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Birdwatching

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Birdwatching (birding, twitching, or amateur ornithology) is observing or identifying wild birds in their natural surroundings. Birdwatching generally consists of recreational activity or citizen science, as contrasted to professional research in ornithology.

Quotes

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  • It is a fun exercise among naturalists to try to pinpoint a childhood moment when they deviated from the path of “ordinary” people and set out on their tangent towards the other parts of life. American birders use a nice shorthand expression for such an epiphany: “the spark bird” – the encounter that switched on the nature-loving light.
  • We ardent birders share not only a skill and craft but also a state of mind—more, a state of heart, one akin to love. All the usual explanations of why such an improbable pastime as birdwatching should be so profoundly rewarding—the thrill of the chase, days of companionship outdoors, enigmatic identifications solved, competition and even scorekeeping, witnessing nature in action, times and places of great beauty—all these sorts of reason fall short unless they acknowledge those extraordinary moments when, as Charles Hartshorne once put it, "Life touches life." Honoring these moments, I think, is the largely unspoken bond among ardent birds. When we do talk about why we go birding, time and again these private experiences are what we birders recall as "when lightning struck."
  • ... Remember, if you happen to find a nest during the breeding season, leave the nest as undisturbed as possible. Back away, and do not touch the nest, eggs, or young birds. Often squirrels, raccoons, several other mammals, crows, jays, grackles, and cowbirds are more than happy to have you "point out" a nest and will raid it if you disrupt the site or call attention to it. Many people find juvenile birds that have just left the nest and may appear to be alone. Usually they are not lost but are under the watchful eye of a parent bird and are best left in place rather than scooped up and taken to a foreign environment. In the winter, nest hunting can be great fun and has little impact, as most nests will never be used again. They are easy to see once the foliage is gone, and it can be a challenge to attempt to identify the maker.
  • Bird books have been a constant presence in my life, from Ladybird Books to field guides via fiction and non-fiction with one thing in common. I can sit down with the RSPB Handbook of British Birds by Peter Holden and Tim Cleeves and soon find myself as engrossed as I would be by, say, Elizabeth Stott’s uncanny avian tale The Rhododendron Canopy. Many elements cross over between fiction and guide book: character and identification, habitat/setting, voice, movement/migration, even narrative arc in the form of a quest. I might be reminded of the time I went looking for choughs and got lucky, watching them for 20 minutes while lying on my stomach by a cliff edge, or I might wonder how many times I will have to go looking for nightjars before I actually see one rather than just hear their ghostly clicking.
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