My Birding Life – Details, episodes & analysis

Suzy Buttress has been hosting the Casual Birder podcast for nearly nine years, built entirely around the idea that birding should be enjoyable, accessible, and welcoming to everyone.

In this episode, Chris sits down with a fellow podcaster to hear how a childhood dream of being Snow White with birds on her hand turned into a 1,085-species world list, a husband she's converted into a bigger birder than herself, and a gentle but very real competition over who gets to 191 first.

From a wooden spoon worm-feeding contraption to paradise riflebirds in Australia to a missed crane on Big Day that still stings, this is a conversation about finding your people, birding at your own pace, and why the casual approach might be the best one of all.

Episode Takeaways:

• Nine years of Casual Birder — How Suzy built a solo podcast from scratch, doing everything herself, and why the community it created changed her life more than she ever expected.
• The monster she created — Suzy started dragging her photographer husband along on birding trips. Now he's on 191 for the year and she's on 182. She calls it a monster of her own making.
• Getting serious about listing — How a women's birding challenge introduced Suzy to eBird, and why she won't count a bird unless she could identify it herself.
• The wooden spoon invention — Suzy's homemade worm-feeding contraption that got a robin coming in for slow-mo photography. Patented, apparently.
• Paradise riflebirds in Australia — The trip where live mealworms in the hand were suddenly worth the wriggle, thanks to a magpie-sized bird of paradise landing on her palm.
• The Big Day breakdown — How Suzy and her husband John approach the Global Big Day each year, why filming it adds chaos, and the crane she heard but couldn't bring herself to count.

Episode Timestamps:

• 03:00 — Nine years, 148 episodes, and doing everything solo
• 05:00 — How the podcast opened up Suzy's world and connected her to people globally
• 06:00 — Where the love of birds began
• 11:00 — Paradise riflebirds in Australia and the one time wriggly worms were worth it
• 13:00 — When birding got serious: binoculars at 15, a photographer husband, and the podcast
• 17:00 — Getting into listing, eBird, and an honesty rule that keeps the count clean
• 19:00 — 1,085 species worldwide and why it could be more if she wasn't so strict
• 21:00 — The black tern she missed while editing podcast episodes
• 25:00 — Binoculars, scopes, cameras, and who carries what
• 27:00 — Global Big Day: the logistics, the nightjar finish, and 79 vs 84
• 33:00 — 30 Days Wild, red kites in a thunderstorm, and mindful birding
• 39:00 — Target lifer: the crested eagle in Panama

Important Links & Resources:

• Follow My Birding Life on Instagram
• Subscribe to My Birding Life on YouTube
• The Casual Birder Podcast
• Hannah and Erik Go Birding Podcast
• Global Big Day

Tim Appleton MBE has spent decades shaping British birding, from building Rutland Water Nature Reserve from green fields to international acclaim, to co-founding the Global Birdfair to leading one of the UK's greatest conservation success stories: bringing ospreys back to England for the first time since 1847.

In this episode, Chris sits down with Tim to hear the personal side of that remarkable journey — how the Bird Fair was born from a visit to the Game Fair at Belvoir Castle, what it was actually like to show up to a job where the reserve didn't exist yet, and what a life spent in service of nature really feels like from the inside.

Tim also opens up about the next generation of conservationists, his concerns about youth engagement in the hobby, and the rapid-fire birding questions that reveal a bogey bird missed in Cuba twice, a three-plane adventure in Colombia, and a forever happy place you can probably already guess.

Episode Takeaways:

• The Birdfair origin story — A visit to the Game Fair at Belvoir Castle planted the seed. How the world's first bird fair launched in 1989 with £2,000 from Swarovski and 1,200 people and raised £3,000 in year one.
• Why it still works — No committees, no public funding, no outside interference. Tim and Penny run the whole thing between two people, with 130+ volunteers who show up because they want to.
• Day one at Rutland Water — The reserve didn't exist, the farmers hated him, and his only orientation was an OS map.
• Building from scratch — 100,000 trees, deliberately wiggly lagoon edges, islands made from contractor spoil, and a close working relationship with landscape designer Dame Silvia Crowe.
• Bringing ospreys back to England — Two male birds in 1994 sparked the idea. The translocation project that followed made Tim the first person to find an osprey with young in England since 1847.
• The next generation problem — Why Tim believes organisations with millions of members still aren't doing enough to spark young people into conservation.

Episode Timestamps:

• 01:00 — Who is Tim Appleton MBE and why he matters to British birding
• 03:00 — Chris and Tim bond over last year's Bird Fair and a day on the Rutland reserve
• 05:00 — Why conservation isn't reaching young people and what needs to change
• 06:00 — Where the Global Birdfair idea actually came from
• 14:00 — Day one at Rutland Water: an OS map and a reserve that didn't exist yet
• 17:00 — Planting 100,000 trees and designing lagoons with Dame Silvia Crowe
• 21:00 — The osprey story
• 31:00 — The young birders giving Tim hope for the future
• 38:00 — Bogey bird: the bee hummingbird, missed in Cuba twice
• 40:00 — The Orinoco goose adventure
• 43:00 — 129 species from the garden at Rutland this year

Important Links & Resources:

• Follow My Birding Life on Instagram
• Subscribe to My Birding Life on YouTube
• The Global Birdfair

Most people don't go looking for birding. It finds them.

In this first episode, host Chris shares how a period of serious burnout brought him outside and how watching birds quietly changed everything.

That's the story behind My Birding Life, a brand new podcast where real birders share the moments, places, and birds that shaped them.

Episode Takeaways:

• Why Chris started birding and why it genuinely changed his life
• What My Birding Life is all about and who it's for
• The kinds of guests you'll hear from - conservationists, lifelong birders, content creators, and everyday people who found birds when they needed them most
• What to expect in every episode: spark birds, favourite spots, the ones that got away, practical tips, and conservation
• Chris's favourite UK woodland bird

Episode Timestamps:

• 01:00 — How burnout led him to spend more time outside and discover birding
• 02:00 — Realising others had their own version of his story and why that inspired the podcast
• 03:00 — What every episode will look like: spark birds, favourite places, and honest conversation
• 05:00 — Practical tips, identification, and conservation
• 06:00 — The guest lineup: conservationists, lifelong birders, content creators, and everyday birders

Important Links & Resources:

• Follow My Birding Life on Instagram
• Subscribe to My Birding Life on YouTube