Tweet of the Day - Wildlife Cameraman, John Aitchison

Editor's Note: John Aitchison presents Tweet of the Day from 10 to 28 February. John Aitchison is a wildlife cameraman and photographer. He has worked on many BBC Nature programmes including Big Cat Diary, Springwatch and Yellowstone.

Birds bring the world to life. I love the way they can appear anywhere, at any time, rewilding even the most man-made settings. Often it's their calls which first draw my attention to them: the strident song of a garden wren, the festive tinkle of waxwings in a car park, wild visitors from the north around Christmas time. Bird sounds define the UK's wildest places too: the whistles of wigeon drifting across a saltmarsh pool in Norfolk or a flock of chough calling their own name above a pale Hebridean beach.

At home I often hear the high-pitched calls of white-fronted geese flying over the house while we are having breakfast. The geese are flying between their roost and finding their own breakfast in the fields. They have come from Greenland to spend the winter in Scotland, an extraordinary flight which fills me with amazement and delight each time they re-appear in the autumn. Recording these geese for Tweet of the Day was especially satisfying because my teenage son Rowan helped me. His generation are the ones who will decide whether there will be enough wild places in our country for inspiring birds like these.

John Aitchison

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