Online Birding Community

I've been birding since I was very small but it's always been a private hobby of mine - shared only with close family. It was only recently that I decided to become more of an active member of the birding community and I've loved it so far. There is such an active internet community for birding that it would be a real shame not to engage in.

Now, more than ever I think, is a fantastic time to connect with other birders, with many birders now restricted to garden birding or satisfying their birding fix online. This is the perfect opportunity to take to social media, blogs and other platforms to share birding experiences and connect with other like-minded people who are going through the same withdrawal that non-birders just won't understand!

So please follow me on Twitter @mattcowardbirds and reach out if you're in a similar situation. I'm always keen to speak to other birdwatchers, including those who like myself have previously kept birding as their private passion.

The social side of birdwatching opens up a whole new and exciting side to the hobby, to fill that void that your birding trips have left.

I'd also love to hear of people's ways to enjoy birds and birding without leaving the house - whether it's a lockdown list, digging out old records, simply watching the feeders or some new idea no one's thought of!

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Birding Trip Report: Mauritius 2019

Image
This is a birding trip report to Mauritius in July. Birding in Mauritius is not very conventional. Firstly, because there aren't many species you can see and secondly because of the strange mix of introduced and native species that inhabit the island. What little birding information there is available online tends to be from typical 'island-hopping' tours which spend a day or two on the island to sweep up all the endemics. My main motivation for writing this report is that there really isn't much information available online, especially for a family-motivated longer trip. In July 2019, I spent two weeks on Mauritius for a family holiday. The focus was not birding, but I was keen to see as many of the endemics as I could and also a broad range of species because all of the introduced species were generally new for me. All of the island endemics can be seen in just 2 days of birding (or even potentially in just 1) and in this time, the introduced species should take car
Read more

Spurn Residential Volunteering 2021

Image
Sometimes, when you've wanted to do something for a really long time, it can never quite live up to expectations. Thankfully, when it came to my visit to Spurn Bird Observatory that wasn't the case - it matched my wildest expectations. I visited Spurn for two weeks, thanks to the BTO's fantastic Young Bird Observatory Volunteer Fund which funded my stay at the observatory. I'm so grateful to the BTO for providing me with the opportunity through this grant. Having been successful in my application to become a residential volunteer at Spurn in autumn 2020, I was extremely disappointed when the pandemic meant that volunteers were no longer able to visit for anything other than the full 3 month autumn period (which I wouldn't have been able to do due to university). With a similar commitment needed to become a residential volunteer in 2021, I am extremely grateful to Jonnie Fisk for allowing me to come for 2 weeks with the YBOV fund in September before my university yea
Read more

Artificial Identification

Image
The relatively recent rise in popularity of birding "tools" such as the Merlin Bird Identification app  and Swarovski’s dG which identifies the wildlife it focuses on reflects a universal explosion in machine learning and artificial intelligence in general. Artificial intelligence or AI has taken over in most industries and is now used to complete incredibly complex tasks, ranging from automatically labelling CCTV footage to understanding and responding to human speech in Alexa and Siri. In some medical diagnosis tasks, machine learning has been found to perform better than doctors themselves. None of these are a far cry from bird identification. If ANPR can identify the letters on a speeding car’s numberplate it won’t be long before a camera is able to reliably identify passing birds, especially given Merlin’s demonstrable identification skills. Merlin relatively recently released the sound identification extension to its birding app which can identify (or at least give sug
Read more