Bird Spotting

This time of the year, nearing summer in the Northern Hemisphere, particularly in England, we can probably identify a variety of bird species by their song or tweet.

 One among other features of being cloistered at home during the pandemic, is the freedom to watch nature in our home gardens. But how many of us have gardens to our homes to have this luxury of bird watching.

 Having a small, but not secluded garden frontage. I felt very amused by accident to be able to spend time during this pandemic, to do not only clearing the winter over-growth on my minuscule lawn and in this process discovered a new hobby -bird watch.

I never would have imagined that after I made my garden tidy of the dead leaves of winter, I found my garden attractive for visitors of a feathered kind.

The key to successful garden bird watching I noted was making my garden attractive to a wide range of bird species, with one particular bird, the Red Robin a daily caller.                                                                                           

Garden bird watching had suddenly become my pastime. Looking out of my desk window for this bird was slowly engulfing a lot of my free time. I was always on the lock out for what the Robin saw in my harden for it to visit so often. It was only after a month of monitoring its movement that I realised that it was in search for insects and worms which I had raked from the bare patches of the soil. 

You cannot get much closer to home than your garden. You cannot get more tempted to try and bird watch by the prospect of sitting in the comfort inside in an armchair. The antic of one species of birds that visited my garden throughout Coronavirus time, was more than relaxing.

Bird interaction 

Of course, throughout the years, I had lived at my address I had witnessed many types of wild birds, particularly, starlings, which we in Sri Lanka call “mynahs,” then the black birds, the wood pigeons, and even seagulls. Strange as it seems, the magpie or known literally as blackbirds were mostly sighted during winter months, the starlings were seen in early spring or early autumn, seagulls were hovering overhead when the weather was sunny, and the wood pigeons were there on neighbouring trees within earshot, with their birdsong like a prayer every morning, walking me up at dawn, rain or shine. 

Garden birdsong, bird call, bird watch, call it what you may, was for me a source of relaxation. It was a great way in which to engage with bird life, more with nature. It was a way to learn to identify the different species as well as to study their behaviour. 

Bird lover 

Unlike my Dad in Ceylon, I was not a pigeon fancier, so my love of the feathered kind was perhaps, being just inquisitive.  I had watched during my formative years back home, how much he cared for their breeding, their grooming, the wellbeing. I can recall the fantails, the nuns with black heads and black tails and the homing pigeons called “homers” who would fly off and return back to their nests. I always wondered what on earth was the fascination for my Dad to have such a close relationship with pigeons.                                

I could now understand that I was told that when he passed away, the pigeon cots were also deserted. There must be some unseen understanding between man and nature. 

Bird Brain 

A researcher from Imperial College, London has developed for the first time a map of a typical bird brain, showing how different regions are connected together to process information. The team discovered that “important to high level cognition, such as long term memory and problem solving are wired in a similar way”. 

Professor Murray Shanahan, Department of Computing, Imperial College, London says:“Birds have been evolving separately from mammals for around 300 million years, so it is hardly surprising that the brains of a bird looks quite different from a mammal, yet birds have been shown to be remarkably intelligent, in a similar way to humans.” 

Do birds help us to stay connected with nature? 

The interaction between birds and people take many forms. Was it natural or possible that the birds came to the aid to console and to comfort mankind, during the pandemic? 

We in Sri Lanka, have seen birds being used, like “mynahs” and parrots to mimic man. We also have seen birds being able to pick a card to pick an outcome. We have seen birds used to charm people. But, the beauty of birds encompasses all these. 

The more I learn about garden birds, the more I learn of conservation of nature. 

Even the smallest of gardens, or a window ledge, has room for birds. Once you attract new ones into your garden, you can add to the engagement of watching them almost daily. studying their movements, how they survive – a lesson for mankind. 

Victor Cherubim