Friday 17 January 2014

How to get back into birding?

I'm having a bit of trouble birding. As in I can't seem to manage it. I've been back from Morocco for about ten days, and have seen two additional species. One of those was by accident! Apparently to do birding, you have to raise binoculars to your face and look through them. Trust me when I say that's actually a lot harder than it sounds. 

I have, however, seen a Chaffinch, which was not entirely by accident. I deliberately stopped at a location known for Chaffinches up near the Basin, and lo and behold there was one. I can't say I enjoyed it particularly, but there you go. Seeing as I appear to have lost my patch mojo, I was wondering about forcing myself to look at birds, in the hope that this might get me back into it. I mean what if I said I had to see at least ten bird species per day? Or twenty? Yes, ten isn't enough and I wouldn't actually have to look, but twenty might mean I have to think about it a little bit, and importantly, devote a bit of time to it, as that's where I've largely fallen down of late.

In the meantime, bird happiness has been provided by lots and lots of Moussier's Redstarts which I have been furiously editing. I'm really pleased how they have come out, but it's in the editing process that I realise all the little things that I could have done slightly differently. There's nothing for it, I'll have to go back....


2 comments:

  1. I have heard there are some very rare species currently inhabiting the area around 53 West India Dock Rd.

    We should go there one Thursday after work.

    RM

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  2. Is that the best picture of a Moussiers ever taken? Quite possibly....

    ReplyDelete