By Michele T Logarta
While field guides are essential to birding, there are many other tomes of interest to the bird watching bookworm. This section features those other books, fiction and nonfiction, about birds, birders, nature, and the environment. For this issue of eBon, I chose the book Slow Birding by Joan E. Strassmann.
Slow Birding: The Art and Science of Enjoying the Birds in Your Own Backyard
By Joan E. Strassmann
Published by TarcherPerigee
An Imprint of Penguin Random House LLC
2022
Non Fiction
“What if, in addition to your bins and other birding gear, you brought a folding chair?”
That is the question Joan Strassmann, author of the book “Slow Birding”, asks readers to consider.
The idea of staying still and spending time to watch birds where you are is central to the concept of “slow birding”, a whole philosophy and way of birding that Strassmann expounds on in her book. It is, simply put, a more mindful and thoughtful way of birding and one that is also local—near you and wherever you are.
Strassman likens slow birding to the slow food movement originating in Italy that advocates for a return to food, cooked using local ingredients and recipes, following traditional ways of preparation in the kitchen. She also cites the locavore movement that started in San Francisco where the food one eats is that which is grown within a 100 kilometer radius of the city. By consuming food that is grown near you, you get the freshest picks, and probably cheaper too, since transportation costs are less. Slow food and locavore champions also say this is the sustainable way to eat. (By the way, in case you don’t know, the Slow Food movement is here in the Philippines, and its center being Bacolod, Negros Occidental.)
Okay, back to birding.
Strassmann, a Biology professor and teacher of Bird Behavior at Rice University in Houston and Washington University in St. Louis, describes slow birding as simply sitting and watching birds. “You might draw them or take notes on what they’re doing. Then when you see those birds again, they will seem like old friends. Doing this takes advantage of local birding and resighting the same birds repeatedly. It adds depth to your experience of those birds,” she writes. “If we took a little more time with the birds that are around us, then we too, might appreciate their actions and begin to understand the biological underpinnings of bird behavior. This is the origin of slow birding.”
This reminds me of another book by bestselling author Amy Tan’s Backyard Chronicles, a nature journal really that the author kept as she watched and drew birds in her garden, just beyond her window. She had come to know each one intimately, with the changing of the seasons, and established a connection to them, including an owl she named Junior.
As opposed to birding fast and furious (a style which Strassmann calls “motor”), which happens in far exotic places, involving frenetic listing and ticking, moving from place to place, and an active seeking of birds, slow birding is grounded, its loci your home, your garden, your neighborhood, the wooded patch of your university campus, the creek running through an urban area, a city park, the edge of your backyard where the woods begin.
The goals of slow or local birding, the author states, are very different from the listing goals of motor birding. “Birds are among the most noticed of animals, but that notice seldom goes beyond identifying and listing. I encouraged my students to watch birds carefully as a way of enriching their understanding of animal behavior,” she writes.
In slow birding, you discover the secret life of birds. What do they do all day? What are their preoccupations? Their morning ablutions and evening rituals? What sounds and calls do they make? What do the calls mean? How do they interact with other birds? The questions can go on and on.
The thesis of this book, Strassmann says, is that if you tie in biological stories of birds, they will be much more rewarding to watch.
“These are not birders stories of where birds occur, how to see them, or even what the American Ornithological Society has done with splitting or lumping species themselves,” she says. “These are the stories of the birds themselves, obtained over months, years, and even decades by professionals who have given their lives to birds.”
And because they have done so, she believes, ornithologists are the slowest birders of all. With more than 200 scientific articles on behavior, ecology, and evolution of social organisms, she knows of what she speaks.
Ornithologists have made myriad discoveries. Strassmann mentions some notable ones who shared their work with her for the book such as: Ellen Ketterson “who knows more than anyone about how testosterone and its fellow hormones influence the behavior of Dark-eyed Juncos; Karen Weibe who has observed the “tenous lives of Northern Flickers as they defend their cavities and hunt for ants; Robert Rosenfield “who has climbed thousands of trees to document every Cooper’s Hawk action as their numbers recovered from near extinction by the pesticide DDT.
Ornithologists have sought answers to questions like— How do American Coots tell their own chicks from those someone else laid in their nest? How do Snow Geese flourish in spite of annual cholera outbreaks that kill thousands of them? How have the suburbs benefited Northern Cardinals? How do American Robins detect earthworms?
In other parts of the world, ornithologists are doing the same. Here in the Philippines, we have dedicated and passionate ornithologists and biologists who are seeking answers to similar questions about our own endemic species. The reasons they do so are manifold. One very important reason is to inform and contribute to conservation efforts and strategies.
“Each bird has a story and a question to be answered. Each bird contributes to our understanding of life,” says Strassmann.
In the book, she chose to tell the stories of 16 birds common in her area, within a 26 mile radius from her home.
“Slow Birding is also about place. It is important to understand place. It is also important to discover the natural and human history of your places,” Strassmann emphasizes.
The author’s book can be likened to a work book for slow birding. Each chapter is named after a bird and at the end of each there is a list of suggested activities based on the kind of bird that is the topic of the chapter.
For instance, the chapter on Blue Jay, she offers a set of activities specific to Blue Jays only. The bird is known hunt down predators such as Great Horned Owls and Cooper’s Hawks and shoo them away. Using that fact about Blue Jay behavior, one activity for a slow birder is to follow its call to find hawks and owls. Strassmann has done this herself, following the ruckus of Blue Jays to find the raptors, hidden deep in the darkness of inside trees. Another activity for slow-birding Blue Jays is the study the acorns they love. Pick up a handful of acorns, she instructs. If you were a Blue Jay, which would you take and stash away? One with weevils would be lighter than one good one, she shares a tip.
Reading the book, says retired scientist Walt Koenig of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, “will convince you to follow Strassmann’s suggestion and pull out a lightweight, easily carried chair, sit down with your binoculars, and watch; you may never bird the fast way again.”
On hindsight, I think what makes bird guides good at their job is that they have the almost daily opportunity to do slow birding. The frequent resighting of birds in their locale and watching them in places near their homes sharpen the guides’ understanding of how the birds behave, giving them that intimate connection and familiarity with the birds. Sometimes, you wonder— How did he (the guide) know where to find the bird? How did he know the bird was going to perch there? How does he know what flower/fruit the bird likes? How does he know what time is the best time to see that bird? The answer could be due to the fact that the guide has put in hours of slow birding, at some point in time or another, with or without knowing it even.
As for me, I don’t think one has to choose one way of birding only. You can do all kinds in any way you want. So maybe, there’s a time for one way, and another time for another way. But, yes, try pulling out that folding chair, sit awhile, and watch the birds wherever you are.