Born to Be Wild

Four amateur naturalists get to grips with Britain's birds. Millions of Brits count themselves as bird lovers, but these enthusiasts take their passion to extreme lengths. One devotee wades through acres of reed beds, up to twice his height, in pursuit of a tiny, brown, long distance flier. Another scales the heights, clambering up mountains and scouring quarries to study the Peregrine falcon. Two men journey to an uninhabited rock, 40 miles off the North coast of Scotland, to research puffins. Another walks hundreds of miles around local farms, scouting them out for bird life.

Devoting hundreds of hours of their spare time to birds, these characters are truly inspirational. Our enthusiasts, and hundreds of other people like them, feed all the information they gather back to national organisations like the RSPB and the British Trust for Ornithology, helping to build a picture of Britain's birdlife.