Wild Wings (1965)

It’s hard to imagine nowadays that anyone in the UK would look out of their window in the winter to the sight of 18-inch thick ice, but that is amongst the scenarios related to us here by visionary conservationist Peter Scott as he regales us with a year in the life of his British Wildfowl Trust. Apparently, there are 147 species of geese, ducks and swans around the world and some 122 of those take advantage of the facilities at either end of a migration or as a stopping point to refuel, breed and find themselves part of an ever growing set of statistics. Those are gathered quite imaginatively using everything from high powered binoculars to dogs to rocket-propelled nets, and the data collected is constantly informing scientists in Britain and just about everywhere else from China, Paraguay, Siberia and Hawai’i where a breeding programme has enabled the repopulation of Maui with a few dozen local birds. My favourite has to be the Chinese Mandarin - straight out of Gilbert and Sullivan, but there are a myriad of shapes and sizes on display here and what is noticeable is that they all seem to rub along nicely with each other (courtship rituals notwithstanding). Scott’s narration is informative and illustrative of a man who is passionate about this project and it’s long-term ramifications for both feathered and mankind alike, and the photography allows us to get up close to some astonishing creatures for half an hour.