Hi everyone, welcome to Dance Noise History. We've done the history of everything on this

podcast, but we have done the history of everything, the history of this planet, of the human

journey on this planet. We've done the history of unmicro-history too. We've done the history

of tobacco and coffee. We've done the history of the First World War, the 30 Years War, the

Great Pandemics, the Black Death. We told the story of the great vaccinologists who've probably

saved more lives than anyone else on planet Earth. But one thing we've never done is the history

of birdwatching. And luckily folks, today we are writing that historic wrong. This is your place

for the history of all-ethology. Twitchers, any twitchers out there, get ready. Because we're

talking about not the whole history of birdwatching, but just one rather beautiful moment, one wartime

moment of birdwatching that's an important post-war conservation work. This is about four prisoners

of war, four British prisoners of war. Edward John Morby-Bakston, Peter John Conner, John Henry

Barrett and George Warterson. They overcame terrible conditions, health challenges,

lack of food, humiliations, in prison of war camps, through the medium of birdwatching.

They decided they would overcome all of the above, plus a good dose of boredom by looking beyond

the wire at these birds that roamed free across the landscape. They made detailed studies of these

birds. They got published in onethological journals, and three of them in particular went on to

become key figures in Britain's 20th century budding conservation movement. It is rather a beautiful

story this. And coming back on the podcast, tell me all about it, it's Derek Neiman. He worked at the

RSPB, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. He worked there for many years. He taught creative

writing at Cambridge, and he writes and edits natural history in particular. He talks a lot about

the positive therapy offered by birds and the observation of birds in the midst of terrible

physical and emotional trauma. My grandparents were both birdwatchers, and they were much happier

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