Birding in the Digital Age

On the 1st of July, a Fea's-type Petrel was spotted flying north past Flamborough Head prior to 10am. What ensued was one of the best examples of birding cooperation that I have ever seen. By quickly sharing the news and communicating online, the bird was seen at a further 13 coastal sites in the north east of the country, 13 more opportunities for photographs and corroboration. Thanks to better photographs further up the coast (and great online collaboration after the photos were shared) the bird was identified as a Soft-plumaged Petrel - a first for Britain, subject to acceptance. This is both a fantastic record and display of the power of digital communication. This bird would surely never have been identified let alone accepted had it not been for technological advancements.

You might wonder, with 626 species now on the British list, when will it stop increasing? I would argue not any time soon, thanks at least in part to our ever-improving technology.

I think new seabird additions in particular will start coming thick and fast. We know seabirds travel extraordinary distances, and some of the recent additions such as White-chinned Petrel seem to show that any pelagic seabird might be possible - in contrast, we know that realistically lots of passerines will never reach our shores unassisted. Yet it's also only relatively recently that our technology has improved enough (cameras, new services etc.) to gather the evidence required to prove seabird records which seem, on the surface at least, unbelievable. Not too long ago getting a bird like this accepted would have been dependent on reputation and brilliant field notes - usually one observer, and usually no photo.

Who knows how far cameras will progress in the future too. When I purchased my Nikon Coolpix P900 last year, I was astonished by the quality I could get from a distant record shot, even with this relatively cheap piece of equipment.

I did some research and have compiled a thought-provoking non-exhaustive list of seabirds that have been historically claimed in British waters but never proven:

Great-winged Petrel, Trindade Petrel, Atlantic Petrel, Red-legged Kittiwake, Parakeet Auklet, South American Tern, Antarctic Tern, Cape Verde Shearwater, Bulwer's Petrel, Audubon's Shearwater, Brown Noddy, Cape Gannet, Great Frigatebird, Grey-headed Albatross, Townsend's Shearwater, White-faced Petrel, White-cheeked Tern, Masked Booby, Short-tailed Shearwater

That's a pretty big list of possible additions to the British list! While there was not enough evidence to get them accepted at the time, I think you'd have a hard time proving that any of them couldn't be genuine. And next time we'll be in a better position to get the proof!

Take, for example, the following species which were once claimed and rejected, but have since been seen again and proven with photos:

White-chinned Petrel, Soft-plumaged Petrel, Glaucous-winged Gull, Tufted Puffin, Brown Booby, Elegant Tern, Yelkouan Shearwater, Swinhoe's Storm Petrel, Zino's Petrel, Black-capped Petrel, Royal Tern, Scopoli's Shearwater

Similarly, the following are accepted but not confined to species: Madeiran Storm Petrel,  Black-bellied Storm Petrel, Giant Petrel, South Polar Skua. Better communication and photographs might find us being able to specify any future occurrences of the following to species level.

There is another way that I believe technology will have a hand in expanding the British List - social media. In particular, birders and especially non-birders being able to share photos for ID help. 

Take the recent Northern Mockingbird, for example. This was first discovered when photos of an unusual garden bird in Exmouth surfaced online. If the UK's one and only Golden-winged Warbler can turn up in a supermarket car park, it begs the question how many megas and firsts-for-Britain may lie unnoticed in one of the UK's 23 million gardens. 

With most families now having access to a good camera and the ability to share their images to bird identification groups online, I think we're entering a time when rarities will start to turn up more and more. Anyone who needs convincing of the rarities which pass right under (or over!) our noses should check out this mind-blowing article about a study of migrants in an unassuming corner of Canary Wharf. Although an extreme example, it begs the question of what slips under our radar.

Whether it's rarities being spotted on webcams, sound-recorded on nocmig or some new way altogether, who knows the countless other ways technology will continue to expand our birding potential and the British List.