View From the Shed by Volunteer Shaun - RISE TO THE CHALLENGE

RISE TO THE CHALLENGE

I've written at length in these blogs about how we birders are collectors at heart, how we love to say, “I found a new one” when we spot a bird that we've never seen before. It's the camouflage jacket equivalent of stamp collecting with – for most of us – the added benefit of doing something good for the environment. And there's usually the added “mine's bigger than yours” nature of lists. “I've seen more than you”. We're competitive creatures by nature. That's how we get better at doing things.

Recording our lists of bird sightings has always been a very personal thing. Some use spreadsheets, others scribble in notebooks or enter data into computer programs. The 'best' of these is of course the way that you're individually most comfortable with, even if that's just having an incredibly good memory. But I've recently learned of a phone app that you might like to try, one that has links to the RSPB.

The RSPB reserves in the Dearne Valley – that's Old Moor, Adwick Washlands, Bolton Ings, Gypsy Marsh and Wombwell Ings – have teamed up with the other Yorkshire reserves at Blacktoft Sands, Fairburn Ings and St Aiden's. We've joined forces with a bird listing app called BIRDA to create a new challenge. It's the RSPB Winter Wader & Waterfowl Challenge. More details can be found at the RSPB web page here but basically you sign up to the BIRDA app and log all the birds that you see on the participating reserves. Those that qualify as winter waders and waterfowl count towards your event total. Can you log twenty species before the event ends? That's all there is to it. It's just a fun way of getting you out to see more birds with a little bit of a competitive edge thrown in for good measure. Of course you needn't stop when the challenge does. It could be that you continue using BIRDA for many years to come.

Is this particular app any good as a tool for logging your bird sightings? Absolutely, yes it is. It's very intuitive and simple to use, presenting a list of birds from which you select what you've seen. Crucially, these are presented in order of commonality, with those that you're most likely to find being at the top of the list. This is great for the novice birder as they don't have to scroll through a confusing number of birds that they have little chance of seeing when lists are put up in alphabetic or taxonomy order.

It's also deliberately been made attractive to people more familiar with online apps and games. For example, there are virtual badges to be earned when you see various species. I especially like the Badger Boss Badge that I earned for spotting five different black and white birds.

If you like the community social feel of Facebook and the ilk, then BIRDA has this too. You can follow fellow birders, like their sightings and even post photos of birds that you can't identify for others to help out with. That's a nice touch.

And of course it's free. I'm not a salesman. If I wanted to coerce you into spending your hard-earned pennies on anything then I'd point you towards the Old Moor shop and cafe. There are plenty of Christmas bargains in the former and festive foodie treats in the latter. Please give them a visit. Tell them Shaun sent you. I'll happily advertise Old Moor's commercial services, but this BIRDA app won't cost you a penny. Just look for it in your phone's normal app store, either Android or Apple.

This is as good a point as any to point out that, unlike many online celebrity influencers, I'm not getting paid by anyone in any way at all to talk about these products. If only. No such luck. At least the RSPB supplies its volunteers with as much coffee as we can drink. Maybe I should renegotiate my contract?

I'll be honest and say that however much I enjoy BIRDA, it probably won't replace my favourite listing app, BIRDTRACK, which links every entry into a massive British Trust for Ornithology (BTO) database, helping scientists recognise population and migration patterns in Britain and further afield. I've used that for years and expect that I'll continue to do so, though I was impressed by BIRDA's option to import past sighting data from BIRDTRACK and other software. I'm also a big fan of the BIRDNET app; an excellent tool that allows you to quite reliably identify a bird from the sound it makes. You might want to check both of those out. But for simplicity and fun BIRDA is well worth a look, especially at the moment when it has this particular challenge available.

The official BIRDA RSPB Winter Wader & Waterfowl Challenge asks you to see just twenty waders and waterfowl at our Yorkshire reserves by the end of February. That sounds easily attainable to me. Surely we can do better than that?

So here's my challenge to you all. Can you see more different species of waders and waterfowl at the RSPB Yorkshire reserves than I do before the end of February? I'm on BIRDA as SHAUN FINNIE. You'll see me on the challenge leader board. My avatar is a picture of my big trademark hat. I'll be doing this challenge, along with several others, on the BIRDA app. I won't be providing any prizes – I'm only a poor volunteer after all – but you will have the opportunity to feel smug if you see more than I do. Tell me all about it next time you see me.

So join up, start spotting and see how you do against me. I'll see you on the leader boards. And if you want to get a head start, here's a list of birds that have been seen at Old Moor this week.