Listless Birding

I’m a little demotivated today. I hate birding on a Sunday morning when Uncle Tom Cobley and all head away from their TV screens to discover life in the big wide world and take their bikes, noisy dogs, scruffy kids and bored old aunties to normally quiet birding spots. Not to worry. I went to feed the Linnets and then found a birdy story on the Internet that might interest readers. 

The Daily Mail 30th October 2016 by Environmental Correspondent - Chloris Cliff 

“The normally sedate world of bird watching was thrown into turmoil and controversy this week over accusations about bird watchers, or ‘birders’ as they are known in the trade, cheating on their bird lists. 

Serious birders compile lists of birds. Being serious implies knowing about look-alike species and subspecies, the various plumages, and having a systematic-enough mind to not be slapdash when assembling the lists. Bird lists are not meant to be fun. Each entry evokes memories of sometimes expensive, lengthy and difficult journeys to exotic or sometimes dull and dreary places to see a bird. The bird becomes a "trophy" testifying to bird-spotting prowess and a willingness to invest time and boundless competitive energy to see more species than the next birder. 

Any hint that a serious birder might deliberately deceive fellow birders by inflating or inventing part of a list is viewed as a serious matter whereby the culprit is a scallywag at best or in the worst case, someone to be pitied. 

But now one birder at least has been found out, “spotted” as it were, in different locations when he claimed to be in the queue of several thousand dedicated birders waiting patiently to view a Siberian Accentor through a chain-link fence. The rare sparrow lookalike unexpectedly appeared at Easington in East Yorkshire in late October many thousands of miles from its home. The birder concerned later confessed to a birding acquaintance that on that very day he was actually near his home conducting a bird survey on behalf of his local bird watching club and then took a stroll around his local birding patch. He finished his day by ticking the Siberian Accentor via the Internet and a high quality video of the actual bird which had already been posted on You Tube.

Needless to say this particular trusting birder’s confidence was betrayed, and within a day or so he was publicly outed as a fraud and his previously admired list of bird ticks labelled as a work of fiction. 

I tracked “Robin” down but he asked me not to identify him by his real name or birding “handle”, the latter the nickname used by his regular circle of birding friends. If I disclosed his identity he would be subject to an even greater amount of disdain and ridicule than that recently suffered. 

Robin told me; 'I twitched rare birds all the time until recently. I’ve spent years and large amounts of cash travelling the UK to see the latest rarity to appear on my pager, often skipping work and sleep to be amongst the first to arrive at the location. I’m in the Top Ten of birders in the Britain Year List for 2016 and over the 500 mark in the Britain Life List. Recently my marriage broke up when my wife left me for a nine-to-five office worker who is a part time body-builder. And then I lost my job in the PPI call centre because of my poor time keeping and attendance record. I’m trying to pull my life together and get back to normal.'

'And then one at home one day I was idly looking at bird videos on You Tube and the latest rarity pictures on Bird Forum, and I realised that digital and virtual reality, was the way to go. You see, in recent years there are some seriously good photographs and videos of all the latest rarities on the Internet. All you have to do is a Google search and you can be there in good quality video or see whole pages and pages of pictures of most rarities that turn up. It’s as good as the real thing without the financial cost and the mental trauma and anxiety involved in travelling hundreds of miles. And it allows me to get in some real birding in my local area, something I neglected in recent years. It’s Carbon Friendly and my lists are as good and lengthy as ever, up there with the best UK birders. I’m not bothered by what others think. These birds are on my various lists and staying there. Lots of people I know are doing their birding this way now.'

I asked Robin if I could see his bird lists; he told me they are: 

1. Garden list - all the birds seen on his property 

2. Year list 

3. County list 

4. Life list - all the birds since he started bird watching some 35 years ago 

5. Big day list – the maximum number of species he’s seen in 24 hours 

6. The Big Sit - a list of species seen from within a 12 foot radius circle in a 24 hour period 

7. Photo list – the number of bird species he has photographed 

8. Zoo list - all the birds seen in zoos 

9. Television and cinema list - all the bird species seen or heard on TV or cinema
“ Check out Sky Sports – it’s good for Australian gulls” he advised. 

10. Street names that are bird names. Quite by coincidence, Robin lives in Lapwing Close, Warrington.

I contacted the Bird Listing Organisation for Birders (BLOB) for their thoughts on this latest trend in seeing and listing birds. 

A spokesman who did not wish to be named told me 'We do not condone ticking birds seen via the Internet, TV, cinema, books or other publications. Birding is a serious pastime and should always be undertaken in that spirit.'"

Linking today to Stewart's World Bird Wednesday.