In creating this blog - with its catchy title - I have been intending to discuss the issue of Birding Poverty. I think I may have invented this expression and it has accurately described my situation for the last 3 years. I think that the level at which one slips into BP is just a little step above the even worse situation of Grinding Poverty. I suppose if you go a whole year or 2-3 years without seeing a single new bird or 'lifer' you might consider yourself to be a sufferer of Birding Poverty.
It may be that a birder who manages to combine a little minimum wage work with the addition of Tax Credits or Universal Credit will just about be able to keep himself fed, sheltered and clothed. However, as Helder Camara (I think) once said, human beings are not just stomachs. Above all, they hunger for dignity. In a birder's mind, said dignity can be happily supplanted by a few good birds.
Therefore, I would define BP as a situation where a birder lacks the disposable income to travel very far from his front door in order to broaden the range of species observed and recorded, or photographed, by himself. The secondary component of this sociological malady is the fact that he will also find it difficult to justify his time spent birding to a non-birding government official. One might explain that mental & physical health are important and that time spent birding benefits both but we are living in stringent times.
Occasionally, a birding contact with a car might offer us a lift to a birding location (twitchers usually won't as they are very competitive and delighted to exclude you from the Listing Stakes Handicap Chase). This is terrific and very kind of them if it enables you to see species that you're not going to see within walking/cycling distance of home. However, those kind souls often have busy lives and can't help you out too often. So how can you, the tick-deprived, go it alone?
I would certainly recommend having a cheap, second-hand pushbike or working out how to utilise a cheap bus ticket to maximum effect. Those extra few kilometres can bring the likes of Purple Sandpiper or Dartford Warbler within the BP sufferer's grasping, lean-fingered reach. Also, the knack of being able to incorporate a quick 5 minutes of birding into the zero-hours day can reap dividends. I have, on occasion, glanced at a river or stream in an urban area and been rewarded with Dipper, Goosander or Grey Wagtail. Even an Otter once. Churchyards are also worth checking. A relatively small one on my jobhunting rounds has harboured Hawfinches, Treecreepers and Redwings amongst others. All without going out of my way or incurring extra expenditure too! I should be called Thrifty Birder sometimes as I use my occasionally unemployed cunning to maximise my chances of seeing wildlife with limited financial means. Time spent waiting for trains or buses need not be wasted as there is often some wildlife nearby to keep the Skint Naturalist interested.
I could go on, but the point is made. Birds and other wild creatures are always nearby. You just have to make the most of what you've got available to you. It would be easy to beat your birding self
up when you can't go far due to lack of funds; especially when social media is constantly thrusting megas from all over the globe right in your face. Console yourself with the knowledge that your carbon footprint is lower than it's ever been and the likes of Greta Thunberg might say "Well done you!" if only they knew how few air miles or road miles you've clocked up in recent years.
Lastly, protect yourself from ridicule by not keeping a year-list and by not publicising your life-list. Without that ammunition, the meanies can't rub it in by reminding you that a lifer for you was available last week in Cornwall and you didn't even manage to travel from Devon for it when other people twitched it from Scotland. Defiantly suggest that some of these blokes might like to try finding their own birds for a change!
Now, I've been discussing this issue in relation to myself but I'm sure that I'm not alone. If you are reading this and finding some similarity with your own predicament, rest assured you have my sympathy. Please feel free to leave a comment if you have any suggestions as to how we can address the issue of Birding Poverty. To all of you who feel the grinding oppression of tick-deprivation, all I can say to that is "Don't let the listers grind you down!"
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