Still here? Well, there's no accounting for some people. ;)
Perhaps I'd better start with some disclaimers while I'm at it - I am a Devon Birder, I am not The Devon Birder. Or the South Devon Birder, either. I am quite backward, but I am not from the Backwater [home of several blogging birders of far more wit and eloquence than you'll find here, plus pretty pictures! - go check them out. After you've finished reading this of course..!]
Why am I backward? Well, mostly due to what I have and don't have on my desk in front of me. I have a notebook. I don't have a digital camera. Nope, not even in my phone. I can hear the sounds of jaws hitting desks, chairs, and maybe even the odd floor from here. Mandibles re-attached? Good. I do own a camera, an SLR of the 35mm film variety popular in the latter part of the last millennium [Pentax ME Super, if you're into such things]. It's old, rather battered [ok, make that 'very well-used'], and still on its original battery. I have three lenses for it, but almost invariably use the wideangle macro. I take far fewer photos with it than I used to [you'd think they'd reduce the price of developing to encourage people to keep doing it, wouldn't you?], and have learned the expensive way that unless a bird sits very still, very close, with very good light [and how often does that happen?] its not really worth trying photoscoping. Photobinning sometimes works, but the three rules still apply.
That was a long-winded explanation of why there is a, not so much paucity as sheer lack, of pictures on this blog. If I can work the technology [big if - backward here] this might change a bit, but don't hold your breath.
I also have, - perhaps backward is not the best term for it, eccentric might fit better - views on birding. I have become somewhat disillusioned with the birding establishment in the last year - at least in terms of recording practices - and this has led me to re-assess how I treat this lifestyle [and birding is a lifestyle - its more than a hobby, and it certainly isn't a science]. This here shiny new blog is one of the new things I'm adopting. Giving up Yearlisting is another [though it will be interesting to see which one lasts longest - odds are looking pretty even right now]. I'm looking for a more relaxed, laid-back approach to birding. Twitch only Lifers, go birding to enjoy watching birds, not to pick up species [lifers are ok, because they're birds I've never seen before, and you can't see too many, right? Right?]
Oh dear, this listing thing may be terminal.... The point is to return birding to the de-stressor it used to be, instead of the stressor it's become. I want to be tramping over [hopefully not in] freezing Dartmoor bogs because I enjoy it, not because I still haven't seen Jack Snipe this year...
Oh and in case you're wondering, I do like Dartmoor in the winter, on days when its soggy and cold and blowing a hoolie. Especially when you can find a place to sit down out of the freezing blast, have a cup of coffee, and wait to see what comes by. I think that's the essence of birding - sitting down [or lying, or leaning, or even kneeling if you're feeling masochistic] and making yourself inconspicuous, then waiting to see what comes along. Being quite a keen seawatcher, I suppose it comes naturally to me [though that may be getting things the wrong way round] - that is seawatching in a nutshell [just add umbrella ;) ].
Right, that'll do for now. I shall see if I can make this thing post ok, and maybe I'll actually start going on about things that have happened?
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