I’ve spent 32 years writing about the great outdoors. We’ve both changed more than I could ever have imagined

‘I wonder if I’ll still be writing in another 32 years’ …Stephen Moss on the north Somerset coast. Photograph: Nick Wilcox-Brown/The Guardian

As I filed a recent Guardian Birdwatch column, about the rare Sabine’s gull that turned up unexpectedly on my local patch on the Somerset coast, I realised I have been contributing these short articles for exactly half my lifetime. When counted alongside my Weatherwatch column, this month sees my 1,000th dispatch from the great outdoors.

Coincidentally, my first Birdwatch, in January 1993, was also about gulls. It celebrated both their beauty and their ability to adapt to living alongside us, even though most people don’t appreciate them. Since then, Britain’s birdlife has changed beyond what I could have ever imagined.