Bill Bailey's Remarkable Guide to British Birds

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Over the last few years, I have become increasingly interested in birds. I have not yet reached the status of fully-fledged twitcher, but I have approached the edge of the nest a few times and come close to leaving. One indication of this is the fact that the most exciting thing to happen to me for a long time was when, recently, a group of 8 Waxwings, not seen in my area since 2013, decided to land in the tree outside the front of my house. For a couple of days, until they moved on, my house was the centre of North Wiltshire’s, well, Swindon's, bird-watching community with twitchers standing around the front of my house pointing their binoculars and huge telephoto lenses at the tree containing the birds. I was there with both binoculars and large telephoto lens! Here is one of my pictures: When herons are spooked they have a habit of vomiting as a defence. Half-digested pieces of eel and water vole skull on your head is not a good look. Just so you know.' That’s the intention. It’s maybe not for the hardcore birder. It’s more for someone who doesn’t really think about birds, yet if something catches their eye, wherever they are in Britain, that bird will be in the book. I'm always worrying about the bears. They just stand around going, 'Look at that hairy bloke staring at us.'"

Better known for being a boisterous petrol head, it turns out that Clarkson is a birdwatcher according to his own article on the Top Gear blog… although he does admit “ But which do I prefer… the Peregrine Falcon – my favourite bird – or the Ferrari 458? I’m afraid the answer is the car” before going on to suggest that extinction of some useless animal species isn’t really a bad thing. Alex Horne Bailey takes us on a journey around the British Isles, zooming in on those birds that enthuse him the most. Whether it's what they eat, where they fly to or how they communicate, these birds are always fascinating, and he introduces us to their weird and wonderful ways in a manner that is always entertaining. Yes, the Baileys are registered, accredited members of the British and Irish Association of Zookeepers and Aquariums. I'm trying to build into the show a part on identifying New Zealand native birds, sort of a quiz, so start mugging up now on your bird calls."He is having his picture taken in his garden, which is half zen-style light grey gravel and half astroturf. Visible through a circular partition – a Japanese moon gate, as Bailey explains – is a shed with a recording studio in it. More intriguingly, on one side of the garden is another narrow shed, its contents shielded from view by silver foil and bubble wrap. Having interviewed him many times over the past decade, Bailey is unfailingly generous with his time, intelligent and funny even when he's trying not to be. He is that rare comic who is naturally amusing. Jarvis (of Pulp fame, of course) has worked on an album for the National Trust, sung about trees and written a song called “The Birds in Your Garden” on the album We Love Life, and generally seems like the sort of lefty, arty, eccentric bloke who would enjoy birding. Alex Zane, Jeff Green and Jayne Middlemiss

Beardy UK comedian Rory McGrath likens birdwatching to a couple of things here in the Birmingham Post in 2008. One of them is Leonard Cohen, the other is a bit more specialist. Either way, he says that it’s the sort of thing people own up to once someone else has the courage to out themselves. Jimi GoodwinThe streets are full of drunk Englishmen, there are people tottering up my street in England shirts, shouting 'Eng-er-land!'and all that. What a time to be alive. This famous photographer says that “at one point I wanted to be an ornithologist” according to an interview with Photo District News, saying that his dyslexia made more visual pursuits more logical. Trudie Goodwin It was like doing an arts centre in Surrey, but halfway to the North Pole, and if you stepped out the door without a gun, you might get eaten, so there was an extra element of danger. At the festival in Knebworth, Bailey arrived on stage via a secret door in the amps, in a cape and a "terrifying Slipknot mask" of himself, before performing one of the biggest comedy gigs in the world, in front of 65,000 metal fans and on the same bill as Metallica, Slayer, Megadeth and Anthrax.