Low-Carbon Birding

Javier Caletrío

Description

Birdwatching in Britain has grown increasingly dependent on burning fossil fuels. Regularly driving long distances to birding hotspots and frequent flying to see exotic species are seen as perfectly normal. In the face of the climate crisis, however, a growing number of birders are reassessing the way they enjoy and study birds. In this timely book, 30 contributors—from young birdwatchers to professional ornithologists—explain why and how they are shifting to climate-friendlier approaches. Low-carbon birding, they argue, is a legitimate and valuable way of enjoying birds. Furthermore, in itself this can bring many joys, some of them unexpected.

From first encounters with hawfinches to focusing in on birdsong, from the Kalahari to the Hebrides, the stories told here are not about heroic efforts to save the planet. They are simply accounts of everyday humanity in unprecedented times—ordinary people with doubts and concerns about how to live a decent life and act responsibly in a rapidly warming world. The authenticity of their voices is a testament to the moment of awakening to the climate crisis in British ornithology. Above all, Low-Carbon Birding is an urgent call for birders to leave a better legacy in the skies and across the living world.

Contributors 

Foreword Mike Clarke

Preface

Acknowledgements 



Introduction Javier Caletrío

1 Are We Addicted to High-Carbon Ornithology? Javier Caletrío

2 Questions of Travel, Climate and Responsibility Javier Caletrío

3 The Seven Cs of Patch Birding Nick Moran

4 Understanding Our Local Birds Angela Turner

5 Long-term Local Science Ben Sheldon

6 The Perpetual Patch Roger Emmens

7 The Long Rhythms of a Place José Ignacio Dies Jambrino

8 A Life of Local Birding Matt Phelps

9 The Joys of Patch Birding Maria Scullion

10 A Patch Year David Raffle

11 Hunting Hawfinch Steve Gale

12 In Praise of ‘Projects’ Mark Bannister

13 The Backyard Jungle Finley Hutchinson

14 My Patch and the Plastic Problem Siân Mercer

15 Eleventh-Hour Birding Simon Gillings

16 Listening Again to Birdsong Dave Langlois

17 The Sound of Summer Arjun Dutta

18 Birding in the Yorkshire Dales Steve Ward

19 TG42 Tim Allwood

20 Shrikes from the Bike Dave Langlois

21 The Best Kind of Golden Oriole Gavin Haig

22 From Angst to Tranquillity Jonathan Dean

23 Redrawing My Birding Horizons Sorrel Lyall

24 Island Holidays by Train Amy Robjohns

25 Lammergeyers from Leeds Jonnie Fisk

26 Bringing Birding Home Nick Acheson

27 Little Steps, Big Difference Steve Dudley

28 Climate and the Cuckoo Calendar Lowell Mills-Frater

29 Climate Change in the Kalahari Amanda Bourne

30 Unsettling Journeys Kieran Lawrence

31 Witness to Extinction Alexander Lees

Afterword

Notes 

Index 

Sujets

• Life Sciences
• Birdwatching Guides
• birds
• Sciences et techniques
• Calentamiento global
• Biology
• Global warming
• Climate change
• Ornithology
• Zoology
• Energy
• Énergie
• Animals
• 454 Life Sciences
• Science

Informations

• Publié par: Pelagic Publishing
• Date de parution: 06 septembre 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9781784273453
• Langue: English

Extrait

Low-Carbon Birding
Low-Carbon Birding
Edited by Javier Caletrío
Pelagic Publishing
First published in 2022 by
Pelagic Publishing
20–22 Wenlock Road
London N1 7GU, UK
www.pelagicpublishing.com
Low-Carbon Birding
Copyright © 2022 Javier Caletrío and the authors of individual chapters
The right of those listed on pp. x–xix to be identified as the authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. Apart from short excerpts for use in research or for reviews, no part of this document may be printed or reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, now known or hereafter invented or otherwise without prior permission from the publisher.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
ISBN 978-1-78427-344-6 Hbk
ISBN 978-1-78427-345-3 ePub
ISBN 978-1-78427-346-0 PDF
https://doi.org/10.53061/EPEA5466
Cover image © Gary Redford
All interior illustrations © Alan Harris
Typeset in Adobe Garamond Pro by Deanta Global Publishing Services, Chennai, India
Nothing is enough for the man to whom enough is too little.
Epicurus
Maximize meaning, minimize carbon, is one measure of a life well lived.
Kimberly Nicholas
Contents
Contributors
Foreword by Mike Clarke
Preface
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Javier Caletrío
1 Are We Addicted to High-Carbon Ornithology?
Javier Caletrío
2 Questions of Travel, Climate and Responsibility
Javier Caletrío
3 The Seven Cs of Patch Birding
Nick Moran
4 Understanding Our Local Birds
Angela Turner
5 Long-term Local Science
Ben Sheldon
6 The Perpetual Patch
Roger Emmens
7 The Long Rhythms of a Place
José Ignacio Dies Jambrino
8 A Life of Local Birding
Matt Phelps
9 The Joys of Patch Birding
Maria Scullion
10 A Patch Year
David Raffle
11 Hunting Hawfinch
Steve Gale
12 In Praise of ‘Projects’
Mark Bannister
13 The Backyard Jungle
Finley Hutchinson
14 My Patch and the Plastic Problem
Siân Mercer
15 Eleventh-Hour Birding
Simon Gillings
16 Listening Again to Birdsong
Dave Langlois
17 The Sound of Summer
Arjun Dutta
18 Birding in the Yorkshire Dales
Steven Ward
19 TG42
Tim Allwood
20 Shrikes from the Bike
Dave Langlois
21 The Best Kind of Golden Oriole
Gavin Haig
22 From Angst to Tranquillity
Jonathan Dean
23 Redrawing my Birding Horizons
Sorrel Lyall
24 Island Holidays by Train
Amy Robjohns
25 Lammergeyers from Leeds
Jonnie Fisk
26 Bringing Birding Home
Nick Acheson
27 Little Steps, Big Difference
Steve Dudley
28 Climate and the Cuckoo Calendar
Lowell Mills-Frater
29 Climate Change in the Kalahari
Amanda Bourne
30 Unsettling Journeys
Kieran Lawrence
31 Witness to Extinction
Alexander Lees
Afterword
Notes
Index
Contributors
Nick Acheson lives in a flint cottage beside the River Wensum in north Norfolk. He grew up nearby, beside the River Stiffkey. In between moving the three miles from one north Norfolk river to another, he spent ten years in South America (largely by the rivers Piraí, Iténez and Mamoré in Bolivia), four in India (along the Brahmaputra, among many others) and worked with wildlife on every continent. Having reflected deeply on climate, biodiversity and ecotourism, he has given up flying. He now cycles around north Norfolk, and walks along the Wensum. He writes, speaks and teaches about wildlife and conservation, often on behalf of Norfolk Wildlife Trust and Felbeck Trust.
Tim Allwood is a low-carbon birder and teacher. After a period working and birding overseas, he moved to Norwich in 2001 before finally making it to the Norfolk coast in 2007 and adopting his beloved patch of TG42. Besides obsessively searching for birds in his local area, he grows vegetables, cycles locally, kicks the occasional football and obsesses over music. He is now most often found walking his greyhound, riding his bike or working his allotment. He does his best to live and promote a low-carbon lifestyle.
Mark Bannister is married with a son and daughter. He worked as an aerodynamicist specialising in wing design but never even got close to designing anything to match the aerodynamics of a swift. After a career in which much time was spent gazing out of the window, he is now retired and spends as much time as possible outside in his garden-come-nature-reserve with his wife, Mandy, or out on his bike birding the Humber bank and the tracks and minor roads of north Lincolnshire. Far too late in the day—but better late than never—he is decarbonising his lifestyle and unexpectedly thoroughly enjoying it.
Amanda Bourne is a conservation planning officer with the Northern Agricultural Catchments Council in Western Australia. Originally from South Africa, she completed her PhD at the Fitzpatrick Institute of African Ornithology in Cape Town in 2020. Her doctoral research focused on the impacts of climate change on the behaviour, breeding success and physiology of southern pied babblers. She is particularly keen on avian ecology and understanding and responding to the impacts of climate change in dryland environments.
Javier Caletrío has a background in economics and sociology and is a researcher in the areas of travel, inequality and ecological transitions. He is currently research advisor to the Mobile Lives Forum, a research institute funded by SNCF (French railways). He has lived in England for 22 years and travels every summer to the east coast of Spain by train via London, Paris and Barcelona to see his family and watch birds in his former patch in l’Albufera de Valencia. He cofounded the Valencian annual bird report and the naturalist group Roncadell.
Jonathan Dean made his first birding trip on 30 December 1991, aged nine, to the Eden Estuary in Fife, and he has been a keen birder ever since. His main birding claim to fame is that in the 1990s he was three times winner of British Birds magazine’s Young Ornithologst of the Year competition. He now devotes most of his energy to patch birding in and around his home city of Coventry, West Midlands, with occasional forays further afield. A political scientist by profession, he takes a keen interest in the social and political dimensions of birds, birding and nature conservation.
José Ignacio (Nacho) Dies Jambrino is a birder and wetland manager born and raised in Valencia, Spain. He has been captivated by natural history and dedicated to bird census and ringing activities since he was a child. He is currently involved in the management of the Racó de l’Olla reserve, as well as in the monitoring and conservation of bird populations in l’Albufera de Valencia. He was the cofounder of the Valencian annual bird report in the late 1980s and, among other activities, has served as a member and secretary of the Spanish Rarities Committee.
Steve Dudley is an obsessive birder and garden lister. He has recently relocated from the Cambridgeshire fens to the north Orkney isle of Westray as part of his drive to lead a lower-carbon lifestyle, which now includes no flying. He has worked in bird conservation and ornithology for 37 years, with the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, the British Trust for Ornithology and, for the last 25 years, has run the British Ornithologists’ Union. Early retirement in 2022 has allowed him to become a full-time birder. Steve has authored three books: Rare Birds Day by Day with Tim Benton, Pete Fraser and John Ryan; Watching British Dragonflies with Caroline Dudley and illustrated by Andrew Mackay; and A Birdwatching Guide to Lesvos .
Arjun Dutta has been interested in birds and wildlife since he was seven. Now 19 and studying geography at the University of Cambridge, he has been lucky enough to share this interest with a range of people and organisations. He currently represents the Cameron Bespolka Trust as youth ambassador and he sits on the Youth Advisory Panel for the British Trust for Ornithology. In addition to working as a young volunteer for the National Trust in south London, much of his spare time is spent sound recording British birds; his recordings are often shared using a Twitter account called Ichos that he set up with a group of friends, which aims to help more people learn about the power of bird sound.
Roger Emmens has had a lifelong interest in birds and, indeed, nature more generally. Now retired, after a career in information technology, he volunteers with various bird study and conservation projects locally in the Epping area. He has been a ringer since his youth — he ringed his first bird, a starling, in Skegness in 1965. Nowadays, he is an active member of the Rye Meads Ringing Group.
Jonnie Fisk has lived and worked at Spurn Bird Observatory on the Yorkshire coast for the last five years, after first visiting the area in his teens. He enjoys the company of the Humber estuary’s brent geese and grey plovers and lives vicariously through the journeys of these and other avian migrants. He is currently busy waiting to see his first nuthatch at Spurn, arranging and rearranging his notebooks, and trying to shrink his horizons to his pushbike-able local area while contemplating his place in the world.
Steve Gale has been birding across north Surrey and south London for almost 50 years, with much of that time spent at Beddington Sewage Farm, Holmethorpe Sand Pits, Canons Farm and, especially, the scarp and dip slopes of the North Downs; he can sometimes be found in nearby Sussex and Kent. A fascination with migration has led him to become addicted to skywatching. Patch-working has always been a part of his birding ethos, and he likes nothing better than to search out nearby areas with little ornithological coverage. This has led to some notable discoveries, particularly that of the UK’s largest ever recorded gathering of hawfinches, in 201