Reproduced here is my Article from the Winter 2019 edition of Shoreline Magazine (with minor edit):
I think it was my father’s interest
in the birds on the bird table in our suburban garden that got me started - that
and this wonderful little book “The Observer’s book of Birds”. How many of you
remember it, I wonder?
I re-found my well-thumbed copy a
few months ago and was somewhat intrigued to see that my boyhood-self had been
sufficiently organised and interested to neatly underline some of the species
in that wonderful introductory guide. So maybe the need to list and record has
always been there or maybe it’s a boy thing if we are still allowed to utter
such words in today’s pc world. Fast forward to the year 2019 and because of
family and city work commitments it is only latterly that I have been in the
fortunate position to be able to pick up on my boyhood interest. And so, since
retirement I’ve replaced a desk and stuffy office in central London with the
fantastic coastal scenery and bracing, changeable weather of our local
neighbourhood. And I go out and find those birds I remember first seeing in that Observers guidebook.
When out Birding
I travel fairly light. A pair of decent boots, Binoculars (of course), a Bridge
camera, fleece or waterproof as needed, hat - maybe a bottle of water if I’m
going to be out for a few hours. I meet a lot of people, dog walkers, hikers, villagers
and visitors alike. Most on the footpaths and cliffs are walking their dogs.
And most I would have to say are in a hurry. My pace is much slower. On one
such outing in a village, not far away, I had found a Spotted Flycatcher in a farm orchard and was concentrating so hard
on trying to get a photograph that I was oblivious to the horse and rider who
had come around the corner of the field. So intent was I looking through the
camera viewfinder, that they had both seen me long before I was aware. And the
horse was not happy at the sight of this motionless figure. The rider was
struggling to control the spooked creature. And so the friendly farmer called
out to me “Can you move a bit or do something! He needs to know you’re a human
being!” I did and the horse settled. The farmer chatted for a few minutes about
the birds she’d been seeing on her farm and then they moved on.
A couple of days later, in the same village, I drove
up a lane to the vineyard, realised my mistake and was turning the car when a
different villager stopped to chat through my open window. Usual pleasantries,
“Are you lost? Can I help you? Etc.” “Eh, no, I’m just out, exploring, doing a
bit of Birding, looking for autumn migrant birds”. “Oh!” she said “you must be
the Twitcher. Pleased to meet you.
My friend said there was a Twitcher
about.” Word gets around quickly in a village!
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Spotted Flycatcher - photo taken August 19 at Lambert's Castle, Dorset |
So what am I? It got me thinking. Am I a Birder or a Twitcher? I’ve always thought of myself as a Birder but this exchange got me wondering. As I say I usually go
out locally and find my own birds. Readers of this blog will probably have built up a fairly accurate picture of my birding pastime. But for
those who have not (and are unfamiliar with the terms), perhaps I should try to explain the difference between the
two, if you’ll bear with me. So what is the difference? Well Twitching is the pursuit of a
previously located rare bird. The term Twitcher,
sometimes misapplied as a synonym for Birder
describes those who travel long distances to see a rare bird that would then be
ticked, or counted on a list. Birdwatching
or Birding is a form of wildlife
observation in which the observation of birds is a recreational activity or
citizen science. It can be done with the naked eye, through
binoculars/telescope (I have both), by listening for bird sounds or by watching
public webcams. It’s different to ornithology
which uses formal scientific methods but there’s probably a bit of an overlap
here.
So we’ve already established that I recorded the
things I saw back in my youth. But do I still? And do I keep a list? To be
truthful, those lines in my bird book don’t really paint a picture of the “how
many” or the “what time of the year” or even the “where was it seen”. So as a
snapshot of how our wildlife was doing at that time, it’s not much use as a
historical record.
Well I do now have a birding diary notebook. To
be honest until recently I’ve been a bit of a casual lister. But spurred on by a good friend of mine (who is somewhat
more organised than I) who sent me the complete list of the birds likely to be
sighted in the UK, I have paid a bit more attention to the what, the where and
the when. And so for what it’s worth here’s what I found out.
In the UK the total number of bird species is in
the region of 650. Not that many really! How's the 2019 Year list going? Well, of those 650, I’ve seen less than a
third this year; 205 to be exact, mainly in Dorset but also with a few trips out of county to Devon, Somerset, Cornwall and Sussex. And I’ve had to work pretty hard to ‘achieve’ that
‘score’ this year.
Since I've been birding our immediate local area or “patch” I’ve
managed to record 155 different species of birds – my patch list.
Incidentally, the corresponding totals for
dragonflies in UK are even fewer at 56 and for butterflies 60. But I don’t
systematically record my sightings so I don’t have my personal numbers for 2019
and the patch. Which perhaps should be a challenge for me in the future?
So am I a Twitcher then as the lady asked? Well No and Yes! She seemed pretty
reassured that I was ONLY a Twitcher
mooching about the local highways, byways and footpaths pursuing their hobby. And
from her viewpoint I gathered that she seemed to have a fairly tolerant and positive
attitude to the hobby. But in the strict sense, as I don’t drop everything to
zoom off to the other end of the country to see some stranded rare feathered
waif, I can’t really claim to be a Twitcher
in the true sense of the word. So I think it’s a no. But just to confuse the
reader even more, I have been known (on occasions) to jump in the car and drive
3hrs down the A30 road towards Land’s End to twitch an American vagrant bird or 2 (Grey Catbird and White rumped Sandpiper). So it’s a definite No …. and
Yes!
Autumn Local Patch Sightings
What birds have I found on the
local patch and what should the reader be looking out for in the coming winter
months. Well I can report that October 2019 has been a fantastic month bird-wise
with some terrific sightings in the village as follows:
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21st October - Scandinavian Rock Pipit (Ring Number A94), feeding well on Charmouth Beach, 21/10/19, ringed in Norway |
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Cropped Image of A94, White on Green |
A really quick response from the Sunnmore Ringing Group in Norway. A94 is a female Rock Pipit, ringed on 18.07.2016 at Maletangen, Norway and found at Charmouth 1484km SSW, 3 yrs 2mths old. A great patch record of the sub species!
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25th October - 2 Turnstones, sheltering from an Autumn storm, Charmouth Beach, 25/10/2019 |
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26th October - Grey Phalarope, River Char at Footbridge. Brilliant views and a fantastic record for Charmouth! |
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31st October - 1 of a record 6 Black Redstarts fly-catching around Beach Huts Green above West Beach, Charmouth. Brilliant to watch. |
And to round off an interesting couple of weeks on patch:
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2nd Nov 2019 - always expect the unexpected? A female Common Scoter in a puddle in Charmouth Beach Car park; exhausted by the violent storm she was taken into care for a few hours and released later that day |
Common Birds to look out for on patch over winter months
Garden and woods: Siskins, Redpolls, Goldcrests, overwintering Blackcaps, Bramblings, Chaffinches and also winter Thrushes, Redwings and Fieldfares will come into the garden to feed on any left-over
windfall apples or berries they can find. Foreshore and Beach Huts Green: Rock Pipits, Black Redstarts. On the sea and beaches, look out for rare Gulls, Turnstones, Purple Sandpipers, Ringed Plover, Oyster
Catchers, Dunlin, Brent Geese, Gannets, Auks, Ducks (Mallard,
Eider, Scoter) and Divers. Overhead: Buzzards, Kestrel, Ravens, possible Marsh or Hen Harrier. Fields and Cliffs: Cattle Egrets, Stonechat, Meadow Pipits, Linnets
POST SCRIPT
But what struck me recently is that
although I’m switched on to birding there’s so much more out there in the
natural realm. I see such a diversity of nature; land and sea birds, mammals,
reptiles, butterflies, moths, insects, bees, dragonflies, sea creatures, and
fish. It’s all still there. On our doorstep. You just have to go out and look.
Sad to say not in the numbers I remember as that boy growing up in the 50’s and
60’s but it IS still out there. When
was the last time you saw a flock of Yellowhammers,
or had a good view of a Hare or a Blue butterfly? We need to cherish what
we have. Wouldn’t it be great if we could have an area set aside for wildlife,
flowers, trees and fungi? A small wildlife sanctuary area would build on what
we have already in our beautiful village of Charmouth.