Birdwatching brings joy, like yoga or meditation in the park: interviews with birdwatchers Roma Heck and Mina Milk
Miscellaneous / / April 06, 2023
Why watch animals, how to organize really interesting trips, and which bird almost drank three rubles away.
Birdwatching is called amateur ornithology. People who practice this hobby watch birds in parks, learn to recognize and imitate them. voices and go on vacation for specific purposes - for example, to see a rare green dove in Zanzibar.
We spoke with Roma and Mina, the founders of the Fox & Owl illustration and education project, where they talk about nature and ecology. They cannot imagine their life without birdwatching and often travel to hard-to-reach places to draw and photograph rare animals. And after the interview, we wanted to go with them!
Roma Heck
Berderka, host of the Ptichking telegram channel, illustrator and comics artist.
Mina Milk
Burderka, illustrator, artist.
What is birding, birdwatching and birding
— There are the terms “birding” and “birdwatching”. What do they mean? Who do you think you are?
Roma (hereinafter - R.): It is believed that birdwatching is a less active activity than birding. A birdwatcher is someone who simply observes the surrounding birds. He can do this even while sitting. A typical image is pensioners in the yard sticking to pigeons. Birder, on the other hand, strives to see as many species of birds as possible, maintains lists, and constantly studies new species. Birding is a more active activity.
In addition, only birders can participate in different competitions. For example, during the Big Year (USA), people compete to see who can count the most birds in a year. Every day they add to the list the names of individuals that they managed to see. On this topic there is a very sexist, but funny movie - it's called: The Big Year.
Speaking about ourselves: in Moscow we love unhurried walks, and on trips we are prone to active search. When we go to a new region, we study who can be found in that area and try to find as many species as possible.
This is also why we came up with our own name - "birding". I wanted to show my understanding of the process in it. But not only for this reason. Still, birdwatching is often a hobby of wealthy men. 80% of the people I have met in this industry have been British retirees.
Mina (hereinafter - M.): Sometimes you really want to become a British pensioner! (Laughs.)
R.: Yes, but we have a different perception of the world. This environment lacks lightness.
It seems to me that birdwatching is not so popular among young people, because everything in it is brutally serious!
On the one hand, it is clear that in order to study something, you need iron patience. But do not forget that hobbies are also needed in order to slow down the rhythm of life, look inside yourself, fool around!
M.: Yes, when I arrived from England, I noticed that in the Russian-speaking culture there is an opinion: everything related to animals is the lot of children. And if you are interested in fauna as an adult and are not an academic, it is not serious.
I would like everyone to understand that you can gain knowledge about animals without being a scientist. And just because it's fun and cool in itself! birding brings joylike yoga or meditation in the park.
How to become a birdwatcher
How did you get started birding?
R.: I have all the problems from my childhood. (Laughs.) Every time dad and I went for a walk, he would point his finger at the birds and explain: “This is a rook”, “This is a jackdaw”, “This is a crow”. Perhaps that is why I have always been interested in this topic.
Growing up, I found myself behaving like him. At first, it drove me crazy that Mina confused starlings and thrushes... And I decided to enroll her in a course from Birdwatching Moscow.
M.: This was the first impetus. There was excitement, which happens during sports. But since the meetings began with 6–7 amI only attended 2 classes out of 10...
R.: Yes, serious people who are accustomed to field conditions came to the course. Excursions were held at dawn, during the activity of birds.
In addition, it turned out that it was impossible to go to a cafe every half an hour or relax while sitting on a bench. (Laughs).
— This is how I imagined birdwatching! In that case, what does your hobby look like?
R.: I am not singling it out as a separate activity. Birdwatching is a part of my daily life. The road from home to the subway is a series of locations:
- First I go past the garbage dump, find out how my pigeons are doing there. Some I see often and already recognize by sight.
- The next yard is sparrow bushes. The birds living here are very noisy.
- Next is the parking lot, where the wagtail flies every summer and builds a nest.
- Then - the factory building, where two pairs of ravens settled, and not gray ones, which everyone knows, but big black ones.
Yes, and everywhere in the city I pay attention to points associated with birds. This way to remember area map.
Are there any good places for bird watching?
M.: In almost every city there are three locations suitable for birdwatching: botanical gardens, cemeteries and parks. It's usually quiet, green, and there's always something interesting going on. Locations near water are also suitable. There are many waterfowl to watch.
But, in general, it seems pointless to me to recommend something specific. Birds are everywhere, even in residential buildings. For example, sparrows nest in attics. And they are also very interesting to watch!
R.: Yes, there are no ordinary and unusual birds. No bird discrimination!
— What clothes and what equipment do birdwatchers need?
M.: Everything is optional. Minimum points and lensesif you can't see well. Many professional birders carry binoculars. They are replaced by a camera with a superzoom - from 30 ×. Some people don't take pictures of birds, but we're aiming for that as well.
It is rare to get close to animals. And if they are 60 meters away from you, then it is basically impossible to see them. But with the help of technology, it is possible to zoom in on the picture and see who it is sitting on a branch. If this is an unknown species, you can take a picture of it and then ask those who know.
The phone is also very helpful. With the help of special applications, bird Shazam, you can immediately recognize the species by voice. There are several such programs, but they are all imperfect, so you have to learn bird songs the old fashioned way. And in notes you can keep a list of what you saw in live mode.
R.: The rest is all about common sense. If you are going to the water, put on long pants, closed shoes and take repellent. If you plan to sit in the bushes for a long time, take a substrate under your ass.
- What aspects of behavior should be paid attention to when watching birds? What stories are you looking for the most?
M.: Many people have a desire to start interacting with the bird: feed or pat her and see what happens. But this should not be done. By doing this, you can disrupt the natural course of life of animals. In addition, often they do not need additional food - they themselves do an excellent job with this.
If you still really want to help, then in the summer you can put drinkers for the birds - for example, on the balcony or in the yard.
It is advisable to wash them every day, otherwise they will multiply too actively inside. bacteria.
As for the plots, I'm not looking for something specific. If you watch pigeons for even 15 minutes, you can find many interesting interactions in their flock: someone is trying to make friends, someone is trying to quarrel. I'm trying to understand why they behave this way.
R.: Cool to watch younger pigeons. If you start to notice them, this is already a new level. Their nose seems larger, and the “cap” on it has not yet grown or has a different color. The very young have yellow feathers and down.
M.: I love watching birds clean up. At these moments, you can see the inside of their wings. She is usually very soft and fluffy. I also like to watch animals yawn or itchy. Birds rarely do this. So photographing them at this moment is the highest level.
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Cormorant chick yawns. Coast of California. Photo provided by the heroines.
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Curly pelican yawns. Photo provided by the heroines.
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Curly pelican itches. Photo provided by the heroines.
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Ulit demonstrates the sirloin. Photo provided by the heroines.
We also collect pictures of bird pops.
R.: They are downy and in "underpants"! It started with pigeons - they look especially ridiculous when they turn upside down ...
- Wow, class! And how to learn to distinguish the voices of birds?
R.: Birds have songs and calls. Songs can only be heard during the breeding season. In our band - from March to June. At other times, birds communicate with each other by calls - abrupt sounds.
M.: The latter are harder to identify. After all, for this you need to remember a lot of sounds.
Many find it easier to do this with a similar phrase. For example: "Tilin-tin-tin" or "You-you-you." But there are also more original options. For example, the gray warbler gives out the sound “I almost didn’t win three rubles”, the lentil - “I saw Vitya”, and the oriole - “Buy a mare”. It's funny to read this in Russian-language determinants - a separate genre. There are even songs that help ornithologists remember consonant melodies.
But I have complaints about this method. It is difficult for me to shift whistling sounds to specific letters. It is not clear why some people hear, for example, the letter “v” instead of them. She is not there.
Instead, I try to imagine a picture: what it would look like audio recording. For example, the voice of a black parrot goes up first and then down. Slide. Sometimes there are more complex visual images.
For example, the finch melody at the end is similar to the flourish that some people have in their signatures. When I hear this song, I clearly identify it. And there is a willow warbler that sings like a chaffinch, only without a flourish at the end.
If the chaffinch has not signed, then it is a willow warbler.
There is a titmouse. There is such an association with her voice: as if a rubber toy for dogs is beaten on the floor.
R.: And if it seems that 16 different species are sitting in the bushes, most likely this is one starling. The nightingale gives out techno. If a “rave” has begun somewhere in the forest, then this is a nightingale. (Laughs).
M.: In the spring, the blackbird stands out strongly. It has a sad minor song. You hear it and you feel longing... When we were just starting to study the sounds, we were told that he was performing a funeral march. And it really is!
R.: It is best to identify the most common species in the region and remember how they sound. In central Russia, for example, tits, finches, wagtails and starlings are often found.
But don't try to remember everything at once. It's like with new languagesA: It takes time for everything to fit in your head.
How to do birding while traveling
- As far as I know, you recently returned from the Seychelles?
R.: Yes, we were looking for a blue dove there. It turned out to be an easy task. He showed up to us on the first day. There were also beautiful paradise flycatchers - too endemics, which are left on Earth very little.
M.: In the Seychelles, we chose a guesthouse right at the entrance to the reserve. We sat on our balcony and looked around.
During the walk, we found the nest of a paradise flycatcher - the female hatched an egg there for several days. And in one of the last meetings, we saw how she flew off the nest, and the male came there with some kind of insect. Apparently, they have hatched someone!
The parents took turns feeding the chick. Once I even saw the contact beaks! From below, a small, small mouth appeared, into which something was put. It was terribly touching!
We were proud as parents. It's like they hatched the egg themselves.
- I represent! How do you choose your travel itineraries?
R.: Now we are building our journey around this or that bird that we want to see.
Sometimes we travel 8,000 km to find a certain type of pigeon.
At some point, we learned that, in addition to the usual pigeons that have adapted to the city, there are also tropical ones: green, blue, fruity - they come in all colors of the rainbow. Therefore, now we are collecting a collection of birds we have seen!
M.: But still, it seems to me that we have a mixed format travel. We don't always focus only on birds. There is a goal to see as many animals and plants as possible in principle. In addition to this, of course, there are other criteria for selecting options. For example, where can you fly away now with the least headache?
R.: I would like to add that both Mina and I grew up on travel books. It seemed romantic: the jungle, the boat, the places where did not set foot human... We always wanted to get to the wild side of the planet. But we were afraid. Therefore, the first time we went to Goa, to India.
M.: The wildest thing we could come up with in 2013!
R.: But we did not find wildlife there. But they found it in Sri Lanka.
— Oh, tell me about Sri Lanka!
M.: It was the first place where I finally noticed the birds. There were some in Sri Lanka that are hard to ignore. For example, the great Indian hornbill. Its wingspan is 1.5–2 m. It has very wide feathers. Therefore, when she flies nearby, it resembles the sound of an oncoming train.
Then there was Singapore, where I accidentally won tickets!
R.: From Singapore we flew to Borneo, one of the largest islands in the world.
We were guided by the "World's Wildest Guide" by Mark Carwardine, a British biologist - it contains locations where the most interesting and rare animals live. Among the places he recommended was Borneo. There we really saw an incredible number of birds.
We were so inspired by this guide that we have been taking routes from it ever since. For 10 years we have had about 13 trips.
- Where else did you fly?
R.: When the pandemic started, we flew to Zanzibar. People there live very poorly, so in places remote from tourist hubs they can be robbed. And you can also stumble upon a poisonous snake or scorpion.
All transport is bad - you can crash on it. by plane it is better not to fly, in any case not to get on the train, the bus - as you are lucky. I read about all this, and then I said to Mina: “They also have a cool green dove!”
M.: And I said, "Let's go!"
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Endemic green doves eat endemic palm fruits at sunset. Photo provided by the heroines.
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Mina is looking for a green dove in the rainforest on Pemba Island. Photo provided by the heroines.
R.: We were looking for this pigeon for 3 weeks. We were helped by a local guy Kombo, who trained as a birder. As a result, on the last day they found a bird in the jungle - where tourists almost never go.
It was raining. In the distance we heard sounds like the cry of a green dove. He likes to sit on the tops of palm trees, very high up.
If you think about it: a green dove, on top of a green crown, 30 meters from the ground... We practically had no chance.
But then a ray of the setting sun illuminated the palm tree - and we saw that red berries grow on it, which are very fond of the object of our search. And Kombo suggested: “Let's stop. Let's sit under a palm tree - what if a dove flies? Few fruits are ripening now.
Just 5 minutes later, one dove flew in, then a second, then a third... It was very cool!
M.: We also saw endemic scops owl! She had to be found at night. Kombo and his comrades took us to the jungle. The road is bad. It was necessary to come with a machete to cut a passage through the branches of trees. At the same time, we were in slippers, which, of course, did not help either.
In the end, we still reached the place, and Kombo said: “Now we will call.” The guys hung a bluetooth speaker on a bush and turned on the sound of an owl's cry. Owls are very polite. If one in the forest hears another, then she will definitely answer. Then it flies closer. At this moment, you need to quickly take a flashlight and shine it on the bush until the owl comes to his senses. We had a second for this. We even took pictures of her.
Although these are not the most ethical actions. In the guidelines of super-civilized countries like America and Great Britain, they say: "Please do not disturb or deceive the animals." But at that time we were so confused that we did not have time to react in any way. We reassure ourselves that there are about 300 tourists a year. And even if everyone shines a flashlight on the owl, it will not suffer.
R.: Yes, the ethics of observation is a separate issue. We often study it in the process. There are cardinal opinions "do" and "no", but between them there is a gray area that you have to explore on your own experience.
Therefore, we always try to act carefully. For example, if in Moscow you found an owl's nest with owlets, you can watch them a little, but not for long.
The main enemies of owls in the city are crows. They steal owls. Crows are sentient beings. They perfectly understand: if a person looks somewhere, it means that there is something interesting there. Therefore, in order not to give out the nest and not endanger the life of the birds, it is better not to stay under it for a long time.
M.: And do not climb into this nest yourself!
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Text worked on: author Lera Babitskaya, editor Natalya Murakhtanova, proofreader Olga Sytnik