomenal ability to recall detail of a story or event, as witnessed throughout the book. It must surely be a result of extensive note taking (though I have never seen him write a dot of a note when I have been birding with him!), which, if true, must take up more time than his birding! It’s almost as if he decided in his early birding career that "one day I will write a book on My Birding Life!"

In the unlikely event that you have never heard of Moss Taylor I guarantee that you will find this a fascinating read.

Book reviewed by Jeff Baker