A listless birder

admin
, 24 January 2025
A listless birder
Avocet © Barry Yates

David Bentley

Volunteer and Trustee of the Friends of Rye Harbour Nature Reserve

It's New Years Day about ten years ago and I'm straining to see through half-light and full-drizzle to see the grebe on the far side of Castle Water. I can hardly make out the bird, let alone any details. After half an hour, the light and weather improves and I start to make sense of the bird. I can see that the bird's forehead is steep, rising up into a 'policeman's-helmet-shaped' head. Other features come into focus and I can now be sure that it's a Black-necked and not a Slavonian Grebe. I feel a surge of disappointment. I've already seen a Black-necked Grebe today and I've 'wasted' time that could've been spent looking for other birds to add to my brand-new Year List. That evening, I look through the long list of birds I've seen that day at Rye Harbour Nature Reserve and I'm still vexed that Slavonian Grebe isn't on it.

Slavonian Grebe
Slavonian Grebe © Peter Brooks

As the year progressed, I had many great days of birding, but if any day didn't include a 'tick' for my Year List, I was left feeling slightly dissatisfied. Until eventually a penny dropped. I realised that I didn't have to continue with this 'madness'. I decided that I would never do a Year List ever again. And I haven't. And I enjoy my birding so much more.

While I've found that most 'listing' is not for me, I recognise that for many other birders, it's an enjoyable, integral part of their hobby. For many birders, lists are at the very heart of their hobby... year lists, house lists, county lists, patch lists, UK lists, Western Palaearctic lists, TV lists, football ground lists... Lists encourage them to seek out new species, travel to different places and expand their birding knowledge. Their lists drive their enthusiasm to see more. For some 'twitchers' listing becomes competitive, a race to see more birds than others until, for a very few, listing might become the hobby itself.

Birdwatching at Denny Hide
Birdwatching at Denny hide © Barry Yates

I do keep one bird list, and that's a Day List, almost every time I go out. I find this keeps me focussed, checking every bird closely in case it's new for the day. It also allows me to put my days findings onto BirdTrack* and helps a tiny bit with monitoring bird populations. But there's no disappointment, because every single day there are loads of 'ticks'!

I now do almost all of my birding within walking or cycling distance of my Rye home, letting the birds come to me, rather than chasing them. Sometimes I wonder if I've gone in on myself. I'm aware that in some ways, I'm limiting my experiences and my birding education. I know I'll see fewer species than many other birders but, for now, that's the way I like it - and how lucky am I that I can walk to Rye Harbour Nature Reserve! I'm certainly not going to criticise other birders for doing things differently, each to their own, I say. I think some form of recording the birds we see is essential and valuable, but whether we are driven by lists or not is up to each birder. We should all find our best way to enjoy birds and let others enjoy them their way.

Rye Harbour Nature Reserve
Rye Harbour Nature Reserve © Stuart Conway

* BirdTrack is a BTO/RSPB scheme that allows observers to store and manage their own bird records. This country-wide 'citizen science' helps support species conservation. You can find out more about it here.

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Comments

  • Jonathan Chiswell Jones:

    I liked your ‘discovery’- keeping a list, like so many of our activities, is an apparent achievement which drives a person on, but is a distraction from the present and from what is there in front of us. To appreciate the present is an art worth cultivating.

    15 Feb 2025 08:30:00

  • Alan Kenworthy:

    A great piece. Never a competent birder, I gave up my ‘life’ list a long time ago, though I still enjoy seeing what I know to be a lifer. I’ve moved on to smaller things, and though I don’t keep lists, I have a collection – a photo collection of all that nature provides and can be seen through a viewfinder.

    15 Feb 2025 09:53:00

  • Caroline:

    So good to see this article, it mirrors my own view exactly. Thank you for sharing

    15 Feb 2025 18:20:00

  • David Phillips:

    A salutary lesson for many maybe? The quiet enjoyment of the day perhaps at the forefront rather than the often frenetic overbearing pressures of “ the list”? Enjoyed this reflection

    16 Feb 2025 07:50:00

  • H George:

    What a sound and refreshing approach. We had a Napoleon’s gull turn up here a few years ago, and the people who came, with their white sliced bread, to tempt the gull, were um, well. I so agree – let the birds come to you. That’s what I do in my back garden!

    20 Feb 2025 19:26:00

  • J.Worrell:

    I do so agree with David’s view that we should be more content to remain and explore our local area and wildlife. I have always felt that the obsession with rushing around the countryside and indeed, the world, in order to count as many species as possible, is hugely damaging to our environment, often inadvertently killing all sorts of creatures.

    21 Feb 2025 18:12:00

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