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Home  Community Voices What Watchers Watch Wildlife With
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What Watchers Watch Wildlife With |
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Written by Jess Morton
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Thursday, 16 April 2009 |
One of the most pleasing aspects of watching wildlife is that it requires so little in the way of equipment. You don't need a special kit from L.L. Bean to observe a spider stalk a fly on the wall beside your driveway. Nor must you haul a backpack full of gear from REI to follow the trail of a red fox or raccoon through the hillside brush. You can tell the swooping rollercoaster flight of a jay without fancy binoculars and a pack of field guides.
All that is really required is the patience to let the hurry of our human existence subside for a little while. If you can do that, if you can allow the world to take its own course for a while without benefit of your seemingly indispensable attendance, then you will have found the precious minutes or hours needed to study natural history in all its curious splendor. Nothing more is absolutely necessary.
Of course, there are a few other things that do make the study of the world around us much more entertaining. Books, boots and binoculars are all big helps, but first on my list are observant eyes and awakened ears. If you have a good eyes and ears, you can become a first-rate naturalist. That doesn’t mean you need x-ray vision or the hearing of a hunting dog. No, what’s needed is seeing and hearing.
Perhaps the hardest part of observation is learning to believe what you see and hear. When I first started birding, I missed seeing many birds just because I wouldn't believe my senses. I dismissed peripheral flickers of motion because they seemed to come from places no creature could be; the blur of a passing hawkmoth got ignored--nothing could be that small or fast. That sharp pop coming out of “empty” air wasn’t really a sound, was it? But, of course, it was. I had missed seeing the Anna’s hummingbird as it hurtled down from 100 feet above to crack the whip with its tail fanned for a split second.
Our minds edit and interpret what we see to make day-to-day life easier. That's useful, normally, as it saves a lot of mental strain. But it won't do when studying any aspect of natural history, an unbiased and keen eye is demanded. We need to open out senses we possess to what exists in the world around us.
Let me clarify that a bit. It is possible to become an accomplished naturalist without being able to see. I am reminded of the story told of a blind woman back east, who used to go on the regular birding trips sponsored by the local Audubon Society. The birding group would drive to some spot in the woods and stop to bird. Those who could see fanned out into the woods, while the blind birder simply waited in the car for the others to return. When the group got back together, the blind woman's list of species, all identified by ear alone, usually rivaled or surpassed that of the rest of the group.
However, that is the exception, and your own most important tool, next to patience, will most likely be a sharp, unprejudiced eye. Beyond that, take advantage of the experts around you. There is nothing quite like going on a nature walk with someone with a thorough knowledge of the locale.
Our Palos Verdes/South Bay Audubon Society offers a half dozen free bird walks each month in places as diverse as the South Coast Botanic Garden, Harbor Park, Madrona Marsh and at the Ballona Wetlands. I attend many of these myself, because the diversity of life around us never ceases to amaze me. See Audubon’s website at www.pvsb-audubon.org/ for the latest calendar of events. The Palos Verdes Peninsula Land Conservancy also offers monthly nature walks around the peninsula, and their calendar is on their website at www.pvplc.org.
With Earth Day upon us, there will be a dozen other opportunities to become acquainted with the natural world around us. The Cabrillo Marine Aquarium will have an all day observance on April 18th that starts with nature walks and beach cleanups. Madrona Marsh, in Torrance, will do something similar on the 25th. The first Earth Day was what first piqued my interest in nature, and I’ve taken great pleasure in watching wildlife ever since. Let this Earth Day do the same for you!
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