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What started you birding. (1 Viewer)

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Just over a year ago I had an article published in Birdwatch in the Hooked section. That section, which is still going, asks birders what got them started in birding. I was thinking about it today and it got me wondering how all of you started off birding seriously. The story I had published was as follows:

It was May 1995. My, now, ex-missus and I had booked a holiday on the Algarve at a place called Vale de Parra, Nr Albufeira. We had never ever been birding before but just before we left the mother-in-law gave us an old, battered, Hamlyn Guide to the Birds of Britain and Europe. We didn’t posses anything in the way of optics and once we had arrived at our destination we had to just use our eyes to work out what was in front of us.

Our introduction to birding was with birds that would be the envy of many birders now never mind your first birds. Birds such as Hoopoe, Golden Oriole, Woodchat Shrike, Spotless Starling, Serin, Black-winged Stilt, White Stork, Azure-winged Magpie, Bee-eater, Sardinian Warbler, Purple Gallinule, Little Egret and Cattle Egret. Would you believe that all, bar the W.Stork and A.W. Magpie, were garden ticks plus we had a resident Little Owl in the garden? Our garden looked over the Salgados golf course and there are extensive wetlands there as well. You can view almost anything from the apartment, as we found out on a later holiday at the same apartment. But, even with all those beauties listed earlier, there was one bird that had caught my imagination. It was an insignificant, little bird.

Let me explain. Bearing in mind we had no optics to hand we were being continually frustrated by a little bird that continually flew above our apartment for the whole two weeks of our holiday. It flew just high enough for us not to be able to work out what it was. Of course at that time I didn’t know birdcalls. If I had its call would have given it away immediately.

The day before our holiday was to end an elderly couple arrived on a motorbike and sidecar. We got talking to them later in the day and they told us that they had toured Europe birdwatching and had just come down from somewhere in Russia. He had a pair of binoculars hanging around his neck and I pointed out this little bird and asked him what it was. His reply was to give me his field guide and bins and told me to work it out. The only clue he gave me was that it was a warbler.

It took a while to get used to looking through the bins but eventually I got good views of the bird and by process of elimination managed to work out what the bird was. A Fan-tailed Warbler (or as it’s affectionally known now as Zitting Cisticola). Of course now on hearing the zip-zip-zip continually I would immediately know what it was without having to look at it. I was very impressed with myself for working out that bird and as soon as I got home I purchased a pair of bins for me and the missus and a cheap telescope. But since then I have upgraded quite a bit. I am now the proud owner of a Kowa 823 telescope and a Swarovski 8x30SLC pair of bins. I have a pager and a mobile phone and travel all over Britain and abroad for my newfound hobby.

We visited that same apartment in 1999 and armed with the correct optics our garden ticks swelled, culminating in a Red-necked Nightjar over flying the garden one early evening.

Although the missus and me have now split up I still have a hobby that I thoroughly enjoy and it will last me until forever.

And all this because of a Zitting Cisticola.


Let's hear what it was that grabbed you enough to take up this wonderful hobby of ours.
 
My birding interests have simply grown over the years. As a youngster our family lived at Barnard Castle in Teesdale, County Durham. Our garden backed onto the woods and the River Tees. We used to have quite a selection of birds in the gaden even back then. My fatehr was a keen walker and birdwatcher, so I learnt a lot from him. It was probably from him that I got my interest in the countryside in general. We used to go fishing, hiking and birdwatching all rolled intogether. I suppose it was my interest in the countryside that led me into studying geography and geology at university and taking up photography to capture what I'd seen. I always fancied painting, but I have absolutely no artisitic flair at all.

Anyway, my interests have continued into adulthood and middle age. If anything, I enjoy my Birdwatching even more nowadays than I did back then. I have tried to keep up with the times technologically speaking, moving from 35mm to digital photography, though quality wise I think it's a backward step.

Birdwatching is certainly a hobby that can grow with you, lasting a lifetime :bounce:
 
OK folks, confessions time. 'I Was A Teenage Trainspotter' - until 1967, when steam disappeared. In 1988, Network South East opened the line to Weymouth fully electrified, and did cheap days out - anywhere for a fiver. So, I went to Weymouth by the new, shiny, fast, uncomfortable, overcrowded trains. I had a camera and a pair of 10x24 crap bins. Saw the sign for RSPB Radipole, wandered off there, and saw a multitude of birds, some of which I knew, some I didn't. Got talking to other birders, was shown a lot of birds I'd not even noticed (till then, I didn't even realise there were other duck than Mallards !!). This was in May, and I was hooked - managed to see over 100 species in my first year of birding, joined a local bird club (am I allowed to mention the Surbiton & District Birdwatching Society ?) - and made many new friends who shared my new hobby. I've now moved to Norfolk to continue a hedonistic, sybaritic lifestyle (look it up - I had to).

Tony
 
Tony

Your going to like this. I was a trainspotter as well but I went that step further, became a fireman then a driver, driving all sorts of steam engines then diesels until I was made redundant in 1969. I was based at Saltley (21A to those who did trainspotting and remember the shed codes).

It's great to see a good response to this thread as I find it very interesting to see how people became birders. For me it was a sudden thing as I had never ever thought about birds other than the usual population knowing that birds exist but that is about it. I was 51 years old when I first started birding so in some respect it was harder for me to really get my teeth into it, but I'm glad I did.
 
birding origins

Have got my father to thank for getting me involved in the whole birding thang, when I was around ten or eleven.
Oddly my first recollection of seeing something unusual in the field was in the autumn of 1978, on the Notts/Derbys border. We were walking the dog one evening along a disused railway track, with a very warm south easterly wind blowing. Suddenly three bizarre looking birds laboured over the edge of a field and alighted on a wire fence.
At that age I had no idea what a hoopoe looked like, and I certainly had little concept of how significant three were in a land-locked county. Needless to say, the old man had a rather more enlightened perspective of things, and was pretty chuffed to say the least.
Of course, back in the archaic dark ages of birding, there were no bird lines (indeed, an ansaphone was probably the size of a small car), the pager was barely a twinkle in Telecom's eye, and county recorders were dark, shadowy figures, shrouded in almost Masonic secrecy.
So sorry folks, that's a record that got away, and you'll just have to take my word for it! Certainly was an auspicious beginning to a great hobby/interest/career/obsession (delete as required). Cheers dad, I owe you one!
 
How times have changed. If 3 Hoopoes were to to be reported on a pager in one area I dread to think how many birders would be there, and I would be at the head of the queue.

What a lovely bird to kick start your hobby / obsession / life changing event / full on love affair - Ooohhh sorry !! I got carried away a bit didn't I: lol
 
The beginning.

I was lucky to be brought up in the country. My grammar school had this women for a 6th grade teacher that everyone feared. One day she decided that our class was going to build a nature trail behind the school. We went out each day and cleared brush and labelled trees, plants and whatever we could find. At the same time, she would take the time to point out different birds to us and explain their behaviors and and we would examine and identify any bird nests we found. That sparked me into a frenzy for learning birds and nature, I bought my first Golden Books bird book. That was 1961, I'm still birding and loving the heck out of nature. Still got that first bird book in pretty fair condition, too. I, for one, never feared her again. She was cool.
 
I was lucky growing up in a village in Renfrewshire, Scotland. I used to roam the fields and woods and heathland that surrounded us. I can't say that I *studied* the local wildlife, but I could tell you just about every species of bird or animal that could be found there! I look back fondly to those halcyon days in the sixties when I didn't have a care in the world and would go off every moment I could with a pal or two!

I can remember being eyeball to eyeball with a roosting Tawny owl in a wood where we had a den. We used to stalk roe deer and at dusk we'd watch and listen as Snipe "drummed". Finding a wren's nest in a drystone wall . . . the most beautiful creation nature can provide! Having to watch your step as you crossed one field that was covered in dozens of lapwing nests; and the curlew's nest at the far end by the boggy patch. Learning the identities of birds by the nests and eggs we found (and no, I didn't collect!) And then there were the birds in the garden; tits, robins, song thrushes and blackbirds all nesting in the trees and bushes. And New Year's day 1971 when a flock of 30+ Waxwing invaded!

And there were trips down the Clyde coast and holidays and Scout camps around Scotland. I once nearly stepped on a Ptarmigan walking across the Cirngorms! Gave me the fright of my life as it clattered up from under my foot! Manx shearwaters, skuas, little auks, black guillemots and gannets, all taken for granted because they were just *there*when we went on holiday!

For my 13th birthday my parents bought me the AA/Reader's Digest Book of British Birds. A book I still treasure, although most of the info is dated now. But the illustrations are among the best that I have ever seen.

As a youngster, I was a member of the RSPB's Young Ornithologists Club, although I didn't actually join the RSPB until several years ago. When I moved down to England, I didn't really go out "birding". College had too many distractions and then there was the necessity of gaining useful employment. However, I always "noticed" birds wherever I went although I didn't "tick" them. I really only started seriously birding again when I met my second wife, Ali, who is also keen. We now get out as often as we can, just to watch birds! As an added bonus, Ali's mum lives in Anglesey, so it's always a"pleasure" to go and see her! Five minutes to Valley Lakes and ten to South Stack . . .

B :)
 
Al

Now that is what I call an introduction to birding. That was a really good read. Some wonderful memories for you.

<However, I always "noticed" birds wherever I went> and that was whilst you were at college - mmmmm, yes, we know where your coming from:lol
 
It must have been in the late 50's, early 60's, when my Mom and Dad bought me a couple of 'Observer' books. One was on birds and I tried to use it to id the birds in and around the garden. This was not so easy as I had no one to help me and the illustrations were only of the male species and many were in black and white, but there were not that many species to be seen anyway because I was brought up in what would now be termed 'the inner city' and this was Birmingham. House Sparrow, Starling, Robin, Blackbird, Feral Pigeon, Woodpigeon and that was about it. But in summer, Swifts, House Martins and Swallows appeared. One year in the late 60's hardly any of the last two came over the house and I wondered why. (I discovered why many years later that there were drought conditions at this time in parts of Africa where these birds wintered). I went off to college, did a degree in Applied Chemistry, whatever that was, took up competitive swimming and then cycling and lost interest in the natural world. In the late 80's I was teaching IT in the civil service and an RAF guy came through the school and he was a member of the RAF Ornithological Society and he triggered the interest in me again. Although I had a pair of heavy 10x50 binnies, I got some new ones and a scope and never looked back. Birds progressed to dragonflies and damselflies, butterflies, trees, plants and just about all of the natural world. Back in the 50's my Mom and Dad also had an allotment and that may have had something to do with my interest in plants and animals.



Colin
 
John,
I lived in Dawlish Road, Bournbrook/Selly Oak but the house from whose windows I did my initial birding is now long gone, compulsorily purchased in 1976 and demolished to make way for a new road which never happened. They were great days. It is very different around there now. It was my grandparents house but I had moved away in 1974 to work in Gloucester.

Colin
 
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This thread is throwing up some great memories. Saltley engine sheds, steam engines (real engines), grammar schools ( I went to one in the days when 'A' levels were difficult and you knew your grades (controversial). But the best remark is by Tony...... "So, I went to Weymouth by the new, shiny, fast".....trains. I do remember when trains were fast!!!!!!! and on time!!!!



Colin... wallowing in nostalgia
 
Hello all,

back in 1964, a young boy (11 years old) was wandering around his local gravel pit - Attenborough- in Nottinghamshire, when he found a mist net in the 'danger area'. Sometime later, some ringers appeared and showed a friend and me their latest captures, from that day on, plus an opening ceremony at the new reserve by David Attenborough himself (very fresh faced) I was hooked (by the way they designated Attenborough GPs a nature reserve in 1965).

I lapsed during my early manhood (1970-80's) when rock climbing and mountaineering took over, but on the birth of my first son and his early years, well from 5 years old , he re-introduced me to birding via the YOC (RSPB young birders club) in 1992. From then on it was a steady investment in bins and scopes, through to a pager through to today's more world list perspective.

Best birds during the middle years was a Hoopoe at Frensham Common in 1996ish whilst taking my infant son for a walk, I only recognised as I had been working on contract in South Africa. Before that I spent about a month trying to id. a male Smew I saw on another gravel pit, this time in the Slough (Berkshire) area in 1978, in those days the 'Observers book of birds' and the very dodgy illustrations in the (was it Collins) 'Guide to British Birds', the one with wildfowl illustrated in black and white! (I couldn't find the book tonight) was all the id. guides I had available at the time. Happy days before twitching and the Internet!

Good birding

Paul
 
Paul

<Happy days before twitching and the Internet!>

Hey!! does this mean you are not enjoying it anymore, surely not: lol

I must admit that I am thouroughly enjoying reading all these old birders memories.

Colin

The steam trains I drove were always on time, it was the signals that slowed us down: lol

The new shiny ones got me. They didn't stay new, or clean very long at Saltley.

Dawlish road. My mate lives in Hubert road just up the road from it and my dentist is in Dawlish road. Small world isn't it.

If anyone wants to read a true story regarding me and a runaway steel train down Lickey Bank (near to Bromsgrove) just e-mail me and I will e-mail it back to you as an attachment. I actually won a 3rd prize in a creative writing contest for this story. It's a real frightener.
 
Sorry to put a damper on the keen birders out here, but when was the last time you went out and didn't meet another bird watcher! back then you went weeks without meeting another person, let alone a bird watcher with their 10x50 Boots bins! - close focus to 10 yds and field of view about 2 degrees, plus weighing in at god knows how many pounds! (Christmas present 1966) or war surpless army range finding bins which my dear uncle gave to me god bless him, or draw scopes*$&! perhaps thats what made the leg-ends of today, and all those subsequent stiff necks?

Mind you, I'm not disputing the quality of 21st century optics they are wonderful, especially as my eyes are very dodgy nowadays and need all the help they can get.

Great birding

Paul
 
Paul,
My bins were a brand called Regent and were 10x50. My Mom bought them for me from the local chemist. They were cheap because she could not afford much but they did the trick although they were very heavy...my neck muscles rivalled any formula 1 racing driver then.


John,
Hey, that dentist must be the one on the corner of Dawlish Road and Exeter Road. Before it became a dentist this was the emporium of 'Mick's Cafe' which did one of the greatest bacon butties in the world, probably second only to the famous or infamous 'Smokey Joes' in Northfield which only closed on Christmas Day. Sadly, this cafe has long gone as well. A lettuce and tomato baguette is not quite the same as a bacon buttie with the bacon fried in dripping and as you bit into it the.....no I can't type any more with that thought...lol As you say...a very small world.


Colin .....needs wellies now cos he's really deep in nostalgia
 
Hi folks,

My interest started when I was 10, I used to drag my Dad out and down those narrow Devon lanes, with just a note book and a keen eye!!! When he realised it wasnt just a passing fad,my Dad invested in a pair of bins,with we took it in turns to look through..... would you beleive!!!Can you imagine scanning mudflats now with a set of 8 x 30 bins,trying to pin down the finer points of godwits,miles away....with a dodgy old fieldguide!!!!After a while and with a birthday set of bins for myself there was no holding us back, and our list grew with our interest.My Dad is still birding himself and like most of you im sure,have a group of good local birding mate's..
 
I'm not knocking my parents, my 1966 Christmas present was the best ever ( I have no idea of the cost, not that much as we were not exactly over blessed with income etc. in those days) and the bino's lasted me at least 20 years until the coatings were completely worn away. Its just the fact that birdwatchers were a very rare breed in those days, with none of the support systems available today -technology, information, communications! Its been strange watching the explosion of the hobby (sport)/interest over the last 5 years, its quiet amazing really.

Good birding

Paul
 
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Colin

Well we all need a bit of nostalgia in our life and that is what this thread is all about, and we are getting buckets of it: lol
 
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