ColinD
Well-known member
I've been birding now for around 35 years, since I was 10. My birding career so far could probably be divided into three phases. The first was from the age of 10 to about 20 (1972 - 82). I spent all of my time birding alone or with my Dad. It was only a semi-serious hobby for me. There was no Rare Bird Alert, no Bird Forum, and I wasn't part of the grapevine which existed at the time. I didn't know any other birders. My life list was probably about 150 by 1982, and if we wanted to see anything different, we based our descision on where to go on distribution maps in bird identification books.
Then in 1982, I entered the second phase. I bought "Bill Oddies Little Black Bird book" and was amazed at what was going on. A few months later I joined the local Birding group, made lots of friends my age, and began twitching. The second phase lasted until about 1988, and my UK life list increased to about 330, I visited a lot more places in the UK, and went on my first birding holidays abroad.
In 1989 I got married (to a non birder) and I could no longer twitch, and so entered the third phase. I started looking for local sites so that I could spend more time birding than travelling, and because they allowed a quick visit if I was passing by. I got into recording and surveying, and helped form a local group. During this phase, by neccessity I had to learn bird song. Previously, this had been a really dark area for me. I couldn't tell a Robin from a Blackbird. Now, because I was trying to count breeding pairs of common species, I was listening out for singing males. It's amazing how quick you can learn bird calls and song, and it is immensly useful to you once you have the common species mastered. Anything unusual stands out a mile, and if you know the song, you don't have to wait ages for a skulking species to show itself. For example, despite travelling all over the country during my twitching phase, I only saw a handful of Lesser Whitethroats. These days I have no problem seeing them. Even close to home where they are scarce breeders, I expect to see four or five a year. This is because the song stands out to me as different.
I have more than one local patch, and there is a large area of farmland that I cover every week on my bike, about a 15 miles round journey. As I travel, I stop and make notes along the way of most of the birds that I see or hear, and I try to count singing males. I've done this every week, rain, hail or shine, for about five years. Once or twice I have set out from home and gotten 3 or 4 miles down the road before I have realised that I have forgotten my binoculars. I have found that this has virtually no impact on the birding experience for me, because almost all of my notes are of birds that I hear. If I stopped to look at every movement in a bush, I'd never get home, but because I know the song or call, I can identify the bird in seconds, and the binoculars are only useful if I hear something different.
I often wonder what birds I missed in the early phases of my birding career, because I didn't know calls and song. My advice to beginners would be, yes twitch for rarities if you like, but get yourself a local patch, commit yourself to visiting it at least once a week, record everything and learn common bird calls and song.
Then in 1982, I entered the second phase. I bought "Bill Oddies Little Black Bird book" and was amazed at what was going on. A few months later I joined the local Birding group, made lots of friends my age, and began twitching. The second phase lasted until about 1988, and my UK life list increased to about 330, I visited a lot more places in the UK, and went on my first birding holidays abroad.
In 1989 I got married (to a non birder) and I could no longer twitch, and so entered the third phase. I started looking for local sites so that I could spend more time birding than travelling, and because they allowed a quick visit if I was passing by. I got into recording and surveying, and helped form a local group. During this phase, by neccessity I had to learn bird song. Previously, this had been a really dark area for me. I couldn't tell a Robin from a Blackbird. Now, because I was trying to count breeding pairs of common species, I was listening out for singing males. It's amazing how quick you can learn bird calls and song, and it is immensly useful to you once you have the common species mastered. Anything unusual stands out a mile, and if you know the song, you don't have to wait ages for a skulking species to show itself. For example, despite travelling all over the country during my twitching phase, I only saw a handful of Lesser Whitethroats. These days I have no problem seeing them. Even close to home where they are scarce breeders, I expect to see four or five a year. This is because the song stands out to me as different.
I have more than one local patch, and there is a large area of farmland that I cover every week on my bike, about a 15 miles round journey. As I travel, I stop and make notes along the way of most of the birds that I see or hear, and I try to count singing males. I've done this every week, rain, hail or shine, for about five years. Once or twice I have set out from home and gotten 3 or 4 miles down the road before I have realised that I have forgotten my binoculars. I have found that this has virtually no impact on the birding experience for me, because almost all of my notes are of birds that I hear. If I stopped to look at every movement in a bush, I'd never get home, but because I know the song or call, I can identify the bird in seconds, and the binoculars are only useful if I hear something different.
I often wonder what birds I missed in the early phases of my birding career, because I didn't know calls and song. My advice to beginners would be, yes twitch for rarities if you like, but get yourself a local patch, commit yourself to visiting it at least once a week, record everything and learn common bird calls and song.
