I dragged my other half off for some bird watching last weekend.
That is, after some moans and groans about twitchers and how birds are not exciting like large mammals.
But that all stopped the moment we witnessed one of the most impressive wildlife spectacles I have ever experienced in this country.
Peering down the barrel of my binoculars, I pointed out a nest of white stork chicks which had just hatched in the UK for the first time in what is thought to be more than 600 years.
Like any predictable bloke, my partner is now obsessed with how large their wingspan is and what type of snakes they feast on.
The birds cracked out of their eggs earlier this month at the Knepp Estate in West Sussex, close to where I live – a former farm where large swathes of the 1,400 hectare site have been given over to a rewilding project.
It’s hoped the successful hatching will be the first step towards establishing the species in the south of England once again – the last chick to hatch on British soil is believed to have been born atop Edinburgh’s St Giles’ Cathedral in 1416.
The project to breed wild white storks in the UK is a partnership of private landowners and conservation organisations, including Cotswold Wildlife Park and Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust.
It aims to restore a population of at least 50 breeding pairs across the south by 2030, and started with a flock from Warsaw Zoo in Poland brought here four years ago.
The large white birds have long orange beaks and dark wings with a span of about two metres. They fly to Europe from Africa as the weather improves, often returning to the same nest.
Isabella Tree, co-owner of Knepp with husband Charlie Burrell, said: “When I hear that clattering sound now, coming from the tops of our oak trees, it feels like a sound from the Middle Ages has come back to life.
“We watch them walking through the long grass on their long legs, kicking up insects and deftly catching them in their long beaks as they go – there’s no other bird that does that in the UK.
“It’s walking back into a niche that has been empty for centuries.”
Traditionally, the stork is a bearer of good news.
This spring it has brought fresh hope to the efforts of British conservationists.
