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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.
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.