Bird Walk

Oh my dear little strollers it has been a wee while again hasn’t it? It seems to have been a hectic couple of weeks so it has been lovely to have the Easter break to slow down and enjoy doing very little. And now I find I have both the time and the energy to return to Soothing Strolls, hooray.

While I have been out & about a lot recently that doesn’t mean it’s all been bad, far from it, I’ve been fortunate enough to have some lovely outings lately, it just meant I had less time for typing. However it was still comforting to know that my little blog was here waiting for me once I had a few minutes to spare.

Anyway let’s get back to the point, shall we? Well one of my recent excursions was to go on a bird walk. While I’ve mentioned in previous posts that I’ve been trying to get better acquainted with our feathered-friends the suggestion of the walk was not mine and had nothing to do with my new-found interest, it was just a happy coincidence. To the point my friend was quite surprised that I was so quick to agree to test out this experience.

The idea of the bird walk is to go out into the woodlands on a guided walk, listening out for different types of birdsong. Hopefully by the end of it you’ll have learnt what birds to listen out for and how to tell the difference between the birds you are listening too. I’ll be honest with you readers whilst I theoretically heard a goldcrest, a long-tailed tit and 18 other types of bird I would still struggle to describe their calls or identify them on another walk. But does that matter?

Perhaps I am too laid-back about things but I do sometimes worry that we are too goal-oriented. Of course sometimes we have to have goals and objectives but equally do we need them in every aspects of our lives? I appreciate some people do need a goal in order to feel motivated but I can’t help feeling that in some instances we’re just setting ourselves up for failure. Rather than going for a walk to feel better, we’re supposed to go for a walk every day, for at least 30 minutes or to do at least 10,000 steps a day or burn 2,500 calories etc etc Why can’t the goal, the objective, the motivation simply be to feel better, to smile, to be contented?

None of this is directed at the Bird Walk organiers as there was no pressure to leave the experience feeling like an ornithologist. The aim was to enjoy a walk in the woods and to hear some birds, well mission accomplished. I guess my disgruntlement is directed at those who would say that wasn’t enough, who would only feel it was worthwhile if they were able to play audio bird bingo and score a full house.

I guess this is a roundabout way of saying if you need a definitive outcome to enjoy an outing then a bird walk may not be for you. If, however, you like any excuse for a walk in the woods, enjoy listening to birds and like learning new things even if you don’t necessarily retain all the facts – then you will love a bird walk.

During the walk I was reliably informed that I heard 20 different types of bird, a lot of them I’d never even heard the name let alone distinguished the call before and as mentioned I’m unlikely to again. This in itself brought up an interesting discussion around the differing ways in which people learn. Some people (magical folk in my eyes) can hear a song and then instantly play the tune on an instrument, or hear a note and then replicate it with their own voice. I am not one of these people, which is perhaps why simply hearing a bird’s song is not enough for me to be able to remember the tune and the name of the bird singing it. However if I see a bird and hear it’s song then if I happen to know the bird’s name, I can match the two up. For example, I’ve been looking at a blackbird as he’s made his melodious call, I’ve seen a tiny Robin as it makes it’s surprisingly loud call and I’ve watched a Magpie chatter to its friends. However during the walk we were rarely able to spot the birds we were listening to and so I think this is why my brain struggled to make the connection.

That being said I did still learn something during the walk. Firstly I learnt that there is a bird called a Tree Creeper and secondly I learnt that this is perhaps the most aptly named creature in the aniaml-kingdom as I watched the bird literally creep up a tree. The fact it looked a little creepy was pure gravy. It was also very cute but I’m simply not used to seeing birds crawling up a tree and so it was a bit creepy. Now if you asked me what this bird sounded like I’m afraid I’d only be able to offer you a shrug.

Some might say returning home after a walk designed to help you learn about bird songs with only a visual of a bird climbing a tree was a wasted experience but I heartily disagree. First and foremost I had a wonderful couple of hours spent in the woodland, away from my compter so that is already a win in my book. It was also an incentive to get outside on a misty, murky morning when I otherwise wouldn’t have bothered. And while I don’t necessarily remember each bird song, I have noticed that on subsequent walks I have been more aware that I’m actually listening to a few birds rather than lumping them all together into the category of “pleasant birdsong”. There have been sounds that I thought were familiar but I wouldn’t have been able to say if it was a chaffinch or a chiff-chaff and I’m ok with that.

Of course if I do want to know what birds I’m listening too there is – inevitably – an app for that. It’s essentially Shazam for birds and it is very impressive. The app is Merlin, it’s free and you can literally stand in the middle of the forest, in your garden or even on a train platform hold your phone out and it will tell you are currently listening to a pigeon, a robin, a sprarrow or whatever feathery-friend is trying to say hello.

So perhaps next time you are out for a walk see if you can spot different bird calls. As well as listening out for different types of birds, can you hear the different intonations in the song? Is this an invitation to come hither or please go away? Is it a warning that a predator is on their way? By doing this you may suddenly discover you’ve walked further than you expected too or that you’re feeling less stressed about that upcoming report, call or test. Or you may just discover you really don’t know much about birds but you’ve had a lovely walk so what does it matter?

That’s how I stroll.