Birdwatching helped to heal my broken heart, says Rosamond Richardson

The break-up in 2007 left her devastated and in the aftermath she struggled to cope.

“It left more than a hole in my life,” says Rosamond, 71, an author of more than 40 books about wildflowers and hedgerow cookery.

“It was a pretty horrendous experience.”

Yet while some turn to chocolate or sad songs to heal a broken heart, Rosamond discovered an unusual way to take her mind off what had happened.

In 2008 while on holiday in Mycenae, Greece, she chanced upon a keen birdwatcher who volunteered to take her on a walk.

“He pointed out a woodchat shrike, a small black, white and brown bird, sitting in a bush. The world changed for me in that moment,” she says.

“I felt radiant with happiness, as if I’d fallen in love again. Nature introduces us to a wider perspective than our own and I was completely in awe of it.

Rosamond says it is a moment she will treasure forever.

“It was incredibly beautiful and I’ve still got a photograph of it in my memory. “It was a very emotional response and from that moment on I wanted to find out as much about birds as I possibly could.”

Rosamond was instantly hooked and her new-found passion for ornithology eased the pain of her break-up.

“My interest in watching birds helped enormously because it was so absorbing. My mind was taken off the heartbreak and I could lose myself in the sightings of beautiful birds.”

When she came home from Greece, Rosamond started devoting as much time as possible to learning about birds. She visited sanctuaries and took long walks in the countryside near her home in Saffron Walden, Essex.

“When you look at birds close-up they are staggeringly beautiful. The plumage on even the most common of them takes your breath away because of its beauty,” she says.

She explains how she found the silence and solitude of birdwatching very powerful.

“When you’re sitting in a bird hide they’re places of silence. There’s no use having a chat because the birds will disappear so you have to keep very quiet.

“There’s this correlation between a bird hide and an empty church. It has that same quality of silence and a feeling of being connected into something larger than we are.”

The silence not only gave her time to think but helped ease her anxieties. “Very often I feel busy in my head, a traffic jam between the ears as I put it,” she says.

“But if you take yourself off into a quiet place for a week or two you emerge feeling very different. “It is so noisy in our culture because everybody’s using their phones and their screens and their tablets and playing music constantly.

“But I think occasional silence is very important to our emotional and mental health and that’s what I’ve found through birdwatching.”

Looking back, Rosamond is philosophical about her heartbreak. “Sometimes very painful experiences wring something out of you which might never have happened. I might never have met the birds in the same way if I hadn’t been through that.

“I think the beauty of nature can offer solace in adversity and times in your life where you really need a helping hand.”

Top tips to get started

1 Get a good pair of binoculars. If you don’t own a pair, try borrowing some at first because they can be very expensive. 

2 Wear comfortable waterproof shoes. Birdwatching often involves trudging through marshes and bogs. 

3 Find a good bird guide. It’s important to find one which shows you what the birds look like in winter as well as summer, as they can appear very different. 

4 Be patient. If you sit quietly for 20 to 25 minutes, the birds won’t realise you’re there and you’ll be amazed at what you see – even in your own garden.

To order a copy of Waiting For The Albino Dunnock by Rosamond Richardson (£16.99, W&N) call the Express Bookshop on 01872 562310 or visit expressbookshop.co.uk