BirdwatcherWatching
3 male migratory north atlantic whitefaces
Just as I find soccer hooliganism often more entertaining then the soccer, and sweaty high-shorted tourists often a more compelling subject then the monument they’re standing next to, I recently tagged along on a trip into Ma’an National Park loaded up with binoculars and bird identification books to watch…. Birdwatchers.
Birding is of course an activity that gets slated alongside stamp collection and trainspotting for being eccentric and inane. And in truth I’m no more interested personally in beefing up the number of species I can spot in a day then I am in collecting stamps, but the birdwatcher sure makes a more exciting travel companion then those other types, and I should know because I’ve travelled with train spotters.
My travel companions were some pretty serious experts too. Robbie can ID over 400 Cameroonian species, sometimes just by hearing them from the forest while he’s ASLEEP IN THE CAR.
I didn’t learn very much about birds on the trip, probably because I wasn’t paying close enough attention, but here is what I learned about birdwatching:
-There is absolutely no correlation between the fancy exotic appearance of the bird and it’s value as a Thing to Spot. If the little brownish one that looks like all the other little brownish ones except for a black bit by the eye and it is rarer then the crazy one with the royal blue Mohawk, then the brownish one is the prize.
-assuming birwatching itself is not nerdy, keeping a written inventory of the birds you’ve seen most definitely is.
-Should you require the services of a guide in the forest, you should be prepared for them to find you hilarious and ridiculous, especially when you whip out the birdcall mp3s and broadcast them back to the canopy.
-It takes a long time to learn what these guys know.
oh man – we get some pretty hard core birders in Churchill – one of those places were the rare migratory shore birds hang all summer – I’ve seen these people and spent a lot of time with them. Some of the younger dudes talk about how they don’t mention birding to their dates until at least the 3rd date…hilarious.
Carley
January 8, 2009 at 5:58 pm
Hey Jane. So THIS is the blog. Reached by googling “Dick Scott Limbe”. Ho ho. And you’re right; somewhat disappointed to find that it’s not packed full of juicy gossipy titbits. Yes I do feel like I’ve downloaded and watched the first season of HBO’s Birdwatchers and am hankering to get onto the second. Anyway, let me have your email address (your first email never made it through), and maybe Hans’s too, so I can send you an update on things here. Suffice to say for now that it’s ‘the coldest winter in almost 40 years…’ A quote from a song you mayn’t have heard of but quite apposite. Brrr… Dx
David
January 10, 2009 at 10:25 am
hey I like your site too david, looks like an interesting idea and if you’ve got sylvia plath on board then it is sure to play out like a Care Bears’ parade.
If you were really put off by the absence of gossip, hit me up at jane_boles@yahoo.ca and I can probably help you out with that. I don’t know Hans’ address but I’m on it.
Asha fo snow.
Jane Boles
January 10, 2009 at 5:53 pm
hi
rachel raymond
January 27, 2009 at 9:37 pm