Rob Hurst

Seriously, I mean, they are really something.

This is not a cute kind of barn owl or a tawny frogmouth.

This is a serious creature.

Oh, very much so.

I've kind of learnt most of the vegetation and...

Rather than just sort of wandering aimlessly through and going, you know, there's a bird, there's another bird, I've actually become this, you know, it's horrifying, you know, these midlife men who become twitchers or birders, as they call it in America, you know.

So actually now I know when the migratory birds will arrive.

Although climate change has changed that.

They're all over the place, you know.

And I know where on the walk.

The walk only takes about 40 minutes.

But I know which part of the bush to expect the wattle birds or the New Holland honey eaters or the migratory birds like the coals.

and the Channel Bill Cuckoos come down from New Guinea.

I know where they'll be, so don't get me started.

I could really bore you on this, let me tell you.

I've got books.

Yeah, so I look very carefully at flowers and trees and birds, and then I don't have any gizmos.

I'm not, you know, a total Luddite when it comes to technology.

I'm sure there's these apps you can get, you know, if you just point your iPhone, you know, or your smartphone towards this thing, it'll come up with what it is.

But I like to go back and then try to find what it is that I've seen and then try to memorise it.