I got off a train at Wellingborough station at noon on Thursday and was talking on the 'phone as I tried to remember where I'd left my car on Monday morning.
I couldn't remotely describe myself as birdwatching at that time and yet I noticed a flock of birds flying in the distance. Something about them made me look closer and even though they were distant, I knew they were waxwings - about 50 of them.
I sat in my car talking on the 'phone and as I did the waxwings did a fly-past removing any doubt - although there wasn't any doubt really.
In a non-waxwing winter I might not have been as tuned in to these birds as I clearly am now, but even that brief distant initial view was enough. I am tuned in to the natural world. I spot waxwings even though I am not consciously looking for waxwings, and I hear birds calling or singing even though I am not actively listening for them. And I can't quite understand why everyone else isn't tuned in like me. But I also know that there is too much of the natural world from which I am tuned out. What plants or insects do I ignore through bad tuning? I must do something about that. But for now, I do have waxwings.
A love of the natural world demonstrates that a person is a cultured inhabitant of planet Earth.
Nice post Mark - being 'tuned in' is a great way of referring to it. Being able to spot birds and plants that others have no clue about. It's like any problem you care to mention- once you know how its solved its easy. I wonder about a lot of my fellow human beings - going through life blindfolded.
I especially like spotting urban/suburban Sparrowhawks circling high up whilst everyone goes about their business below........oblivious.
The BTO do have numbers for wintering lapwings and the last graph I saw showed increases over the last twenty-thrity years.
Farmland is important habitat for wintering lapwings and it is only right that it should be monitored to properly assess the impact of changes in agriculture on bio-diversity.
The fact it isn't reinforces my suspicion that conservation NGOs focus in on the negative trends and ignore the positive ones.
As for events in foreign parts distorting patterns that the FBI indicate, as you know there are species on the FBI that are affected by were they winter or migrate from,
as for your opening remarks, shall we analyse data or shall we trade insults?
Paysan savant
Had marvellous views of waxwings the other week in Reading. I don't think those interested in the natural world ( and everyone should be because it is in their own interest to be so) should be expected to know everything. It is just not possible to be a universal expert in nature. It is so diverse, that is one of many reasons why homo sapiens needs to cherish it.
PS you were up even earlier than usual this morning Mark with this bolg posted at 4.54.!!
redkite
essex peasant - there you go, slipping back into bad habits again. It's difficult to decide how much of what you write is because you deliberately misunderstand and how much is just that you don't really get it.
Let's talk about your winter lapwings. How exactly do you suggest that winter lapwings should appear in the Farmland Bird Index? Lapwing is an FBI species remember. And it is a species whose breeding numbers have declined and so has contributed to the overall terrible decline of the FBI. But the best time to assess our breeding lapwing population is clearly when they are breeding - that's in the spring/summer. And so that's why it is done then.
Winter lapwings come to the UK from further east in Europe. I think their numbers have declined on farmland too - but I can't be sure. They are certainly less common in many of the places where I used to see them as a boy in winter. But if they have declined then it might be because of things that have happened to them on their breeding grounds in Poland. And, tell me, where will the data come from for a national index of farmland lapwing numbers in winter?
You must admit you do have a bit of trouble seeing all the birds on farms.
In fact, on my farm, you miss 80% of them because of the 120 different species we see on this farm in most years (including waxwings) you only recognise 19.
Not very good is it?
PS - large flock of Lapwings ( 400 ?) on the forty acre in front of my house at the moment, but such things are not to be found on the FBI