Changes and my website.

I fell off the wagon the other day, and have finally given up trying to give up. Of course, I'm not talking about alcohol, smoking or drugs, but twitching. What is great is that I don't need to be in denial, or harm anyone else, nor feel guilty. In fact Ann was glad to get me out of the house. 

In truth I just wanted a day away from an overgrown, parched garden, still not fully restored after I burnt the summerhouse down with my moth trap, and a better photo of Long-tailed Shrike. I have long since stopped having any interest in how many ticks I have in the UK, I think it was my first for two years, and the last one before it was a world tick, so I had a reason to go for that. The shrike was first reported on 19th July, the message "belated news of 1st-summer at Macaroni Farm from 8-16 July but no sign since in extensive search." Back in the heyday of twitching there would have birders at the site almost immediately, despite the non-appearance. I've done it myself, spending most of the day on a Cornish heathland looking for a reported Marmora's Warbler which never materialised, but now the tendency is to wait for news. I include myself, for almost the first time in my life I didn't leave home until the bird was known to be present.


Whilst fewer people seem to be fanatical, this is partly understandable in view of the price of fuel, but a big change is that people are interested in much more than birds. Given that I went for the shrike nearly three weeks after its re-appearance,  there was still a steady, albeit small stream of visitors. Far more people now carry cameras, not because they want to become well-known photographers (although some do), but it is far easier now to get a decent photo, with the advances in cameras, and you don't need to lug a big heavy lens on a tripod. I met a family who were not only interested in birds, but everything else in the natural world.  David (Dad) took video, and posts on Instagram, Chris has his own website. I suggested putting links on my site, since the more people interact on the web, the better it is for conservation, helping each other, and mental health. I recently received an e-mail from a conservation workshop thanking me for the knowledge and inspiration my site had given to a group of teenagers. If aabirdpix can inspire and help anyone then it's worth my while to continue the site, quite apart from the fact that I enjoy maintaining it. Birding (and associated interests) has always been "independent" of age or gender, this is becoming more so, in the UK at least. Lady birders are no longer treated as "hangers-on", and I can have an easy conversation with someone in their teens. Similarly, I'm not treated as "past it".

A large percentage of birders now trap moths, and most are interested in all wildlife. Chris managed to get a photo of the shrike with a shrew whilst I was busy talking to his mum, so I jokingly said "can you identify it?" He said, in all seriousness, that it was either a Common or Pygmy Shrew. I myself photographed a Lacewing the other day which appeared in my moth trap. Turns out it was a major rarity, although that is probably because not everyone yet attempts to identify them. Interest in insects is a definite change for the better, since, apart from being pollinators, they are low in the food chain, but vital for other species survival.

Of course, there are many changes which attract the "doom and gloom" merchants. Yes they're possibly right, but although I no longer have a Little Owl which perches on my garden fence, I now get regular Buzzards overhead, and Egrets in the adjacent field, and recently Red Kite was added to my (flyover) garden list. What is found in the field is dependent on what crop is being grown, we once had wintering Curlew, but more recently the crops haven't been suitable. Climate change is affecting bird populations, but surely many passerines are moving north to breed, and when you consider the density of birders in Scotland as compared to Norfolk, how many go unrecorded? 


I must thank the owners of the farm for organising parking facilities (and indeed having an ornithological consultant capable of finding rarities). It is a large organic farm, and we enjoyed chatting to the owners, who take note of the birdlife. They apparently have about 40-50 pairs of Corn Buntings on their land, perhaps some have been driven out of other areas that are intensively farmed? Had I had more time, I would love to have investigated some of the many butterflies and bees in the area, maybe one day I'll go back with my portable moth trap. The farm has its own website, which doesn't confuse conservation with sentimentality (pheasants are for sale for eating). 

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