Bird Nerd
Record I'm Listening To: Innerspeaker - Tame Impala
Beer I'm Enjoying: Revered Red Ale - Bonehead Brewing
After getting back to Melbourne earlier this year, my wife, mum, son and I took a trip to Healesville Sanctuary to spend the day wondering around looking at all the Australian native species that are housed and rehabilitated there. Upon walking through the gates, there's a giant wooden statue of an eagle. It's a wedge-tailed eagle named Bunjil. Bunjil is, in the Dreatime of the Wurundjeri people, Melbourne's original inhabitants, the creator of the land, sky, water and animals. Upon creating the world, he turned himself into a wedge-tailed eagle to soar above the world and keep an eye on everything. Coincidentally, not long after arriving and walking past the magnificent statue, a live wedge-tailed eagle soared overhead while we were at the koala enclosure. I didn't bother with the camera, it was too far away, so I just watched.
I took up bird watching as a hobby in late 2022 after yearning to visit my original home of South Africa and spend time among wildlife. Being unable to do so, I thought that while I might not be able to just stroll into bushveld and look for rhinos, I can go look at birds. I took my wife's camera with me in the hope that I would see something worth photographing. I got incredibly lucky and happened upon a red-tailed hawk eating a snake. This encounter was enough to really spark my interest, and before long my weekends consisted of just as many bird walks as trail runs.
The main draw for getting out to observe birds is still the allure of a great photograph. My wife and I were living in Apex, North Carolina when I took up the hobby and we had a park very close to home, The Apex Community Park (or Lake Pine Loop), that was a hub for bird activity. The lush greenery of the trees made photographing birds challenging in spring and summer. But in autumn, once the leaves started falling, all of a sudden, we could see all the different species that called the park home (except the migrants of course). Everything from American crows, northern cardinals, tufted titmice and ruby and golden crowned kinglets would be out and about, some easier to photograph than others. Among the best autumn shots we have are from the park's resident red-tailed and red-shouldered hawks. Stunning birds of prey that on several occasions allowed us to get very close. Other species, like the belted kingfisher, wouldn't let me anywhere near them, and would taunt me with it's distinctive call as it flew away to the other side of the lake.
As winter approached, the viewing improved again (no leaves on the trees by this point), but the number of species had decreased. We still had the 'year-rounders' like all the woodpeckers, Carolina wrens, and the hawks, not to mention black and turkey vultures soaring overhead. In addition, during winter, the Apex Community Park played host to a breeding pair of bald eagles. In fact, the wider Jordan Lake area (fifteen or so minutes from home) contains the largest concentration of bald eagles anywhere in the United States outside of Alaska. We were treated to many wonderful sightings of fishing bald eagles.
As a compliment to the photographs, I grew to really appreciate the mindfulness of getting outside and paying very close attention to what was around me. Many birds are not always obvious by site, but can be easily identified by sound once you've learned their calls. The call of the pileated woodpecker was a favourite to my ears. It didn't take long before I was bringing my phone with me to make use of the eBird and Merlin apps (for tracking the birds I found and identifying species I was unsure of, respectively), but it took something away from being in the moment and made the experience feel a bit too artificial. Instead, I got hold of a bird guide from the library (my wife then bought me my own) and I studied our local birds the old fashioned way.
Of course, we had bird feeders too. Abundant species of sparrow would come to visit alongside cardinals and Carolina wrens. Every attempt to put out suet to attract woodpeckers was met with bold squirrels ruining the fun. I never got as far as putting out nectar for hummingbirds in summer, but that didn't stop one or two of them coming to investigate anyway.
Before leaving the US, I was determined to see an owl. They're so charismatic with such distinctive facial features that to see one in the wild would have been a real treat. On the morning of New Year's Eve, 2023, we took our little boy out in the pram (he wasn't two months old yet) and were so incredibly lucky to see a barred owl. We stayed with it for well over an hour, trying to get the perfect photograph, but also just watching it from afar. It captivated the attention of everyone walking past and I traded many enjoyable bird-watching stories with other enthusiasts that morning.
Being back in Melbourne now, I have high hopes for bird watching. While we've been back for nearly six months and haven't yet been out on a single bird walk, I'm itching to head to some old favourite spots where I know I'll see some of Australia's stunning parrots. I frequently observe short and long-billed corellas, black cockatoos and rainbow lorikeets while out running. Not to mention some of our more common species like magpies, sulphur-crested cockatoos and galahs.
Being out in nature is wonderfully therapeutic. I have many friends and family back in South Africa who can't go a full year without a trip to the bush. I would be the same if I had such a wonderful thing on my doorstep. But as I've learned with bird-watching, one need not have to wish for what they don't have, and can instead venture out to explore what they do, and derive plenty of enjoyment from it.