Podcasts History The Why Factor Plane, Train and Bird Spotting

Plane, Train and Bird Spotting

Published: Oct. 29, 2018, 10:10 a.m.

Why do people love plane, train and bird spotting?

Novice aviation geek Alys Harte enters the worlds of twitchers, birders, watchers and spotters.\n \nShe meets Noel Marsh-Giddings, who has flown on the shortest and longest flights on the planet - just for the sake of flying; she goes \u2018birding\u2019 on the east coast of England with Ashley Saunders where they have a close encounter with a sparrow hawk (and a photobombing mallard!) and speaks to Prof. Kiyohito Utsunomiya, transport economist and railway fan about the subcultures within subcultures that make up Japanese \u2018tetsu\u2019 train spotters.

Photo: Man in a field with binoculars. Credit: Getty Creative Images. ISO3000