Birdwatching With Your Eyes Closed [Book & Podcast Review]
Summary:
GrrlScientist reviews a new book by Simon Barnes Birdwatching with your eyes closed accompanied with a free downloadable podcast. The book teaches you to open your ears to appreciate and recognize birdsounds.
Eighty percent of bird watching is listening
“Eighty percent of bird watching is listening”, I often told my university students whilst we squished through marshes and crept through thickets in search of birds. But sometimes, my students asked how I became so skilled at identifying birds, especially sight unseen, from just listening to them?
Having a fascination with and a passion for birdsong certainly helps, but like any skill, birding by ear takes practice — a lot of practice. One might say it’s a lot of work, except listening to birds is such a pleasure that it doesn’t feel like work at all. But birdlisteners have developed a number of tricks they use to help them memorise and quickly recall the identities of the birds they hear. Quite a few books and audio CDs have been published over the years that describe these tricks with the goal of demystifying this unique blend of science and art.
Those of you who wish to learn this particular skill or who wish to share your joy at hearing birdsong will be thrilled that a new book and podcast has just been published: Birdwatching With Your Eyes Closed: An Introduction to Birdsong by Simon Barnes [2011; Short Books Ltd (London): Amazon UK; Amazon US] (affilliate link). The goal of this book and podcast is to help people become adept at identifying common British birds from hearing their songs. “Learning birdsong is not just a way to become a better bird-spotter”, the author writes. “It is tuning in: a way of hearing the soundtrack of the planet earth.”
Thanks to the efforts of the RSPB, this book is accompanied by a few measures of the earth’s soundtrack in the form of a 27-minute podcast filled with the songs and calls of 66 common British birds. This podcast consists of introductory comments by Mr Barnes followed by audio clips of bird songs and calls. The birdsongs are presented in the same order they appear in the book, beginning with the robin’s “thin, sweet song” and ending with the lofty melody of the nightingale.
In the podcast, you learn that great tits have a distinctive “leaky pump song: teacher teacher teacher“, that yellowhammers say “bread! bread! bread! cheeeese …. except they quite often forget the cheese”, “you know summer is on the way when the sky erupts in screams” of swifts, and that dabchicks are often amused by something, giving “a long trilling giggle” — perhaps they are entertained by house martins “blow[ing] many aerial raspberries”? Some birds are helpful, like the blue tit (“i’m. a. blue tit!“) whilst jackdaws announce their arrival by repeating their name “jack! jack!”
Mr Barnes brilliantly captures the essence of each species’ various sounds with evocative descriptions such as the “sweet soporific purring” of the almost-extinct-in-Britain turtle dove, his observation that skylark song is “poured and pelted down on your head from the sky”, that kittiwakes “make a wild call to go with their wild deep-ocean nature”, and that curlews “make the sound of a desolate landscape”. I could go on, but I’ll let you listen to the podcast for yourself:
This podcast compares favourably to those in my audio library, consisting of (nearly?) every English-language birdsong tape, CD and mp3 file published. It is comparable in quality to the classic Birding by Ear series for North American birds. This podcast is free and can be downloaded onto your iPod or burned onto a CD. But if you think this podcast is all you really want, that it would brighten your time at the gym or commuting, think again: the book is a gem. The publisher’s publicity agent told me to limit my review to just the podcast because it was not clear whether I would receive my review copy of the book in time to read it. As it is, the book arrived 36 hours ago (and then I spilled coffee all over it!). But I’ve already read some passages that make me think a more appropriate title for this book is Birding With Your Eyes Closed and Your Heart Open. Here’s just one example of why I say this:
Willow warblers … are amazing little birds: so small, such courageous travellers, so sweet a voice, such fierce competitors. It is when you can hear the first willow warbler of the spring and know it for what it is that you have passed the point of no return. You have finished and revelled in chapter three of Ulysses. You have become a birdlistener. You are committed. And once you have done that, you know a lifetime of pleasure lies before you. Once you have cracked the willow warbler, you’re a goner. [p. 135]
And that was the first passage I read when I randomly opened the book for a sneak peek. All day, I’ve been fighting the urge to drop everything so I can devour this eloquent book in one sitting — not a good idea since I’d promised the publisher I would finish this review today.
The book is filled with short exquisite essays that are just the right length for reading whilst traveling, during coffee break or at lunch, or whilst waiting for a friend. It is even the same size as my pair of Swarovski 10X50s (although it is a good deal lighter), so it fits easily into a rucksack or bag. But be careful: once you’ve cracked this book, you may become a goner. You may not stop reading until the dawn chorus of birdsong greets you as you savour the very last sentence.
Simon Barnes is an English journalist and nature writer. He is currently chief sports writer at The Times and he writes a weekly column on wildlife in the Saturday edition of The Times. He also writes a column for the RSPB’s Birds magazine. In addition to the bestseller, How to be a Bad Birdwatcher: To the Greater Glory of Life [2006: Amazon UK; Amazon US — no, I’ve not read it, but guess what’s on my Christmas list?], he has written 16 books about a variety of topics, including three novels. He lives in Suffolk with his family and five horses.
Note: mirrored from here.
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