Confession: I’ve never been a big birder. But in this episode of Unpacked, I go deep into the wild world of birdwatching. Here’s how it could change your life and why you might actually end up loving this activity.
Read the transcript here: https://rebrand.ly/3oapk5v
Discover more episodes of the Unpacked by AFAR podcast here: https://www.afar.com/podcasts/unpacked
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Read the transcript here: https://rebrand.ly/3oapk5v
Discover more episodes of the Unpacked by AFAR podcast here: https://www.afar.com/podcasts/unpacked
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CONNECT WITH AFAR
Afar.com is a digital and print magazine that publishes travel tips, guides, news, and stories: https://www.afar.com
Get updates on the latest articles, travel news, and more from AFAR by signing up for the AFAR newsletter: https://afar.com/newsletters
Follow AFAR on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AfarMedia
Follow AFAR on Twitter: https://twitter.com/afarmedia
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TravelTranscript
00:00 It is 7.48. I am about to go birding for the first time. I have no binoculars. I have no
00:08 idea what I'm doing.
00:18 I'm Aisling Green and this is Unpacked, the podcast that unpacks one tricky topic in travel
00:23 every week. And this week, I'm attempting to become a birder.
00:28 I started bird watching or birding in 2001, so I guess 22 years.
00:34 That's a long time.
00:36 Yes, about almost half of my entire life has been spent bird watching.
00:40 That is Dominic Mosu, or as my soon-to-be fellow birders like to call him, Dom.
00:48 Dom is a volunteer trip leader for the Golden Gate Audubon Chapter,
00:52 and I'm standing at the entrance to a place called the Randall Museum in San Francisco.
00:56 This is where Dom begins his monthly birding the hill tour.
01:00 It's cold and foggy, and on top of that, there is a weed whacker whacking away nearby.
01:06 And I gotta be honest, it's bumming me out a little bit.
01:10 I'm here because, as I mentioned, I'm trying to become a birder.
01:14 And just for a little background, my long-time former manager here at Avar, Jeremy, is a big
01:22 birder, and we would tease him about it so much. I mean, in a loving way, I think, I hope.
01:28 Jeremy, you know we love you.
01:29 I liked his passion for these avian friends of ours, but I just couldn't really get excited
01:36 about them beyond the broad, you know, "Birds are good. Let's keep birds."
01:40 I like to hike. I like to be in nature. But birds were always just, for me, kind of background noise.
01:47 But then I moved to a floating home in Sausalito,
01:50 and every day, seriously, all I see are birds.
01:52 There are geese honking overhead and nesting nearby,
01:55 gray herons looking for food in the mud, gulls flying by and leaving their marks on cars.
02:02 And it's not like all of a sudden it completely changed my perspective on birds,
02:07 but I noticed them in a way I hadn't before.
02:10 And yet, when we started to plan this episode, I wanted to get an expert to do it.
02:15 You know, somebody who could woo you into trying the sport, woo me into trying it.
02:20 Which does beg the question, is birding a sport? I don't know.
02:24 But the expert didn't work out, and I realized that if the idea
02:28 is to make a case for birding to non-birders, then wouldn't I be the perfect candidate?
02:34 So, come along with me on my journey.
02:37 For you, dear listener, I climbed a hill,
02:40 listened to maybe a thousand different bird calls, downloaded bird apps,
02:45 and interviewed experts, even my bird-loving aunt.
02:49 Am I a convert? Well, stick with me and find out.
02:54 Now, back to that weed whacker.
02:56 Yeah, so how long have you been?
02:59 Been watching these walks.
03:01 Oh, to these walks? Probably like my fifth time or something.
03:04 Here's my friend.
03:05 Oh yeah.
03:05 Your first timer.
03:06 Yo, I'm also a first timer.
03:08 Oh good, oh good.
03:09 And I love that you're wearing bird earrings.
03:10 Oh yeah, yeah.
03:11 There's a sense of anticipation in the air as people continue to arrive.
03:17 There are about 11 people in the group, and we range pretty widely in terms of gender, race,
03:23 and age. As Dom gathers the group around and starts to talk, finally the weed walker stops.
03:29 Hey everyone, welcome to the first Friday walk.
03:33 August is the end of the breeding season.
03:36 We will be looking for the last of the juvenile birds still in their baby plumage.
03:42 We'll also be looking for possibly some new arrivals, new migrants,
03:47 that are already starting to show up.
03:49 And as long as the weed whacker doesn't come on again.
03:53 We'll work on sound ID because the reason why we don't call this bird watching,
03:57 but we call it birding, is because we are looking for birds and listening for birds as well.
04:02 We're trying to detect birds any way we can.
04:04 And a lot of that takes place through our ears.
04:06 Dom has us close our eyes and just listen for 30 seconds.
04:10 At first, I don't hear anything but a blissful silence.
04:20 And then a twitter, a chirp, a lower pitched chirp, a whistle like twitter, and a car horn.
04:28 Most birds have very distinctive individualized calls.
04:32 And so a house finch may look a lot like a purple finch, but it sounds completely different.
04:37 A song sparrow and a savannah sparrow have completely different calls.
04:40 So by learning their calls, we will learn how to find them.
04:44 And so the walk begins.
04:47 A group of 11 includes three little girls.
04:51 And as we start to walk down a slight hill towards this grassy area that has tennis courts,
04:56 I noticed that each of the girls has a pair of wooden binoculars.
05:00 I mean, even the kindergartners have binoculars.
05:03 I feel so naked.
05:04 But it doesn't matter because we've just spotted our first important bird, a red-tailed hawk.
05:10 - Him and I, we made a little deal.
05:12 I said, "Hey, you stay in that tree until the group arrives,
05:15 because it's foggy and we might not see another hawk today."
05:18 So everyone, there's a red-tailed hawk.
05:20 - In the distance, I can see Cypress.
05:21 - You see on top of that first tree, above the playground,
05:24 you can see he's just perched up up there.
05:26 It's an adult red-tailed hawk.
05:28 As we continue on the walk, we head past the tennis courts and toward a community garden.
05:33 The world just kind of comes alive.
05:36 Suddenly, we're seeing birds everywhere.
05:38 - There's also a, uh, mock-up bird.
05:40 - Hooded oriole, is that what you said?
05:42 - Hooded oriole, yes.
05:42 We're going to get a little bit closer so that you all can see what it is.
05:48 But listen for that chatter.
05:49 We also see something that is very iconic in San Francisco.
05:54 Here's a parrot coming our way, everybody.
05:56 Look, there's a red-nosed parakeet.
05:58 - Two of them.
06:00 Look at those choppy wing beats.
06:03 - I mean, choppy wing beats?
06:05 I have never in my life thought about such a thing.
06:08 I'm starting to understand what Dom meant when he told me about the ways that birding
06:12 has opened up his eyes to the world.
06:15 - I used to love hiking and observing nature.
06:18 And then when I discovered that in addition to just enjoying sort of the general views
06:22 and the open space, there was hundreds of different birds to be seen and identified
06:28 and learned about, it made the world look completely different, a lot more interesting.
06:32 There's no dull moments when you're a birder.
06:34 - Birding the hill is, of course, an urban bird walk.
06:37 We are in the middle of San Francisco.
06:39 And it is true that as you start to pay attention, these layers reveal themselves.
06:45 What could feel like a very normal grassy park where, you know, people come and throw
06:50 balls for their dog and play tennis is suddenly alive with sounds and sights.
06:55 - I like urban birding because of how accessible it is as far as being able to observe nature
07:00 in a densely populated place.
07:02 The birds don't seem to be too bothered by our activities and are able to kind of adapt
07:08 to existing in small spaces, small parks.
07:12 And as long as we're not actively trying to interfere with their lives, they just kind
07:19 of keep doing their thing in the middle of a large city like San Francisco.
07:23 And Dom says that all birds count, even the ones that we might roll our eyes at or shoo
07:29 away while we're eating lunch in the park.
07:32 - Oh, here we go.
07:32 - What's that big one?
07:33 What's that?
07:33 Oh, a pigeon.
07:34 - Pigeon.
07:34 - Rock pigeon.
07:35 - Yeah.
07:36 - Hey, don't laugh.
07:38 This is actually a really good point.
07:40 One time I called out starlings flying over the park.
07:45 I said, "Hey, everybody, look at the starlings."
07:46 And one of our walk participants said, "I don't look at starlings.
07:50 They're not a native species.
07:51 Who cares?"
07:52 Two months later, she emails me and she says, "Hey, I think I may have seen purple martins
07:56 over Golden Gate Park."
07:58 And I said, "Are you sure they weren't starlings?"
08:01 She said, "No."
08:02 And I'm like, "Well, go back and look again."
08:03 And then the next day she's like, "They were starlings."
08:06 I'm like, "That's why you look at starlings, because starlings look like other birds.
08:10 And we want to know what they all look like.
08:12 And if you know what a rock pigeon looks like, then you'll know what a band-tailed pigeon
08:15 looks like after a while."
08:16 So yeah, we don't discriminate here.
08:19 All birds are equally important for us to study.
08:22 As we're walking, I'm starting to think, "This is just like learning a foreign language.
08:29 There's this massive sound around me, but I can't parse out any meaning yet."
08:33 And that can be frustrating as one of the kids on this hike is starting to realize.
08:37 I can't see it.
08:39 Mommy, I can't see it.
08:44 But that first moment where you realize you can ID a word or a phrase, oh, it's so satisfying.
08:51 There's some birds up there.
08:53 There are some birds up there.
08:56 Hi, Jiggly.
09:00 So we say goodbye to Jiggly, and Dom tells us that getting better at birding, learning
09:06 this language, is all about practice.
09:08 If you're looking at a bird up close and it starts to fly away, follow it for as long
09:13 as you can.
09:14 Get familiar with what it looks like at different distances and angles.
09:17 That way, I can look up there in that eucalyptus tree and scan and say, "Oh yeah, there's
09:22 seven house finches."
09:24 And it's not because I have magical eyesight like some kind of Marvel superhero.
09:29 It's because I've been looking at house finches from five meters, ten meters, fifty meters,
09:33 and a hundred meters.
09:33 And so eventually you develop that experience and that confidence to be able to identify
09:38 birds at what seems like an incredible, magical distance.
09:42 And what else do you need to know or have to become an expert birder?
09:47 We'll find out after the break.
09:48 I'm Kara Cook.
10:01 I am the rooftop biologist for the Southwest region in Florida.
10:06 So I'm, in case anybody is wondering what a rooftop biologist is, I basically work with
10:13 shorebirds and seabirds that nest on gravel rooftops in Florida.
10:17 Isn't that a cool job?
10:19 But Kara, who lives in Tampa, says she was not a born birder.
10:23 I actually took an ornithology course in the senior year of my undergrad at the University
10:28 of Missouri.
10:29 So it's been about nine years that I would consider myself an actual birder.
10:34 I grew up in more of a rural area, so we had birds kind of in our yard a lot.
10:40 And so I kind of grew up with them, but I really didn't get into birding until college.
10:45 Nice.
10:46 And what was it about that class that changed things for you?
10:50 I just, it was just so eye opening.
10:53 Birding just, it gets me outside.
10:56 It gets me in nature, which makes me feel better.
11:00 It makes me feel less stressed.
11:03 And I just really look forward to seeing the birds and you never know what you're going
11:10 to see when you go out.
11:12 It's kind of always like a surprise.
11:14 Kara said something during our chat that literally gave me goosebumps.
11:18 Oh, I can still feel it now.
11:19 I had asked her how birding has changed the way that she sees nature.
11:23 It's really just made me a lot more in tune with my surroundings.
11:29 I'm always listening and looking for birds, whether it's like walking into Target or,
11:35 you know, if I'm at the beach for fun, I'm always just like looking for those things.
11:41 But I also just find it really awe inspiring because some of these birds are traveling
11:49 thousands and thousands of miles and they're stopping in front of me to forage or, you
11:54 know, do whatever.
11:56 And I just kind of like, almost like a little magical moment.
12:00 That was honestly the light bulb moment for me.
12:03 This idea that through a twist of fate, I could encounter a bird that's in the middle
12:08 of a thousand mile journey.
12:09 I mean, how, how incredible is that?
12:13 So honestly, if nothing else has convinced you to give birding a chance, I hope that
12:17 that kind of serendipity does.
12:20 But our conversation was not just about magical nature moments.
12:24 I mean, those are cool, but we talked about practical stuff too.
12:27 Kara had some great advice in terms of how to get started and the kind of gear you need.
12:32 It's really not that much.
12:33 You can probably guess the first tip.
12:36 It's what all those birders on my hike had around their necks, even the little kids.
12:40 Just like a basic pair of binoculars is super helpful.
12:45 You don't have to go out and spend like hundreds of dollars on binoculars.
12:48 I can just do like a pair of eight by 42s or eight by 30s and be perfectly fine.
12:54 If that sounds like Greek to you, yeah, same here.
12:57 But I learned that it's actually pretty simple.
12:58 In the examples that Kara shared, eight by or eight X, it would be like the number eight
13:05 and the letter X.
13:06 It refers to the magnification power.
13:09 So basically anything you look at through them will appear eight times closer.
13:13 And the 42 refers to the size in millimeters of the objective lens, which are those ET
13:20 like lenses at the end of a pair of binoculars.
13:23 So the larger the lens, the more light can come through.
13:26 Kara says you can get a basic pair of binoculars for about 40 or $50.
13:30 But before you spend the money, check out your local library.
13:34 I found this really cool program that some libraries do this.
13:40 You can like loan a birding backpack.
13:43 It basically has like a field guide and like one or two pairs of binoculars in it.
13:48 OK, so now you have your binoculars.
13:50 Kara suggests two more things.
13:52 First, buy or find a field guide for your region.
13:56 We'll link to an example of that in our show notes.
13:58 And second, download a couple of apps.
14:01 Merlin is one of my favorites.
14:04 So it really is super easy for anyone to use.
14:09 Let's say you have a bird that you're not sure what it is, but you can kind of go through
14:15 these prompts and like put in like what are the three primary colors that you saw on the
14:21 bird, kind of like what size is the bird?
14:25 Is it like bigger than a cardinal or smaller than a goose?
14:28 And then what kind of behavior is it doing?
14:32 So is it like on the ground or sitting on a wire?
14:34 And also you plug in your location and then it'll spit out a couple lists of what it most
14:41 likely is.
14:41 And it's pretty accurate.
14:43 And then there's also an audio recording option.
14:48 So if you hear a bird like singing, you can tap the record button on there and listen
14:55 to its song.
14:56 Kara also likes eBird, an app that Dom was using to track our bird sightings on my bird
15:02 walk on the hill.
15:03 It's more for keeping your own lists.
15:07 And it's more of like a citizen science type app that you can contribute your sightings.
15:15 So if you go to a park and you list all the birds that you see while you're on your walk,
15:19 you can submit that and it goes into their database and you can add audio or photos if
15:26 you want.
15:27 But then it kind of generates your own like species list.
15:32 She says that one of the best parts of eBird is the fact that it has a hotspot map.
15:36 As a beginning birder, it's a great way to figure out where the birds are hanging out.
15:40 There's one piece of equipment, though, that you really don't need to have.
15:44 You don't have to have a camera to go birding.
15:47 But there's a reason that you might see birders out there with them.
15:49 I'll just say if you do have one and it has like a decent zoom on it, just snap a picture
15:55 of the bird and kind of use that as a reference where you can go back and look in a book or
16:02 a guide when you get back and you can be like, oh, OK, this is that bird if you weren't able
16:07 to ID it in the field.
16:08 Once you have all of this equipment and you're ready to go, you're pumped up, you want to
16:14 go out on your own.
16:14 What exactly do you do?
16:17 How does one bird?
16:19 I typically move pretty slow because I'm looking and listening for birds.
16:25 And that's OK.
16:27 Like you don't have to rush.
16:29 I recommend kind of being quiet, you know, as you can, like not having like loud conversations
16:35 and stuff on the phone.
16:37 But, you know, being quiet and I think just being kind of more in tune to sounds, listening
16:46 for the birds calling can kind of help you see which trees they might be in or where
16:52 they might be at.
16:53 I can can kind of be more of like a almost like a meditative type thing.
16:58 Kara says that if you're starting out and you don't live close to beaches or vast green
17:03 spaces, just go to your local park.
17:06 And if you're feeling overwhelmed on your own or you would just rather be led, which
17:10 is great, you can always do what I did and join a tour.
17:13 Find like a local Audubon chapter or a birding club.
17:18 Those are really good ways to meet other people that might be new and that are learning.
17:22 Or if you want to have like a mentor talk to you and just kind of learn more about the
17:28 birds in your area.
17:30 They usually take you to places that are in your region that have good places to see
17:37 birds.
17:37 Or instead of going on a tour, look for projects that you can get involved in.
17:42 In Tampa, where Kara lives, there are monitoring projects for everything from scrub jays to
17:48 raptors.
17:49 Joining a club or a project like that is also the best way to meet other birders, who Kara
17:55 says are usually super nice.
17:56 It just feels like a big community, honestly.
18:00 You just meet so many people that are interested in the birds and interested in nature, usually.
18:06 And it's just a lot of fun to go out with people that are like-minded and just enjoying
18:13 what birds are showing up today.
18:15 It's something my aunt Cheryl agrees with.
18:17 Cheryl also lives in Florida and she is a big birder.
18:21 She volunteers at her local wildlife sanctuary where she actually worked for 20 years.
18:25 As I was wrapping up this episode, I thought I should give her a call and see what she
18:29 has to say.
18:30 And as we were chatting, and I was feeling her in on what I was doing, she started sharing
18:35 about one of her favorite birds.
18:37 And the chimney swifts are just little tiny black birds that are basically my very favorite
18:42 bird in the whole world.
18:43 Little black wings, they fly like the blue angels.
18:47 They eat thousands of mosquitoes each time and then they nest in chimneys.
18:55 That's why they're called chimney swifts.
18:57 They're sweet birds actually to each other.
19:01 If there's one that maybe doesn't feel so good or it's a little bit younger or whatever,
19:06 the bigger ones may come over and put their wing over the body of the other.
19:10 They're just very caring little birds.
19:12 So I googled chimney swifts and I have to say they really are amazing.
19:17 They do everything while flying, including eating, drinking, and maybe mating.
19:24 Wow.
19:25 And one of the things that Cheryl does in addition to work with birds is that she loves
19:30 to join the annual Audubon bird count, which happens every February.
19:33 She echoed what Kara said.
19:36 She said that it's almost like a meditation for her.
19:38 On the day that I do the bird count, it's like, that's what I'm thinking.
19:42 I'm thinking birds and I don't think of anything else.
19:45 I don't see anything else.
19:46 I don't feel bad.
19:47 I just feel, it just gets me out there.
19:50 That's the way I've always felt after a good long hike and during the hike itself.
19:55 And Cheryl believes that that meditative feeling can create these bigger links for us with
20:00 the world.
20:01 I think if you can get outside and you can look up rather than down, you're going to
20:08 start seeing a lot of other things that are out there that are really cool.
20:11 And then people get more attached, I think, to the world basically.
20:17 And the more we connect with the world, the more we want to protect it, right?
20:21 If you see these big long lines of geese and hawks and things flying over, I think, you
20:27 know, I want to make sure that where they're going is going to be good.
20:31 But also when they come back, I want to make sure they still have the places that they
20:36 need to nest for the summer.
20:39 And, you know, they just need the food, the water, the shelter.
20:42 That's what they need.
20:43 And a lot of those things are, you know, sometimes going away.
20:47 So we've gone from a quiet birding walk on a foggy San Francisco morning to possibly
20:53 saving the world.
20:54 Such is the power of birding.
20:56 And like Dom said to me at the beginning of my very first walk,
21:01 I think it'll change your life if you really, if you let it.
21:05 Did it change my life?
21:07 Am I a birder now?
21:08 It's still too early to really know for sure.
21:12 I have not yet bought binoculars, but I did download the Merlin app.
21:16 And the other day on my daily walk, I saw this little brown bird fly out of a small
21:21 tree.
21:22 So I stopped to watch.
21:23 And as it kind of flapped its wings, I noticed that it had blue feathers on the underside
21:28 of its wings.
21:29 So I pulled out Merlin, I plugged in the descriptors, and I felt so satisfied when I think, I think,
21:35 I ID'd it as a female Western bluebird.
21:38 It was my very first bird on my list.
21:41 But I think at the moment, the larger shift that I've made is an appreciation for the
21:46 awesomeness of these millions of birds going about their lives, often completely unbeknownst
21:51 to us.
21:52 They too are travelers crossing great distances.
21:56 And like Kara said, it's a little bit of magic every day that we get to encounter them.
22:01 And speaking of Kara, I have a much greater appreciation for the true bird geeks of the
22:06 world.
22:07 The people who are watching and counting and protecting these magnificent winged creatures.
22:13 So if even after all this poetry and advice, you can't or won't give birding a shot,
22:19 I say make a donation to the Audubon Society or another wildlife organization and call
22:25 it a day.
22:25 Thanks so much for listening and going on this journey with me.
22:35 I will keep you posted as to my birding progress.
22:38 We will also link to a birding resource on afar.com in our show notes, as well as to
22:43 the Merlin Birding app.
22:45 And if you want to find your local Audubon chapter, visit audubon.org.
22:50 And if you're in the Bay Area and you want to take a walk with Dom, visit randallmuseum.org/birding-the-bill.
22:58 We'll see you next week.
23:00 Ready for more unpacking?
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23:07 We're @AfarMedia.
23:08 If you enjoyed today's exploration, I hope you'll come back for more great stories.
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23:20 And be sure to rate and review the show.
23:22 It helps other travelers find it.
23:24 This season, we also want to hear from you.
23:26 Is there a travel dilemma, trend, or topic you'd like us to explore?
23:31 Email us at unpacked@afar.com.
23:33 This has been Unpacked, a production of Afar Media.
23:37 The podcast is produced by Aislinn Green and Nikki Galteland.
23:40 Music composition by Chris Gawlin.
23:42 And remember, the world is complicated.
23:45 We're here to help you unpack it.
23:51 [end]
23:53 [music]