HOW TO BE A BAD BIRDWATCHER

Previous posts have covered topics such as physics or mathematics. For the awe and wonder they have inspired, it just seems to follow we should turn our attention now to the natural world. In what very well may be must last post for this academic course, I would like to speak very briefly about a lovely little book titled How to Be a Bad Birdwatcher by Simon Barnes.

The author makes a case for the little act of watching birds with curiosity in our everyday life and what comes from that, becoming, not a professional ornithologist by any means, but a bad birdwatcher. It is easy to understand the source of our fascination for them. Nonetheless, leaving flight aside, we have lots of things in common with them. Moreover, interacting with feathery creatures through observation in the wild is much more interesting and rewarding than with other species. To kick-start your curiosity, I would like to leave an excellent resource that contains the birdsong of the most common species we can find around us. More importantly, here you can find the apps some students and teachers from our school created for species found in our area and surroundings.

After reading this book, I have set myself to make birding a new hobby of mine. I feel incredibly fortunate to live where we live, since Galiza is an area with tremendous possibilities for watching birds, something that should give us a lot to think about. If we were to think of survival as a mathematical equation, biodiversity is the whole array of solutions for this complex problem of life and death, giving us 'endless forms most beautiful' as Charles Darwin put it in the final sentence in On the Origin of Species.

As you probably know by now, I always like to make connections to English literature. Funnily enough, there is a poem that runs as a thread through this book, The Windhover, by Gerard Manley Hopkins. This sonnet manages to condense the sense of marvel towards nature and, in particular, towards an incredible creature: the kestrel. If you are interested in the poem, you can find further information in this link. I cannot resist but pasting the poem here and a short clip showing a common kestrel hovering in the wind, wishing you for this summer the same joy I experience in discovering new things.

I caught this morning morning's minion, king-

    dom of daylight's dauphin, dapple-dawn-drawn Falcon, in his riding

    Of the rolling level underneath him steady air, and striding

High there, how he rung upon the rein of a wimpling wing

In his ecstasy! then off, off forth on swing,

    As a skate's heel sweeps smooth on a bow-bend: the hurl and gliding

    Rebuffed the big wind. My heart in hiding

Stirred for a bird, – the achieve of, the mastery of the thing!

Brute beauty and valour and act, oh, air, pride, plume, here

    Buckle! AND the fire that breaks from thee then, a billion

Times told lovelier, more dangerous, O my chevalier!

     

   No wonder of it: shéer plód makes plough down sillion

Shine, and blue-bleak embers, ah my dear,

    Fall, gall themselves, and gash gold-vermilion.

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En publicacións anteriores temos tratado cuestións de física ou matemáticas. Esa mesma sensación de abraio que poden inspirar tornarémola hoxe ao mundo natural. No que moi probablemente sexa o meu último post para este curso, gustaríame falarvos dun libriño magnífico titulado How to Be a Bad Birdwatcher de Simon Barnes.

No libro, o autor desenvolve unha gran defensa do simple acto de observar paxaros con curiosidade comezando polo noso día a día e o que se sigue disto, convertíndonos, non en ornitólogos profesionais nin moito menos, senón en maos observadores de aves. É moi sinxelo comprender a orixe da nosa fascinación por eles. Porén, deixando a un lado a súa capacidade para voar, temos moito en común con eles como, por exemplo, na nosa maneira de relacionarnos cos nosos conxéneres nalgúns aspectos. Ademais, interactuar con estas criaturas plumíferas por medio da súa observación no medio natural ofrece moitas máis recompensas e interese que con outras especies. Para fomentar a vosa curiosidade, déixovos un recurso excelente que contén cantos das aves máis comúns entre nós. Máis importante aínda é estoutra páxina, onde teredes acceso a app en versión multilingüe desenvolvida por compañeiros e profesores do centro.

Despois de ler o libro, téñome proposto facer da observación de aves unha nova afección. Síntome moi afortunado de vivir onde vivimos, xa que Galiza é un país con tremendas posibilidades para ver paxaros de cerca, algo que nos debería dar moito que reflexionar. De feito, se pensamos na supervivencia como unha ecuación matemática, a biodiversidade sería o conxunto de solucións para este complexo problema de vida ou morte, dándonos as «máis fermosas e infinitas formas», tal e como menciona Charles Darwin na frase final d’A orixe das especies.

Como xa vos teredes decatado, sempre intento establecer conexións coa literatura inglesa. Curiosamente, o autor emprega un poema como unha especie de fío condutor no libro, The Windhover, de Gerard Manley Hopkins. Este soneto consegue condensar o estupor ante a natureza e, en particular, cara una espécime incríbel: o lagarteiro (Falco tinnunculus). Se estades interesados no poema, poderedes atopar máis información nesta ligazón. Non podo resistirme a incluír o texto aquí mesmo e un pequeno vídeo onde poderedes a este tipo de falcón, inmóbil no ar, como reza o título do poema, desexándovos neste verán a mesma ledicia que eu sinto ao descubrir cousas novas.