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Urban Birder on Countryfile (1 Viewer)

I do agree with you mate,I just think that what he said in a very short clip is just aimed at getting people aware that birds as a subject do frequent urban areas and are worth looking at,it's also nice for people to realise that at different times of the year different birds frequent urban areas from other times.
I think it's very easy to be critical on such a very small clip and had he had another 3-4 minutes I think his reasoning would of showed through better
 
To be honest, this whole "Urban Birder" stuff completely does my head in. If you want to get people interested in birds, I've got a better idea... instead of having them wandering round their local high street with a pair of binoculars round their neck looking up, encourage them to take a bus out of town and appreciate our countryside, or even a nature reserve. This way they might have a better chance of seeing something amazing, and be inspired to do it again. They might even be more understanding of the pressures the Countryside and truely threatened habitats are facing from urban sprawl.

Like he does on his Urban Birder tours and holidays.. I don't see many cities featured on those!

Peter
The Sewage Treatment Works Birder
 
I am not familiar with David's TV work, but I guess urban birding probably resolves about those BIG parks, picnic spots and riverbanks where families can easily spend a nice day in nature with those mentioned high buildings forming the horizon line behind the trees, while birders come early in the morning?

I don't think anyone would expect many birds in high streets. In our city if you are a resident you probably have a monthly bus pass that takes you everywhere within city limits, including the fringe areas that ARE the countryside by their ecological parameters. You use that bus pass for getting to work or doing errands, but it is also valid when you decide to go to the local smallish mountain, riverbank, fishpond (this one you have to organize in advance). I regularly visit two patches that are across the city from where I live - I just get into the bus at our corner.
 
I think the emphasis on "urban" is to highlight that birding is something for everyone, even working class black kids from inner London.
 
Surely the bloke is entitled to turn up in whatever habitat he likes,he states his favourite birding is in towns and built up areas because its a challenge,mine is estuary birding but it doesnt stop me birding in the local woods or farmland.
 
JTweedie said:
I think the emphasis on "urban" is to highlight that birding is something for everyone, even working class black kids from inner London.
Click to expand...

No, it's about seeing blocks of flats as mountains and clifftops, ignoring people, and looking up. and "anything can turn up at any time any place".

That's from the website.

I'm not having a go at the chap, I just don't get it.. why encourage people to go birding in the most difficult, challenging, bird-restricted environment.. when rural habitats and countryside is on your doorstep, a bus ride away in most cases. Barnes or Rainham Marshes for Londoners. That would be a lot better than gazing up at tower blocks.

you don't even have to ignore people at the nature reserves!
 
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peter.jones said:
No, it's about seeing blocks of flats as mountains and clifftops, ignoring people, and looking up. and "anything can turn up at any time any place".

That's from the website.

I'm not having a go at the chap, I just don't get it.. why encourage people to go birding in the most difficult, challenging, bird-restricted environment.. when rural habitats and countryside is on your doorstep, a bus ride away in most cases. Barnes or Rainham Marshes for Londoners. That would be a lot better than gazing up at tower blocks.

you don't even have to ignore people at the nature reserves!
Click to expand...

Why not? If you're a kid growing up in say Tower Hamlets or Camden it isn't going to be immediately obvious that there are Peregrines, Sparrowhawks, Woodpeckers, Black Redstarts etc a short walk away or even overhead. Barnes and Rainham are a fair distance from quite a lot of London and charge to get in. To the uninitiated, city parks and wasteground might look fairly unpromising for birding and I'm guessing part of David Lindo's intention is to encourage people to look a little closer.
This of course also goes for adults who may only have time to bird on
lunchbreaks or for an hour or two after work.
Obviously this doesn't just apply to London but the distance from true countryside is probably significantly further than for most other cities.
 
I agree. I think parks and wasteground would be a big improvement to looking up at tower blocks pretending they are mountains, and ignoring people. London for instance has masses of parkland and lakes, free for all.

Found this on his website.. http://www.theurbanbirder.com/urban-birding/
which makes a bit more sense than the home page that had me slightly bewildered to be honest.

Also, his first criteria for binoculars.. "has to look cool" I thought was slightly bonkers, but good luck to him. He's obviously very popular on here.
 
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I know and have worked with David, and admire him. However, I am also keenly aware that by taking the moniker of 'The Urban Birder' he has backed himself into a cul-de-sac. He is beginning to sound like a one-trick pony. There are only so many talks, TV snippets, magazine columns or features etc. that he can do on 'urban birding'. We all get the message now. We all kinda knew it anyway: nature lives in cities as well. So in an attempt to re-engage and diversify David has gone down the route of wildlife holidays, but again is weakened by rather incongruous offerings such as 'Urban Birder' holidays to Serbia and Shetland. Just how big is city centre Lerwick?

Moving forward, I wish that David would say more on the challenges and opportunities of being a person of colour and ethnicity in the British birding scene. I think here, in a considered and reflective way, he could carve out a new and distinctive voice for himself in the coming years with a new and important message for us all to muse on.

RAL
 
ral2 said:
I know and have worked with David, and admire him. However, I am also keenly aware that by taking the moniker of 'The Urban Birder' he has backed himself into a cul-de-sac. He is beginning to sound like a one-trick pony. There are only so many talks, TV snippets, magazine columns or features etc. that he can do on 'urban birding'. We all get the message now. We all kinda knew it anyway: nature lives in cities as well. So in an attempt to re-engage and diversify David has gone down the route of wildlife holidays, but again is weakened by rather incongruous offerings such as 'Urban Birder' holidays to Serbia and Shetland. Just how big is city centre Lerwick?

Moving forward, I wish that David would say more on the challenges and opportunities of being a person of colour and ethnicity in the British birding scene. I think here, in a considered and reflective way, he could carve out a new and distinctive voice for himself in the coming years with a new and important message for us all to muse on.

RAL
Click to expand...

Actually I feel that the longer we go on just being people and avoiding labels (apart from dude, birder, twitcher, stringer of course) the better. I have enough of LGBT mentors, women's networks etc at work. Keep birding for people!

John
 
Urban birder

peter.jones said:
Put it this way.. He turns up in a whole range of habitats!

I don't get it, that's all!
Click to expand...
Hi there its surpriseing what you can see
in your own garden without bird feeders our neibour always has a feeder
up so they never struggle but yes in the garden I have had and still do
at times had some interesting times in September takeing counts of
meadow pipit as they fly ssw or sw on migration I hear the call before
I see the bird as they fly over perhaps 10 one day and 20 another but
that's just across my garden and they still pass over into October perhaps
a few birds into November along with meadow pipit, skylark will also show again I hear them before I see them either singletons or in groups of 2 or 3
or 4 from either late September or early October again some into November
flying the same directions ssw or sw during these watches I have also
seen once a greenshank briefly heard before seeing as he flew from west
to east in September and also on one or more occasions small flocks of
golden plover flying sw in September or October with buzzard also just
circleing over head last September thou I usely hear them other times
calling and see them from my garden like today 3 birds together and have
seen hobby a number of times fly over a pair once but its been many hours
put together over so many years to see these birds along with others
I live in a urban area but not to far from farm land and private estate
land so perhaps more lucky than most but with a good mix of patience
time of the year and luck you could be surprised what you see from your own garden.......;)
 
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