Enjoying Birds, And ‘The Greater Glory Of Life’

Out for my morning walk, listening to the Dawn Chorus, I realise what a wonderful world this is with so many birds in it.

In Canberra we have lots of parks and open space, and masses of trees. A birds’ paradise! There is the reason why Canberra is often known as The Bush Capital.

Walking in my local park I see the usual Magpies, Galahs, and Sulphur Crested Cockatoos. Recently a pair of Straw-Necked Ibises have moved in, and this year they brought their two young ones with them. As well, there are sometimes Kookaburras, Willie Wagtails, Ravens, Pied Currawongs, and, in the right season, Eastern Rosellas, Scarlet Rosellas, King Parrots and Lorikeets. On one occasion I saw a pair of the rarely seen Gang-Gangs, the ACT’s totem bird.

I am by no means a proper ornithologist. I am more what Simon Barnes calls a ‘bad’ birdwatcher. I enjoy watching birds in their natural habitat, doing the things that birds do, singing, swooping, living their life to the full. I am not a ‘bad’ birdwatcher in that I do harm or disturb birds unnecessarily, but in that I don’t particularly care what bird is around. I will watch, and enjoy, them all.

Barnes is a very good teacher of appreciation of birds. He treats it as a subject that need not be over-complicated nor time consuming. There is no need to be a ‘twitcher’ to appreciate our feathered friends. Any spare minute of the day, wherever we happen to be, there is surely a bird nearby to watch, or at least listen to, if it is hiding in a tree.

As Barnes says, we all know a lot about birds, but don’t really think much about it. He builds on this basic knowledge and gently and caringly leads us to knowing much more, simply by keeping our eyes open and looking around us. Birds are everywhere, if only we look.

According to ornithologists, many birds die in the winter from starvation due to the lack of food when the trees are bare. Also, many die during the breeding season, fighting over territory or wearing themselves out producing and looking after their young. Flying takes an enormous amount of energy, thus birds need to spend a large part of their days eating. When there is little food around, or time to eat it, they become exhausted. A bird that does not have the energy to fly cannot survive long.

So, from this point of view, providing bird feeders and water bowls does not encourage birds to become dependent on hand-outs, as many people argue. It does, in fact, help the birds to survive the lean periods. Anyone watching birds will soon realise that birds do not depend on a single source of food, but will have a number of sources they use.

Barnes takes us on a wondrous journey from seeing a bird at our bird feeder, showing us how to learn the names of birds and their habits, and taking us to a greater appreciation of birds and what they contribute to the world. He also shows us how watching birds can improve our lives by adding beauty and understanding of the world around us.

The subtitle of Barnes’ book is “To the greater glory of life”, which is a very good reason to take up being a birdwatcher, ‘bad’ or otherwise.

So take Barnes’ advice:

Look out the window.

See a bird.

Enjoy it.

Congratulations. You are now a birdwatcher.

Come with me, let’s go out looking at birds. It’s not hard to do, and need not become an obsession or take a lot of effort.

Walk out your front door and LOOK! There’s surely a couple of birds in your front garden, or in the street. Look at them, see them, don’t worry about their names at this stage, that will come later. Just appreciate them being there for you to look at. Enjoy them.

You are now already well on the way to becoming a ‘bad’ birdwatcher!

Reference:

Barnes, S. (2004) How To Be A Bad Birdwatcher. Short Books, London.