The Wonder of Birds

Oxford Day Out.

Wonder of Birds exhibition.

We had a family day trip to Oxford and happened across the Wonder of Birds exhibition at the Bodleian Library. It was an exhibition to accompany the work of Rob Macfarlane and artist Jackie Morris. It was an inspiring exhibition to just come across and I feel lucky we decided to pop in.

The exhibition was in a single room, atmospherically lit, and glass display cases around the walls. It started with the question ‘why do we wonder at birds?’ Laid out across the idea of seven wonders of birds- the displays of Macfarlane’s poetry and Morris’s paintings were set along with work from the Library's collection, it aims to explore our relationship with birds. This was quiet, beautiful and poetic as you would expect from the work of Macfarlane. I would say I am a fan of his work, I’ve read a few of his books and enjoyed hearing him speak at the Hay Festival last year. I enjoy seeing the world through his eyes and words as he notices the things that can pass us by unseen.

The seven wonders outlined in the exhibition are: Nest, flight, feather, migration, beak, song and egg. Each one in turn conjures up it’s own imaginative images. Of course I’ve already mused on feathers in this writing project. So that case was already interesting to me. I’m not sure I’ve given the idea of bird migration much thought in the past and yet this was the wonder that caught my eye. The fact that some birds come and go allows us to understand and trust the changes of the year. It also speaks of untold lands and not knowing. Where do they go - they must go somewhere, beyond. This opens our horizons.

The migration case made me realise the joy of the return is about remembering. The more I work in my garden and connect personally with nature I realise that my relationship is a lot about waiting and seeing; planning and remembering. When I plant flowers, I am reminded of the previous years displays and I am able to greet it with joy of its return free from the burden of expectation. Which is why there is such a sorrow when things don’t return, like the birds. It’s not necessarily a noticeable break and sadness, more a mournful sorrow that something is missing, it might take a few cycles to fully notice that something is missing. A summer has past without that joy of noticing. It is left unnoticed. What if the summers come and go without noticing and remembering that feeling of seeing. What happens to that gap in our experience? A little tare detaches us from the old ways and the feeling of the season. Knowing this, I am going to try to pass on each marker of each season, the birds, the flowers, the flavours, the smells and hope they keep returning to me year in, year out.