KenM
Well-known member
I'm with you there lulubelle......:t:
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Do You Birdwatch even when you are not actually Birding? (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Euan Buchan
- Start date
I'm with you there lulubelle......:t:
I've enjoyed this thread, but I've had a slightly off beat (well maybe not) thought about it. Apart from those very rare cases where bird watching is passed down through the generations, none of us was born with a pair of binoculars around our necks, or a spotting scope slung over our shoulder. I suspect that a large number of us got into birdwatching without realizing we were actually doing it. I started because, as I was walking the hills & woods on a day out, I began to notice the number of different types of bird there appeared to be out there. That automatic 'non-birdwatching birdwatching' persuaded me to buy a decent pair of binoculars; then a bird identity guide (or two!); then a scope; - you recognize the picture? So, when I'm now out walking my dog, or in the car (if my wife is driving), or even sat at home reading , I am always birdwatching because it's how I (and, as I said, many others) actually started.
Welsh Peregrine
Well-known member
Two comments - a) I know a birder who has Honey Buzzard on his list of birds recorded while he has been "at it", I believe in a hide at the time! b) Egyptian Goose is the one species on my "seen in flight from a crusing jet aeroplane" list - a pair flying very high over Southern Africa"!!!
The sniper
Well-known member
I think I have managed a great tit while on he "job"
wildlifelove
Hopefully Birding...
Even when I don't have my bins on me I'm still aware of nature going on around me. There's been many a time I've been walking through a town or city and heard something and just stopped and looked skyward - I'll often get complete strangers stopping and looking up too. I always point out what I'm looking at in the hope it might get even one more person interested :t:
Does anybody else also keep one eye/ear open for birds on tv programmes too? I have a feeling I can't be the only oneThere's been a few times a programme (usually one of Neil's gadget ones) will be somewhere abroad and whilst hubby is drooling over bits of machinery I'll be looking into the distance BEHIND the presenter and trying to work out what that bird was!!! I even once did that with the new series of Hawaii Five-O on Sky One :-O There's McGarrett & Co staking out a warehouse and I'm distracted by the colourful bird hopping around in the car park behind them! I made Neil rewind it so I could get a better look :-O
I also, like a few fellow 'sufferers' on BF, have Birder's Tourettes where we will randomly call out, for example, ''Ooh blackcap singing....'' in the middle of a conversation :-O Neil is used to it now after 15 years but I do tend to get odd looks off other folk who don't know me that well :king:
Once a birder, always a birder
I know what you mean about little outbursts of bird species . Il mumble to my self on many occasions when seeing birds while walking. I think enjoying birds like robins ect really makes you thankful for the wildlife we have around us.
Gill Osborne
Well-known member
Yes, people DO that, don't they! :-O
Earlier this summer I was walking to work and heard the alarm call swallows makle when there's a sparrowhawk nearby and I just stopped and gazed upwards until I saw the hawk lazily circling over the Market Place :t: It wasn't until I looked back down that I realised there were about five other people around me looking up :-O I told them what I'd been looking at even tho' the hawk had flown over by then :king:
Brian2
Well-known member
It's an obsession...from the kitchen window, whilst driving, from the office, whilst on holiday....all day every day I'm looking at birds and thinking "what's that?"
I think it's great to have an appreciation of the nature around us and I often feel sorry for those walking along completely unaware of what they've just missed.
I think it's great to have an appreciation of the nature around us and I often feel sorry for those walking along completely unaware of what they've just missed.
Mike Montier
Well-known member
Well said Brian, I often have that very thought. I do sometimes say out loud, "Look, there is a Red Kite" (or whatever) and I am usually ignored or given a wide berth. Such a shame as I believe I am the lucky one.
KenM
Well-known member
Perhaps going off at a slight tangent...but in the spirit of the thread...as an analogy to Lulubelle's last post. Several years ago (believe it was June 1st?), I was walking around Lincoln's Inn, (a park) Central London, a very quiet sunny Saturday..I'd just passed 2 men chatting with a woman, sitting on a park bench..when the most amazing!!! roar of aero engines obliterated the silence! I looked up as this thunderous sound became even louder! then through the trees emerged a Lancaster bomber..flanked by a Spitfire and a Hurricane, literally just ''creasing'' the chimney pots...instantaneously the hairs on my neck were erect like a paint brush! and I'm not ashamed to say a lump in my throat! and a tear in my eye. I blurted ''Lancaster..Hurricane and Spitfire!''..In unison they looked at me..as though I should have been incarcerated in the nearest asylum. I expect Lulubelle at least got..have a nice day?
Farnboro John
Well-known member
Hi all,
Always looking where ever I am. There is no way I could now play any out door sport. Could you imagine your partner trying for a 'birdie' ;-) on the green and you suddenly shout out 'SPRAWK'!!!?...........probably be banned from the club for life. No once 'birding' is in the blood so to speak then you do it everywhere.
tara4now
Graham
Always looking where ever I am. There is no way I could now play any out door sport. Could you imagine your partner trying for a 'birdie' ;-) on the green and you suddenly shout out 'SPRAWK'!!!?...........probably be banned from the club for life. No once 'birding' is in the blood so to speak then you do it everywhere.
tara4now
Graham
of course I 'bird' when I am out! The funny thing is the vast numbers around me(you) who completely miss the event!
A few years back at Lightwater Valley two lines of tourists queueing for icecreams about 6 feet apart. A blue tit was nesting in a gap in the kiosk hording at about shoulder height.The parents made six or seven vists whilst we stood there. No-one said a word, ponted them out to the kids.
Waiting for the boss to finish her shoppoing and heard gulls mobbing so got out oif the car. there over the Promenade in Cheltenham was a red Kite quietly circling the town. My first for this area!
Used the old derelict Surrey Docks for A level biology teaching so now am lost in the posh housing! But then missed three ferries over to Canary Wharf as was too busy watching a three-way fight between Heron, Black Backs and a Crow for a large dead bream!
David Elcombe the RSPB Education officer always started his lecture to students with" What animals did you see on the way here this morning?" Of course mainly dogs,cats, squirrels but then he would ask about non-pets and so lead them to the fact that they would always see birds even in the centre of cities.
A few years back at Lightwater Valley two lines of tourists queueing for icecreams about 6 feet apart. A blue tit was nesting in a gap in the kiosk hording at about shoulder height.The parents made six or seven vists whilst we stood there. No-one said a word, ponted them out to the kids.
Waiting for the boss to finish her shoppoing and heard gulls mobbing so got out oif the car. there over the Promenade in Cheltenham was a red Kite quietly circling the town. My first for this area!
Used the old derelict Surrey Docks for A level biology teaching so now am lost in the posh housing! But then missed three ferries over to Canary Wharf as was too busy watching a three-way fight between Heron, Black Backs and a Crow for a large dead bream!
David Elcombe the RSPB Education officer always started his lecture to students with" What animals did you see on the way here this morning?" Of course mainly dogs,cats, squirrels but then he would ask about non-pets and so lead them to the fact that they would always see birds even in the centre of cities.
jimmmer
Well-known member
The wife and i took the kinds to the Amusement Park on my way we pass a pond, just a catchment of water after the rains and right away i started planning my escape which i did with cramera in hand, i never leave home without my camera, got good shots of a couple Moorhen, Snips and a Spotted Sandipiper the wife just laugh
Stratton Birder
Well-known member
Every now and again I get the bus from Long Stratton to Norwich - a distance of about 10 miles taking roughly 25 mins. I often see how many species I can spot on the journey. Usually between 15-20. Cant think what my best recent bird is offhand - probably Buzzard and Little Egret.
You'd think I was making it up but this morning while on the bus going into Norwich I looked out of the window and there were three Waxwings perched on top of a tree! Luckily there was a stop almost opposite and I was off that bus like a shot to enjoy some fab close-up views. I then happily walked the last mile into the city
timbobaggins
Well-known member
All the time ... it would probably make a good if somewhat 'nerdy' study to see just how many times I look into the sky whilst walking in towns and driving around - it drives my girlfriend and my daughters mad but its just what us birders do ... all the time!
I remember on my first & second trip to Florida we all went to Disney I wasn't that bothered on going on the big rides in fact I don't like them so while everyone was on the rides I was happy just to watch Rosette Spoonbills.
Cheshire Birder
Well-known member
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