The Mockery Bird

Another day much like the few preceding. Clouds of blowing, smoke-like rain, damp clothes and flooded roads. I forced myself to go to the gym this morning, but it's not a good day to take the camera outside.

I decided to Blip the book I've just finished reading - probably for the third time at least. 'The Mockery Bird', by naturalist Gerald Durrell, is a hugely entertaining novel about the rediscovery of a previously supposed extinct bird on an Indian Ocean island. In spite of the fun, it's a book with a very serious message. Durrell is best known for writing about animal conservation and for starting the Jersey Wildlife Preservation Trust which later became the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, based at Jersey Zoo in the Channel Islands. He changed the direction of zoos from entertainment to captive breeding, and the Trust has been responsible for enormous changes in the conservation world. He died in 1995 and I attended his memorial service in London in the presence of patron Princess Anne and others, including David Attenborough. I've been a member of the Trust for a long time, getting on for 50 years, I think, and have visited the zoo a couple of times, the last visit being last year. Far too much to discuss here - do Google DWCT and maybe even think about joining!

Keep forgetting my quote of the day! Here it is:

Frederick Forsyth, 'The Odessa File.' - "What might have been is the greatest of all the mysteries."