Birders, eBirders and Num-birders - A Lament

It's been a while since I sat down to type a few words on Blogger. In a world full of vloggers, I wonder if bloggers will attract attention any more. 

The whole of the last (2021) Covid lockdown was spent transitioning into a videographer from a photographer. I confess, it needs  a lot of fine tuning and I had to partially abandon the projects as my current hardware wasn't quite capable of keeping up with the needs of Da Vinci Resolve and handling video editing very smoothly.

Therefore, till such time my hardware gets upgraded, I will crib about something that makes me increasingly disheartened about birding.

I have, as I have mentioned time and again, transitioned from 'tigertracking' to 'woodcrawling' over the last few years. Increasing expenses, a growing son and the Covid pandemic in the last two years have ensured that my woodcrawling has been mostly confined to my backyard! 

During the years I spent 'tigertracking', it didn't take very long to realize the pursuit of a tiger or for that matter, any carnivore, was a like searching for the elusive Scarlet Pimpernal. It was, therefore, not very difficult to shift attention to something that didn't need much searching, birds!

Birds are just about anywhere. Open your ears and eyes; they are all around us. The best part is that you don't have to go searching for them, they'll come to you. Of course, some of them, like the elusive tigers, won't come to you but they'll make you go searching for them. For these rare birds, it requires a lot of planning and company of like minded friends. Please don't get the impression that we are a bunch of 'twitchers' and in case you don't know what that word means, take the help of Bing, Google or a more birdy DuckDuckGo search engine! After all, what really matters is the journey and not the destination or target species when you are with the right people. 

Becoming a Birder

So, from randomly shooting birds on my jungle trips more than 20 years ago, I graduated to picking up the field guide to try to identifying them myself.  From a combination of a Bikram Grewal pocket guide and Salim Ali's field guide, I have graduated to half a dozen different guides. I still possess both these books. The pocket guide, in tatters, went with me into the field and Salim Ali remained in my room for reference. Unfortunately, both of them listed details of only under 300 birds combined and quickly became inadequate for a serious birder. 

My collection of field guides now include Grimmett & Inskipps, Krys Kazmierczak, a bigger Bikram Grewal and Rasmussen & Anderton. They cover all possible birds, numbering around a 1300 or more species found on the Indian subcontinent. Not only that, I found my interest in nightjars, owls, raptors and warblers so I have another half a dozen and more books on specific birds. I had become a dedicated birder! 

For a little more than twenty years, I've been honing my skills and have now become quite adept at identifying birds both by sight and sound, thanks to the company of accomplished birders I call friends. We birded the old fashioned way, with a pair of binoculars, handheld GPS, a notebook and pencil. Not all of us carried cameras and if we did, it was a tool for birding. While I don't claim to be an expert or professional, I am now able to identify most of the endemic birds seen in peninsular India and western ghats.

In 2014, I was introduced to the eBird portal and  my randomly scribbled bird lists suddenly became very orderly checklists!  Not only that, my photographs that used to be uploaded unsorted to photo upload social media sites like Picasa, Flickr and Facebook or the old Yahoo Groups, could now be uploaded to a dedicated site for birds. Now, with a click of a mouse, I could get the list of birds I had seen photographed and recorded sounds of. 

In the initial eBird years I carried my field guides with me till I eventually downloaded the eBook version of Grimm-Skipp. Identification of a bird was based on points noted in the field. Photography itself was for recording what we saw. The, so called, eBird checklists were completed after reaching home from memory and notes made in the field. 

From Birder to eBirder

Somewhere around 2015, the eBird mobile app was launched and what it did was cleverly combine checklist for a specific location with GPS coordinates and a live mapping of the tracks we walked during the session. The notebook and pencil, though still an essential part of the birding kit, became redundant. The consequence of this change was that the fun went out of birding.

Earlier, we did make observations in the field but most of the listing was done at the end of a session, with each of us shuffling our memories to remember what we had heard or seen. Usually over a rather sumptuous breakfast for which, planning was done days in advance! Numbers were at best for academic interest and not for competition. 

As time passed most of us realized in the guise of citizen science we were becoming statisticians. The app was like a modern version of the abacus. We were all busy adding to the numbers in the field almost instantaneously, as we were seeing the birds, (I decline to use the term 'observing' here!). All of a sudden the camera's importance grew as media uploads were adding colour and sound to the checklists. Beside photographs, some of us were now recording bird calls as well as shooting videos. 

It became a period where the purpose of each trip seemed to be for adding to the collection of photographs and call recordings. A simple pass time for which the most expensive tool was the binoculars suddenly became quite an expensive hobby. High end cameras and lenses, sophisticated microphones and field audio recorders became a part of our birding armamentarium. 

Gone were the days where we could go into the field with a simple backpack and water bottle. Now we had heavy camera bags, audio recorders and shotgun mics with cables draped around our anatomy. Birding had suddenly lost its simple charm. 

We had become data collection agents but were euphemistically called 'citizen scientists'! Along the way our Birding with Breakfast also took a hit especially after Covid lockdown came into our lives. Not only that, after we returned from a birding trip, substantial amount of time was spent editing and uploading the media files to our eBird checklists.

From eBirder to Num-birders

Of late, the new habits seem to have become completely alienated from traditional birding. The eBird website lines up challenges for each month and some lasting all year. Essentially, it is making birding a competition and one that is becoming very unhealthy. eBirders seem to be more keen to get numbers under their belt than enjoying birding for birding's sake. Not for them are the field guides and binoculars. Most of them are armed with the latest cameras and far reaching lenses. At the sight of a bird they fire away a few hundred shots. Then, the photograph is posted in some birding group with the query, "ID please"! 

As a matter of fact, I have now confirmed my worst fears. Many so called eBirders are on the platform only to get access to information regarding interesting sightings and their locations! I maybe wrong but that is what my gut tells me.

It seems that these bird photographers aren't interested in identifying a bird in the field. The Merlin app is used to identify and sometimes misidentify a bird. Their sole aim seems to be to photograph the maximum number of species in the minimum time. From time to time we see a comment on an eBird checklist, "The first photographic record of ABC species in XYZ location"! Seriously! Who cares?

I am afraid, traditional birding has become a dying art. It is eBirding or Num-birding now and I don't enjoy being a part of this new trend.  Most of the new and young individuals with an eye for birds are following this route now. I don't deny there are a few who still follow the traditional birding habits but most are 'collectors'. They are more interested in acquiring the latest photography gear first, rather than a simple pair of binoculars, and notch up the numbers in double quick time! 

I will continue my contribution to eBird because it aids science and also helps me catalogue my birding experiences more systematically. However, I refuse to be drawn into Num-birding. I have made sufficient contribution in terms of media uploads, both photographs and audio recordings. Despite my reduced activity, I'm surprised that my name is included in the list of prolific birders contributing to eBird! However, unless I go out and explore newer territories for my future birding adventures, I'm afraid I'll not be making much contributions in the foreseeable future. 

For that, Covid has to decide that it has punished humans enough. However, it seems we still haven't learnt our lessons, two years into the pandemic. As for me, I'm not leaving my comfort zone in a hurry and no numbers can tempt me to embark on a birding trip to locations where I can add to my species list substantially. 

At this point of time in life, perhaps the twilight zone for me, I prefer to be with Funny Friends, Feathered Fiends and Food, in no particular order or location!

After all, I'm a Woodcrawler first and everything else afterwards!

Avian Orchestrations - Part 1: Birding by the Ears

A little over four months ago, the first Covid-19 case was reported in Kerala, on 30th January. Subsequently, as the number of cases started shooting up, Kerala went for a lock down from the 23rd March 2020 and the nation followed suit the next day. We are now into the third month and still don't know how long it will continue.

Indian Peafowl (Male)

As usual, Pinks are Links. Click on the caption of each photograph to listen to the bird!

In the initial phase of the lock down, when movement of people were strictly monitored, all of us were confined to our houses, a self-imprisonment induced by an invisible Corona. Suddenly, our eyes and ears became sharper and we started seeing and hearing things we never noticed before, in our monotonous lives! Social media was flooded with messages of animals, birds, fish and all assorted creatures moving around places deserted by homo sapiens. Whether they were moving around with greater freedom now or it was only that we never had time to notice their presence among us, only time will tell. In any case, suddenly, everyone became nature enthusiasts overnight!

Asian Koel (male)

Greater coucal

It is debatable whether nature took over when we temporarily abandoned spaces. Yes, there are definite indications that mammals, large and small, have started re-entering spaces that was rightfully theirs but birds, fish, reptiles and amphibians were probably around all the time but we were too busy to notice. Of these, I can vouch for the birds. I have been pursuing them obsessively for a few years now and I know they have been around us all the time. The people who were used to leaving home early to beat the traffic and and returning late evening would have missed the show. Obviously, if you stop commuting during the critical hours of dawn and dusk, the eyes and ears start noticing thing they didn't see or hear earlier. No surprise there!

Red whiskered bulbul

Red vented bulbul

To most of us, it is the visual identification which is mandatory for anything to imprint in our brain. It is rarely that a call from the dense canopy 40 or 50  feet above us or from among the reeds in a pond, registers as a bird call or song. Without a mental image, the majority of us, cannot link a sound with anything animate or inanimate. Most of us have to 'see' the source of the sound to connect it to a sound, not the other way around.

Brahminy kite

Shikra

When I started paying attention to birds, it was because my interest was to photograph them. It was, therefore, of paramount importance that I not only saw the bird but also found it on an ideal perch. That was what a 'good photograph' demanded. Slowly, as I turned from being just another 'bird watcher' and photographer to a listener, I had transformed into a birder. In exalted company of a few like minded friends, my auditory apparatus perked up and eventually overtook my visual apparatus! My photography gear ceased to be as exciting as before, since my ears were now getting more adept at identifying birds.

Barn owl

Indian grey hornbill

Over a period of time, I realized that I was listing birds based on auditory clues than visual ones. It was a completely new experience and the 'photographic eye' didn't matter any more. It used to be disappointing, earlier, if I couldn't sight a bird and get a photograph. Now, I didn't have to see one to know who was hiding from me. My ears had evolved!

House crow

Large billed crow

For, those who had started enjoying the beauty of birds during your self-imposed confinement over the last few weeks, I'm sure having to go back to work again will be depriving you of the simple pleasures of watching that bundle of feather go about its daily routine. Something you had grown used too, that helped soothe your frayed nerves and kept you busy during an otherwise frustrating lock down.

Common myna

Rufous treepie

Rose-ringed parakeet

Fear not, you can still enjoy the company of your feathered friends even if you are in your office. If you have an office with a garden, all the more better. There is no place with human presence, that birds haven't adapted to. All you have to do is perk up your ears and listen to the world outside, especially if your boss is screaming at you for nothing! It will definitely help you keep your cool.

White cheeked barbet

Racket tailed drongo

Considering that the Corona issue continues to smoulder, flare up and smoulder again with no end in sight in the foreseeable future, birdsong will help you tide over this crisis in more ways than one. You can keep your boss out of your ear, your children entertained and  your spouse happy because you are overflowing with the milk of human kindness. All thanks to the mellifluous tones the birds pour out around you.

White throated kingfisher

Stork billed kingfisher

Paradise flycatcher (white morph male)

This post is peppered with photos of various commonly seen birds around our homes and office (in South India mainly). You may have either seen them or heard them but rarely connected the visual and auditory components to one bird. Unfortunately Blogger doesn't allow direct audio file uploads so I've put the link to the audio file in the caption of the photos.

Black-rumped flameback woodpecker

Yellow billed babbler

Oriental magpie robin

Each caption is link, which, when clicked, will take you to the Macaulay Library Archives (← click here for link) of bird songs. That is where I have uploaded many of the bird calls (and photographs) that I have recorded. Once you are familiar with the song, you can identify the bird even if it is singing from somewhere far away and out of sight.

Common tailorbird

Pale-billed flowerpecker

Purple-rumped sunbird

Loten's (large billed) sunbird

House sparrow

This is, by no means, a complete list of birds seen or heard around us. Common birds differ according to location, altitude and habitat, so for a given location the list of birds in that area will be slightly different. I may have omitted many species, either because it is not seen commonly in the place I live in or because I don't have audio records of my own for them. You can check Macaulay Library (← click here for link) or Xeno-Canto (← click here for link) for more audio records.

If you want to know more about any species that you run across, I'd suggest you look at some of the dedicated birding sites. One of the most comprehensive sites is the eBird website (← click here for link) where you can explore more details of the bird you have seen or heard.

Finally, no bird calls or sings in a monotonous fashion. Every bird has a large repertoire of songs that is usually reserved for different seasons and situations. Bird song is more elaborate and usually heard during mating season while bird calls are short and used to warn the flock or keep in contact. Some birds imitate very well and the racket tailed drongo is an expert mimic, able to imitate other birds, animals or even inanimate things.  So if you listen only to one track, you might be missing some serious talent. Select a species on one of the above mentioned websites and listen to all the various calls and songs a bird is capable of.

I hope this post gives you a stimulus to 'look' at bird with your ears. Even during your busy day, tune your ears to pick up the bird outside your window. It will be a lifetime of free music!

When a Birder killed the Blogger

More than a dozen years a have passed since I started blogging. After a few fledgling years as ‘tigertracker’, I transitioned into the ‘woodcrawler’. That was because, realization dawned that a forest and the wilderness was not only about tigers or any big cat for that matter. It denizens ranged from the tiny ticks that jump on you when given a chance, to the gentle pachyderms that mostly ignore you if you leave them alone. 

Then something happened in late 2014. Till then ‘woodcrawling’ meant just that, crawling in the woods. Of course, if you thought I was crawling on hands and knees, I forgive you for being mistaken! I would essentially wander around absorbing the sights and sounds of the forest. It would instill a sense of peace and well-being deep inside me that I was once again recharged to take on the big bad world. It was in the November of 2014 that I started taking a more serious note of the avian aspect of nature. Till then, birds were like a tiger, leopard or an elephant, a part of the jigsaw of nature. Suddenly, they became so large in my mind that they dwarfed the mighty elephants too!

 

It was a mere formality, signing up on the eBird portal and ‘documenting’ my birding adventures. At that time, I didn’t realize that it would become an Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and induce certain behavioural changes in me that would make people give me strange looks. It also ‘mortally wounded’ the blog that it effectively killed off the ‘Woodcrawler’s Journal’. All my time, free and otherwise was devoted to birds and bird documentation. Even if I had a little spare time, I was invariably making ‘checklists’ on eBird. While sitting in my office, my ears would be like a Doberman’s, all perked up and listening to birds outside; and my brain would whir and click, cataloguing and classifying the birds I heard. The moment I got a few minutes free, I’d open the eBird app and start a new ‘checklist’!

The consequence of this was that the ‘Woodcrawler’s Journal’ effectively went into a deep comatose state. The posts dried up after 2015 and the few that appeared were related to birds. After a post in February 2017, the next one was after nearly a year, in January 2018. That last post was actually about trying to revive my dying blog, even the ‘Messenger from the Wilderness’, though a full grown tusker was unable to drag it out of the quagmire called birding! 

Now, a year after and many birding trips in the company of like minded and eminently likable folks, I’ve decided that it is time for a rethink. I realized, that I was becoming obsessed with numbers, taking part in challenges put forward by eBird and ensuring that targets were met. The December challenge was the last straw. They wanted checklists with media and I found myself running out of my bath and office to record bird sounds, just so that I could complete the targets!

I found that I was in the Top 50 birders in Kerala and Top 5 for my district for 2018, and horror of horrors I was No.1 for the district without stepping out of the Palghat GAP in January 2019. I’ve almost scored a century of checklists for the month! 

I’d become an obsessive checklist maniac and every waking hour was spent documenting birds, photographing them and recording their calls. All my free time went into editing and uploading my photos and audio tracks into the checklists! I forgot, I had friends and family. I forgot, what it was to have a leisurely breakfast of home cooked food on Sundays because I was out at the crack of dawn chasing feathered fiends. No, it is not a mistake, I didn’t mean feathered ‘friends’, I really meant fiends. Sunday. breakfast had become a forgotten luxury.

I also realized, in this mad run for numbers, I’d forgotten my priority, woodcrawling. Now that I was literally running after birds, I’ve forgotten to soak in the nature around me. It isn’t lost on me that I’m missing out on the best nature has to offer; so occasionally, I do wander off on my own, but the darned birds come around to distract me! 

Pic Courtesy: Adv. Namassivayan Lakshmanan

 

 2019 seems to be a life changing year and I thought it should also reflect on my attitude to birds and nature. Though I’ve no plans to hang up my birding boots, I’m going to ignore the numbers game. I’m going to turn eBird into an useful tool than the other way round. It helps me document my achievements and as VR, our senior birder says, it will be invaluable to future generations to come. 

Right now, the priority is to revive the comatose blog and bring it into the sunshine again. I will blog about birds, no doubt, but not exclusively. After all, everyone is not a birder! As for eBird, I will continue to contribute, meaningfully because, if not for that portal, I wouldn’t have been able to assess myself and develop into a more serious birder.