I do get pleasure from writing this blog. Clearly it fills some creative urge that periodically demands attention, and quite often I will dip into old posts and enjoy doing so. However, that isn't always the case. Just occasionally a browse through the NQS archives has me cringing a bit. This happened the other day. I was reminded of something I wrote about local patch birding, or more specifically, local patch birders. Revisiting it now, especially in the light of my own birding exploits and experiences of the last year or so, it does not read well, and if I were to write that post again it would look a lot different. Still, I guess that must be the case for just about anyone who writes. One's views and opinions change and evolve. Mature, even...
I realise this is a strange way to introduce a post about patch birding, but I suppose what I'm trying to convey is my own ambivalence about the whole concept of local patch birding. I am not a patch birder, and yet I am. I think. Possibly.
When I lived in Seaton, what we referred to as the Axe Patch was in reality the land area within a 5km radius of the old bridge over the River Axe by Seaton harbour, plus the sea visible from that 10km of coastline. As patches go, that's pretty huge, but it nevertheless fulfills one aspect of a 'patch' which I've always viewed as a given: it has geographical limits. It also has a list. Back in about 2007 I diligently trawled through as many bird record sources as I could think of in order to compile a definitive 'Axe Patch List'. At one time I could have told you the exact size of that list, and many trivial details relating to it. Likewise I knew my personal Axe Patch list, and the aching gaps in it, several of them the result of painful dips...
So. A boundary. A list. Just a couple of criteria which to me are part and parcel of what defines a patch. Or can a patch actually be a much looser affair? Locally I might go birding at Cogden, or maybe Burton Bradstock, East Bexington, West Bexington, etc. And when I'm working over in Seaton, I might visit Black Hole Marsh or Beer Head, and of course the Axe Estuary is a regular lunch stop. Is any or all of this my patch? Can I legitimately refer to myself as a patch birder? Do I qualify?
Or am I just overthinking it?!
Anyway, yesterday afternoon I dropped in on my patch/not-patch (some of the West and East Bexington part) and tallied 3 Wheatears, and singles of Spotted Flycatcher, Whinchat and White Wagtail. To be honest, judging by local reports I wasn't expecting much, but not seeing - or even hearing - any Chiffchaffs was a surprise. I took a few photos, but the camera is not a fan of gloomy, overcast afternoons...
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| East Bex Wheatear... |
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| ...and East Bex Whinchat |
The thing is, Gav, do you have to be defined/labelled as a patch birder, twitcher, world birder or anything else? I started birding in the mid-70s with a pair of 7x50 binoculars that I bought at Dixons in the high street and the RSPB Book of British Birds, half of which consisted of black and white illustrations. Both utter crap, but I didn't care. I certainly didn't think of myself as anything. I just went out and enjoyed whatever I saw. In the intervening 45 years, I've gone through several birding morphs (often driven by technology), but now, in my 60s, I increasingly try to recapture those early, simpler years. The birds are the same. Just enjoy them, however you want to. – Malcolm
ReplyDeleteThe answer to your question is a definite no, Malcolm! 😄 I'm just someone who enjoys birds. When describing my hobby to non-birding friends or acquaintances I usually call it birdwatching. Occasionally I'll have to follow this up by explaining what a twitcher actually does, and how yes, I did used to be one, but almost never am nowadays...
DeletePeople do like a label. 😄
I'm very much with you on keeping it simple these days...
DIM Wallace described a patch as an easily and clearly defined area that you can monitor easily if you have half an hour to spare. We all go through different phases I suppose but I have mostly been a patch birder with an odd twitch or day out thrown in.
ReplyDeleteWell Stewart, by DIMW's definition, I am not, and never have been, a patch birder. Half an hour! No chance...
DeleteSome of my fondest birding memories are tied up with holiday birding, all in the UK. A few days of leisurely, dawn-to-dusk birding does me nicely. A bit of that to supplement the local stuff would see me out I reckon. 😊
Gav, I looked down a list of lifers the other day simply to add them up. There's lots of birds I know I've only seen once, but found it unsettling to see a name but not remember one jot of it at all. I crossed all of those off the list.
ReplyDeleteOn top of that, I remember several birds but no clue as to where I saw them. I kept those.
So that's boundaries and lists to me. Clearly meaningless details.
Subsequently those aspects have been reduced to wherever I am and whatever I see.
Since ditching the constraint of boundaries and the task-master that is a list, I am certainly enjoying my birding a lot more, Ric. Which means I've been getting out a bit more, and finding a bit more. Win, win. 😉
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