Powerbirding
!? Yes POWERbirding !
Ticking as many species as possible in an hour, day, week, area...
Why do Powerbirding?
Once you know most (or all!) of the birds in the country, then what is the challenge of birding? The next level of challenge is to see how fast and efficiently you can identify birds. At first this happens almost unconsciously as you list the birds that you see on each outing. You start to count the number of species that you identified on a particular outing. Other birders tell you how many species they saw at Marievale on Sunday, and you start comparing. The "quality" of an outing is no longer simply measured by the lifers or rarities, or interesting behaviour you saw, but on how many species you ticked ! Soon you keep a tally of how many birds you see each time and look for "junk birds" just to increase the list. You find that you know exactly where to find a Cape Sparrow in your favourite birding area ! You are now into power birding !
Power birding makes you a better birder (and a less elitist one). You are no longer interested only in lifers, but try to improve your skill in finding and identifying even junk birds. You learn more about the birds you are ticking and more about the birdlife of the places you visit. WARNING - POWER BIRDING CAN MAKE YOU A WORSE BIRDER !
Power-birding - a great sensory adventure !
Four of you are out in the bush just after sunrise, moving slowly through
the veld. All around, birds call and you strain your ears and search your
memory banks to put birds to calls. Each call identified is shared with
as few words as possible with your birding partners. Ahead a bird flies
off the ground and into a tree, binoculars snap upwards and each person
strains to get an adequate view. Already your brain has analysed the flight
style, shape and size of the bird and you have two or three alternatives
in mind. As you are trying to get a view to clinch the ID, a flock of ducks
whirrs overhead Quickly bino's swivel around aiming at the fast moving
birds.
"Pochard" you chorus,
"Fulvous Duck too !" says someone, picking up a second group of different
birds. Before you can get your binos back to the other little brown job
you were looking at, it lets off a familiar call:
"Rattling Cistic" - you are almost relieved. Then you are quickly ticking
them off on your checklist and picking out calls again,
"Blackcollared Barbet,... Klaas's Cuckoo,.... Orangebreasted Bush Shrike,
Barred Warbler....".
Then a bird darts out ahead of you: -
"Kalahari Robin" says someone, but you're not sure,
"what about a Tchagra ?" You move slowly towards the thicket to confirm
the sighting - a Threestreaked Tchagra hops up into the open - great !
Then you hear something unexpected - you feel a spine tingling feeling
of excitement - its a call you've heard many times on Guy Gibbon's tapes,
but none of you have ever seen it.
"Sshh LISTEN",
"What - where ?" comes the query.
"Up there - in the distance" you wave in the direction of a higher
area with more open savannah and tall acacias.
"I think its a Monotonous Lark" you venture - "Lets get closer"
The group breaks into a jog through the bush, changing your intended
direction completely. When you stop a few minutes later, everyone is out
of breath. Then you hear it starting up again - clear as a bell and close
by. Everybody is excited now - "Have we got time to check it out ?" a bad
question -everyone wants to see THIS bird.
Power birding involves almost all of your senses, and involves a heightened sense of awareness, application of age-old hunting instincts, knowledge and skill at discriminating sounds, shapes, fast-moving flight styles and behaviours. It is exciting, stimulating and rewarding !
Birding Big Day is Southern Africa's Annual powerbirding festival. Organised by BirdLife SA, it is traditionally a fund-raising event, aimed at raising funds for bird conservation and research. It involves teams of three or four birders. It takes place over a period of 24 hours and is scheduled for Saturday 7 November. This year teams will be able to choose any day between the 7th and the 15th of November. Those entering the handicap category, will have to pay a fee of R50-00, in order to cover costs of analysing the scores using the database at the Avian Demography Unit. The Handicap system is the most competitive part of Birding Big Day where teams are scored on the basis of the proportion of possible birds in the area, rather than the total tally. Teams birding in areas where data is minimal, may therefore get a higher score than those birding in the best known areas. If you want to just do it for the fun, then your raw score will be compared to all others on an equal basis and you will simply want to find as many species as you can in your favourite area.
Preparing for Birding Big Day
Assuming that you know your birds pretty well, the key to success on big birding day is preparation and planning. Once you have selected your area, there is no substitute for knowing exactly where the best spots are and what you are going to see where. This requires that you go out and birdwatch the places you are planning to visit. Ideally you would want to visit the places you will cover on the day, at about the same time of day you are planning to get there. This gives you an idea of exactly which species to expect. If you list these birds (in as much detail as possible) you are then able to plan your programme thoroughly. You will also have an idea of where you could still see species, if you happen to miss them at the first spot you expect to see them.
Diversity of habitats.
Ideally your route should cover the widest range of habitat possible. You need to find the best water, riverine, woodland, bushveld (broadleaf and acacia thornveld), grassland and/or shoreline habitats that there are in your area. You need to choose your route so that you cover these habitats in the shortest possible distance. Travelling too far will reduce your actual birding time. Look at habitats that harbour the more common species. House Sparrows and Indian Mynahs may be a lot easier to tick than a Barred Warbler or African Crake !
Listening Posts
The easiest way to tick birds quickly (assuming you know your calls well) is by listening at certain spots. Birding Big Day is held in early summer when calling is at its peak. Obviously your best listening time is around dawn, but the late afternoon can also be good. Many nocturnal species can be ticked on call as well. For each habitat, plan to spend some time just listening and noting all the species calling.
A little help from tapes
Taped birdcalls are invaluable, both as a means of calling birds up, getting them to call, or in order to check on that doubtful call which you are not sure of. Perhaps the best way of using tapes is to prepare a tape of just the calls of birds you expect to record at a number of pre-planned spots. When you get there, you simply play the tape through, waiting for each expected species to respond in turn. NOTE: This method should not be overused as a birding techique - see the ABA code for birders.
Trial run
It is good idea to run over parts of the route on a "trial run" a few days before the actual day. This will ensure that your time schedule is accurate. It is also useful to get used to actually trying to find 15 species in 10 minutes.
Planning the route
Your actual programme should be planned so that you use the day most sensibly. Early morning should be your peak time, so concentrate your efforts on the best area for a high tally. Waterbirds can be seen just as easily later on in the day, so leave them for later. The pre-dawn period should be focused on nocturnal birds, so you should have a clear idea of where you are going to find these. Later on the afternoon you will be hitting another peak and this should ideally be in a totally different habitat from your early morning session. Use the middle of the day to travel, if you want to split the day between two different areas.
On the day
Stick to your time programme. Do not be tempted to hang around longer than planned because you haven't seen all of the species you hoped for. Don't look for lifers and don't use big birding day to sort out the pipits ! Have food and refreshments with you or plan coffee stops to co-incide with a listening post. Have one member of the team act as recorder, time-keeper/manager or best of all have a manager, driver, recorder who goes along but is not part of your team. Be realistic about your endurance ! A midnight start followed by 14 hours birding is enough to knock most people out ! Rather start at 3:00 am and remain fresher for the entire day. You can always go on into the night again.
Careful ! Powerbirding has its dangers.
Powerbirding can make you a better birder. It can also make you a worse birder ! The sense of competition and excitement engendered by powerbirding can easily make one cut corners and fool yourself into identifying species on the basis of much more flimsy evidence than usual - especially when you think you know the bird in question. Conversely, an odd looking individual bird suddenly appears more odd when you are desperately in need of a couple more species and you can fool yourself into believing that you have seen something you haven't. Unfortunately the mind can play games with us, and you need to be aware of this !
Team powerbirding poses a particular challenge, because no-one wants to spoil the fun - just because they have a niggling doubt, or didn't get a conclusive view of the bird in question. It is much easier to go along with a dubious identification than to express your doubts and be the killjoy that insists on reducing the teams score.
