About 10 years ago a cartoon in a national daily featuring a vulture in black-and-white caught my attention. It showed this bird of prey comfortably perched on a narrow cliff (at that time the vultures were still not categorised as endangered species) reading a news journal with the headline ‘Watching humans’, while its partner gazed below through a pair of binoculars. This, I guess, was a jibe intended at birdwatching, a trend that has taken off quite successfully in India. I had a good laugh for I too was unaware that one day I would be bitten by the same bug. And a pair of binoculars would become the most important accessory in my bag.
Going through a bout of depression and anxiety on account of a difficult job, birdwatching was what I needed to bounce back in life. An avid birdwatcher’s simple yet profound words came to my rescue. “Just bird away your worries.” So, every Sunday morning — hail, rain, sunshine — gearing up for birdwatching became a habit and a healthy activity. Each time I hoped to add a new species to my wish-list of 1,200-plus birds that are found in India.
Since then I have been hooked on to it but it hasn’t been easy. I have made my share of bird watching bloopers.
My greatest challenge in pursuing this hobby has been getting up in the wee hours of the morning. Birding success comes more easily to early birds, as the winged beauties are more active between 6 am and 8 am. In anticipation sometimes one doesn’t sleep at all but doses off a few minutes before it’s time to venture out. Rightly tagged as one of the most unreliable birding mates, I have, on innumerable occasions, cancelled at the last minute and let sleep take over only to regret it later in the day.
Generally, birding groups have interesting people from different walks of life but the peer pressure of guessing birds is quite high. They fight amongst themselves, bird identifications are argued, group emails are dissected, birding legends are quoted, and sometimes equipment such as camera and tripod are flung in anger. For bird photographers, megapixels and telephoto lenses are phallic symbols. Some members, who may have had an argument over a bird ID, won’t be on talking terms for years. I just tell myself, “stay calm, it’s just birdwatching.”
Among them I am a novice. I have completed eight years of birdwatching in India but still am an amateur. I cannot differentiate between the three types of egrets, recognise birds in flight or distinguish between a purple heron and its subsets. But I love birdwatching. When someone asks me to identify a bird during a walk, I look here and there and try changing the subject. I cough politely, hoping someone will rescue me with the name or end up stammering “Errr I think it’s a purple-legged...” The other person gets an idea of my understanding about the world of birds and maintains a distance.
Birders seldom like non-birding discussions during birdwatching — but I like to talk about my films, my food, cricket and mundane domestic chores.
Punjabi by birth and by nature, I am loud when I am happy. I cannot control my excitement on seeing a bird for the first time. I yell in excitement, only to be reprimanded politely by my peers. “Ssshhh, don’t you know the bird will fly away?” And then with hands down, lips sealed, I ‘lock’ my body, hold it together and walk in pin-drop silence.
Birdwatching is addictive and can be dangerous if done out of place and time. No birdwatching while driving. I am so into it that even while driving, if I happen to see anything flying, my hands search for the binoculars that are not there. Many times, I have either left my steering wheel completely or have shaken the driver violently to stop the car in the middle of a road to catch a glance of an elusive bird.
I have had the best birdwatching sessions and I’ve suffered my family’s ridicule for my passion, all on the same day. Male members of the group are more prone to teasing. “Birdwatching? Ha ha, feathered kind, or the two-legged variety?” is the usual refrain.
Birdwatchers are slightly directionally challenged: imagine four of them standing on a rocky ledge, trying to figure out the location of the bird which one of them has seen. The first person’s directions to the other three would go like this, “Look, focus, it’s under the blue sky, arre focus on the tree on the left, the fork of the tree, the brown branch of the tree that’s under the clouds.”
I prefer birdwatching to a shopping spree at a mall. It’s much more relaxing. Maybe, after I have seen all the 1200 birds that are present in India I may give up birdwatching!
(amrita talwar is a Delhi-based publicity professional)