22 years of Birding (1 Viewer)

[Euan Buchan]

Can’t believe on Friday it will be 22 years ago I first started Birding. I will go to my first ever local patch which was the Botanics in Edinburgh. How I know my anniversary date is because I have kept my old notebooks and my first notebook has the date. Do you remember your birding anniversary?

 

[Julie50]

I unfortunately cannot find my earliest books - hence the double date on my signature. But I am going with about 7 years since my birdforum name is Julie50 lol

 

[Merlin]

Can’t believe on Friday it will be 22 years ago I first started Birding. I will go to my first ever local patch which was the Botanics in Edinburgh. How I know my anniversary date is because I have kept my old notebooks and my first notebook has the date. Do you remember your birding anniversary?

I had an Observers Book of Birds on my eleventh birthday, I thought it was a wonderful book which surprisingly even had Golden Oriole, I'm sure I use to have daydreams about actually seeing one, needless to say it took many years before I did.
I hate to admit it but but it is my seventy fifth birthday next week, please, you work out the arithmetic.

regards
Merlin

 

[earthdragon64]

Well done! I don't have an anniversary date as such, I've always been interested in birds and other wildlife in passing, but didn't start taking an active interest until the early 2000s. Around that time I stopped working full-time and started noticing a lot of different wildlife whilst walking my dog. Also at that time the Cairngorm National Park ran a lot of wildlife-related workshops, identification and habitat mostly. I attended a few of them and my previous casual interest grew and I developed a praticular interest in recording wildlife, if you don't know where it is, you can't conserve it. My earliest record in Birdtrack is August 4th 2005 so that will be 20 years next year.

 

[michalb]

I've had a continuous (though varying in intensity, let's say) interest in birds and nature in general ever since I can remember, but my first organized attempt at keeping notes on which birds I saw, where and when was in 1993, when I was 13.

My first ever bird "checklist" is from 2.01.1993 in my neighbourhood, noted to start at noon. I saw four species:
Rook - Corvus frugilegus
Jackdaw - Corvus monedula
House Sparrow - Passer domesticus
Black-headed gull - Chroicephalus ridibundus (then still in Larus)

Later that day I added a further 8 species on my hometown beach, so I can say I ended my first day of "organized birding" with a list of 12 species

And yes, I did enter it to eBird, together with dozens others from that year, as I still have a few notebooks where I kept bird records in hand-drawn tables

 

[Mysticete]

June of 2002, so almost 22 years as well.

Wow...writing it down really makes it hit home how long I have been in the hobby!

 

[SlowLowFlyingTurkey]

I don't have a specific date because I can't remember a time when I wasn't interested in birds and nature. At primary school in the 70s a couple of friends and I were members of a local field club and went on coach trips to various East Anglian reserves. I vivdly remember a trip to Minsmere, and also being shown Stone Curlews at Cavenham Heath. According to an old I-Spy book that I still have, I also went to Holme and other places that I can't remember visiting. At this time I also received my first binoculars and bird guide for Christmas.

At middle and upper school I didn't exactly lose interest in birds, but at the same time I didn't specifically go out looking for them. I got back into birding more seriously in 1983 at the age of 16 and started keeping notebooks the following year. My first entry is a trip to Fowlmere RSPB on 28th July 1984, where I listed 17 species, so I guess that would be my anniversary date

Since then I've recorded every dedicated birding outing, with the date, location, start and end times, weather, and complete bird list (as well as other sightings). I still have all the notebooks and a few years ago I entered everything onto Birdtrack, just so the data would have some small value beyond gathering dust on a shelf.

 

[Pinewood]

Hello,

It was November, 2022, as I recalled in a post some months later, here on BF. I used a binocular, purchased for other uses, on a walk to Central Park There I saw long eared owls.

Stay safe,
Arthur

 

[Lisa W]

I don’t remember the date, but I do remember the occasion. Two birding friends of my partner came to visit. They really wanted to see an Elegant Trogon that summered in SE Arizona. So we took them and looked and looked and looked - never found it. We were able to show them quite a few of the birds that were in our area. Caught the bug from them. It took me another 4 years before I found a Trogon.

 

[Steve Babbs]

I count my first 'proper' birding as when I first starting writing notes: 28 May 1979 Alton Water by bike at the age of 12. I guess not many 12 year-olds would be allowed to cycle the 6 or so miles without an adult now.

 

[JTweedie]

I can remember staying with my grandparents when I was 6 or 7 and noticing the Blackbirds outside their window. That was probably the first time proper I'd really noticed birds. Later an aunt and uncle got me some binoculars for my birthday. They weren't serious binoculars, but they were enough for me as a primary-school aged boy to better see some of the more distant birds. I lived right on the southern edge of Glasgow and there are fields between where I lived and a small village, and I used to go walking in the fields looking mainly for the Kestrel that I'd see nearly every day.

I don't think I would have thought of myself as a birder or birdwatcher, it was just something I enjoyed. But I got into it properly as a young teenager and went on a train on my own to RSPB Lochwinnoch. I joined the RSPB at the reserve and I was blown away by the birds I could see - first one was a Pheasant running along the path, a bird I had never seen up until then. And in fact, it's the ONLY Pheasant I have ever seen at Lochwinnoch. That was probably around 1990 or 1991.

 

[Prestdj]

started in 1985 aged 12 been hooked eversince

 

[birdboybowley]

21st March 1981, aged 9......kept a day list of every bird seen ever since

 

[KenM]

I hate to admit it but but it is my seventy fifth birthday next week, please, you work out the arithmetic.

regards
Merlin

…..you’re still a dude then!🤣

 

[MikeInPA]

Who remembers the Winter of 1962/1963? I remember the Blue Tits, Great Tit's and Coal Tit's pecking the tin foil milk bottle tops to get at the cream on the top of the milk bottles. That's when I became a bird watcher in the back yard and the front step! I was 10 years old.

 

[Merlin]

…..you’re still a dude then!🤣

Ken

I'm still learning every day.
My enthusiasm is still high, but my bones let me down.

regards
Merlin

 

[KenM]

Who remembers the Winter of 1962/1963? I remember the Blue Tits, Great Tit's and Coal Tit's pecking the tin foil milk bottle tops to get at the cream on the top of the milk bottles. That's when I became a bird watcher in the back yard and the front step! I was 10 years old.

I’ll never forget that Winter Mike was 15 then, with the biggest (heaviest with distance) paper round at the newsagents.😩
Three months with the snow 8” deep, every morning of the week!
Not many cars on the roads in those days, so cycling through the snow was a trifle taxing with 20lbs round ye’r neck (30-40lbs at the weekend) 😮 (would breach health and safety today)….Ah yes remember it well…and the Blue Tits hammering the “Gold Tops”.👍

 

[MikeInPA]

I’ll never forget that Winter Mike was 15 then, with the biggest (heaviest with distance) paper round at the newsagents.😩
Three months with the snow 8” deep, every morning of the week!
Not many cars on the roads in those days, so cycling through the snow was a trifle taxing with 20lbs round ye’r neck (30-40lbs at the weekend) 😮 (would breach health and safety today)….Ah yes remember it well…and the Blue Tits hammering the “Gold Tops”.👍

The cream on the top of those old milk bottles kept a lot of birds alive that Winter I’m sure.

 

[lmans66]

Can’t believe on Friday it will be 22 years ago I first started Birding. I will go to my first ever local patch which was the Botanics in Edinburgh. How I know my anniversary date is because I have kept my old notebooks and my first notebook has the date. Do you remember your birding anniversary?

1989....so 35 years of birding. I still have a piece of paper that has the birds I saw in 1989...both sides of the paper are written on. I wish i had kept a more complete journal in those days of my birding like I do now. I have always journaled for much of my life, but more family, and my kids etc....

 

[Lisa W]

Who remembers the Winter of 1962/1963?

I do I was in the 2nd grade!

And I now know the month and year - June of 1997. Our friends called to ask a question about “the devils weed” today, so I asked when they visited. So 27 years.