We followed the birds to Canada – and discovered a global queer community as a result

I knew we wouldn’t see them, but on the plane from London to Vancouver, I looked out of the window and imagined hordes of birds flying below. Their grey pattered backs, their wings flashing in the sunlight. I had seen them only months before, in their thousands, swirling and clamouring as they were pushed off the mudflats during the high tide in Snettisham on the coast of Norfolk. I had stood and watched the spectacle with around 15 other queer people, members of the bird-watching group which I, my partner Amy, and our friend, Rane, have been running for the past four years. There were several other people dotted around, standing still, looking at the sky. I always try to speak to at least one person from outside our group, to ask him (and it is almost always a him) a question about birds. On this day, when these wading birds were swooping in their thousands, I went to this one man, standing alone at his scope, eye pressed against the rubber. I whispered, do you know where they’ve all come from, or where they’re going? They’re Knots, he said, pointing to the swirling mass, they’ll be going back to Canada, if you’d come last month, you’d have seen double this. I nodded and thanked him and walked back to my group, who were huddled up against the cold of the early morning and were passing binoculars around. We stood in silence and watched the Knots in their droves, moving together as one huge sparkling creature.

Anna swimming in one of the region’s lakes

Amy Allcroft

Of course, we didn’t see Knots from the plane, they were heading to the North, and we were going West, to visit my brother on Vancouver Island. We saw birds from the ferry though. Gulls, cormorants, a bald eagle. Our first time seeing an eagle. Huge and gorgeous and hunting for fish. I leant against the railings on the top deck and ignored the cold. Amy had her arms around my waist, her chin on my shoulder. Her breath was warm on my cheek as she said, another eagle, look, can you see it? Up there on that tree. My brother had told me to look out for porpoises; they were a common sight, and if we were lucky, he said, we might see a whale. I didn’t see any, but then I was mostly focused on looking up.