01 How to Start - with Merrilyn
Start to notice the birds around you.
This episode is about how to start birdwatching by listening and noticing the birds that live in your local area, including Wombolano Park in Melbourne.
Merrilyn Smith has always loved nature and been curious about the world around her. After her career as a teacher and health educator was complete, she discovered her love of birdwatching after listening to the birds in her garden. Her adventures have taken her around the world and she now volunteers in a range of conservation groups, including being a 'friend' of her local bushland reserve.
Available on your podcast app or listen below.
Links
* Wombalano Park - www.maroondah.vic.gov.au/Explore/Parks-and-playgrounds/Parks-and-Facilities/Wombolano-Park
* Victorian Wader Study Group - www.vwsg.org.au
* Field Naturalists Club of Victoria - www.fncv.org.au
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Kirsty: This episode was recorded on the countries of the Bunurong Boonwurrung peoples of the Eastern Kulin Nation. I pay my respect to elders past and present. I acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the traditional custodians of the land, sea and sky where birds across Australia can thrive.
Kirsty: Welcome to Weekend Birder. I'm your host and new birdwatching buddy, Kirsty Costa. This podcast is here to help you grow your birdwatching knowledge and skills. You will hear stories and advice from the diverse range of humans who make up the birdwatching community. They are going to lend you their smarts and their big hearts as together we explore the world of wild birds. In this episode, you're going to learn from Merrilyn Smith. So Merrilyn is my mum, and she's the reason why I am a birdwatcher. I grew up looking at insects, staring up at trees, going on bush walks and swimming in the ocean. This is all thanks to my parents, who passed on their love of nature and curiosity about the world to me and my brothers. And their love of nature was passed on to them by their parents.
Merrilyn: I think I've always been interested in nature. Mum and Dad used to take us camping and on Sundays we'd go for picnics into the bush. So even though I wasn't looking for birds, I was always interested in what was living in the bushland. Later on when we retired, we just did a lot of walking in the bush and I think we just became much more aware of birds. And when you're walking, there's not a lot of other animals to see. So the songbirds were just everywhere, and that's how we started. So I've been birding probably seriously now for about seven years. When we were first married, we'd often go out into the bush. And because Mark knows an awful lot about insects, he'd be showing me things in the bush and that just sort of provided a stimulus to look at all things around.
Kirsty: Mark is my dad and Merrilyn's husband. He's an entomologist and conservationist who's continued his love of science long after retirement. Like many of us, Merrilyn's curiosity about wild birds started when she was hanging out in her garden and walking the streets of her neighborhood.
Merrilyn: I think it starts off fairly simply, and you see the common birds around your neighbourhood, like the magpies and the parrots. When you're out in the garden, you'll see the same birds that you see every day. So gradually you get to know your local birds. And then I became curious as to what the birds actually were. So we bought a bird ID book (before apps) and started to sort of work out which birds they were. So instead of Thornbills, I worked out that there were actually Striated Thornbills or Brown Thornbills. And once you've done that, then you start listening to the birds and you can tell which ones they are by listening to their calls, or maybe there's some sort of identification in their feathers. Once you start knowing your local birds, then you can get a bit more adventurous. And when you're out camping or bushwalking, then you see different birds. So then you start making a list and it gradually builds from there. I do a lot of reading and listening to podcasts. And you gradually build your knowledge up about the birds as you go along, as your interest develops.
Kirsty: Merrilyn's birdwatching hobby has taken her on many adventures around Australia and the world, including three visits to Africa. But it's a suburban bushland reserve where Merrilyn's birdwatching heart feels most at home. Wombalano Bushland Reserve is on Wurundjeri Woiwurrung Country in Melbourne. It is a five hectare block of remnant bushland surrounded by houses. The reserve is filled with White Stringybark eucalyptus trees, which Merrilyn says is unusual for the area.
Merrilyn: So when you walk in, the trees are really tall - twenty meters or so. And it's very dense undergrowth. In one area that's damp, there's a lot of ferns and it's very lush. And then on the ridges around the outside, it's much drier with a lot more grasses and small plants up to about a metre tall. Unfortunately, a lot of the White Stringy Barks are dying for some reason up on the ridges. It's less dense because of that dieback, but it's still a beautiful place to walk. And when I'm there, it could be a million miles away. You know? Most of the time you can't see houses and you can hear a little bit of road noise. But it's just it's so good for your soul to go walking through that bushland each day.
Merrilyn: About four years ago, one of my friends said that BirdLife Australia had identified it as a significant bushland area in my local area and he suggested that we start doing a regular birdwatching and counting. Just to see what was there. So we've been doing it for a while now and we have two other people with us. We've got a little band of four and we do twenty minute walks, called 'transects', and we do exactly the same path. We do it once a month, so we know where those local birds are, we know what they are. And then occasionally you get a surprise. And over the years we've realized, like when there's a particular tree that's got berries on it, we get the Golden Whistlers come in, but they're not there at any other time of the year. They're only there when the berries are in fruit. And we know that the little Thornbills and the White-browed Scrubwrens and the Grey Fantails. They all hang out together and there's two patches of little bushland that that's where they are always. We only have one Gray Butcherbird that sings. We have lots of parrots that are fighting amongst themselves. So you sort of really get to know the birds. And you get to know them by flight because you see them flying all the time and by song and as well by their colors. So it's just great to know those birds so well.
Kirsty: Merrilyn's practised how to identify different wild birds by getting to know what is living in her area. Like the Red Wattlebird.
Merrilyn: One way of telling is just its a tail feathers because they they fan out in a concave shape. And then when they're flying, they sort of go flap-flap-glide, flap-flap-glide, flap-flap,-glide. So you know that that is wattlebird. If I'm looking at the King Parrots, you know that it's a King Parrot because the outline is so much larger than a Crimson Rosella, which is also a bit red. So these are the things that you get to know when you know your local birds.
Merrilyn: What I love about birds is just the variety of behaviors that they have. Like even our local magpie. Who comes and just about digs the worms out of our garden as I'm digging up the weeds. And I didn't realize that when they turn their heads on the side they're listening for the worms. So it's just fascinating when you start learning about why birds do different things and that they're actually really intelligent and they talk to each other, you know, through their song. But I find I find that amazing. What I like about birdwatching is just getting out in the bush, but also that you get to go some really great places that you would never ever go to if you weren't looking for a particular bird.
Kirsty: After Merrilyn developed her birdwatching confidence and expertise, she decided to put her knowledge and skills to work by joining volunteer groups. This has enabled her to activate her commitment to science and conservation and learn heaps more about wild birds from different people.
Merrilyn: I've volunteered for a few different groups. One is the Wombalano group, another one is the Field Nats and the other group is the Victorian Wader Study Group. And all of those groups work with an institute or organization that uses the data for research. And I just think that that is so important because unless we can demonstrate something through research then it simply doesn't happen. So with the Victorian Wader Study Group, we look at shorebirds and we work with Deakin University. And with the Field Naturalists, we work with Parks Victoria. And of course with Wombalano it's BirdLife Australia. It's been demonstrated to me on a number of occasions how they have used that research to try and protect birds habitat and also just understand where and why birds are doing the things they're doing. There's so much pressure on our natural environment that we really need that data to be able to stand up against the pressures that are affecting birds.
Merrilyn: It's great being among those volunteering groups because you meet like-minded people of all ages and as well you get you learn from them. Often with the Victorian Wader Study Group we have PhD or master's students who are looking at specific topics and they're very happy to share that with you. So you learn as much as as you're giving to the organization. And with the Field Nats working alongside the Parks people, as well as the other volunteers who often have a lot more knowledge than I have, it is just a great way of learning and sharing that information together as well as doing something really positive for the environment.
Kirsty: Merrilyn encourages us all to embrace our birdwatcher identity, even if there are awkward moments with family and friends. She reminds us, though, not to take ourselves too seriously.
Merrilyn: I think birders... they just love birds. I like getting out in nature and am happy to see any birds. I don't mind what. I can easily go to an area and even if I'm still seeing Red Wattlebirds and magpies and rosellas, I'm still happy (really happy) to see those birds and just watch them interact and listen to them. My birder identity in my social life for some people is just very funny and they laugh a lot and make jokes about the fact that I'm a bird nerd. But for other people it really sparks their interest and they've been quite fascinated by what I do. And again, they are interested in when you start sharing some information about the birds. So it's interesting the different reactions you have. I think, though, as long as you show that you're a bit passionate and you laugh at yourself.
Kirsty: On this podcast, we are going to hear lots of people share their favourite birdwatching tools. Here are some of Merrilyn's.
Merrilyn: I love my binoculars. I mean, I think it takes a long, quite a long-time practise to get used to using binoculars. And I would encourage everyone who's starting out just to pick up their binoculars each day, even if you just go outside and just use them for a few minutes. So that's one of my favourite tools. I also love eBird because I can look at an area that we might want to go and visit and just see what other people have been seeing. And if it's a bird that I don't know very well, I can just listen to the calls and and look at some pictures of it so that I might recognize it when I'm out in the bushland. I also I use PK Birds as my app, which is a great app. And with PK Birds, you can also listen to sounds on that app before you go out or just if you hear the bird in the bush, you can quietly listen to the to the app and see whether it is the bird that you think it is. So they're the sort of tools we use. We also have a book, that we call 'the Bird Bible', which is a blue book of Australian birds and if there's a bird that really stumps us it's great to be able to go to that resource which gives a lot more information and try and work out which bird it is. I suppose the other favourite thing is my husband, because he's got a camera with a really long lens and he can take photos of birds up in a tree and then we can try later on to work out what it is so we'd use all those different tools.
Kirsty: In future Weekend Birder episodes, you will learn how to use binoculars to look at birds, how to use books and apps to identify birds, and how to use citizen science platforms like eBird to contribute real data to bird research. You're also going to hear different pieces of advice that will help you level up your birdwatching abilities. Here are Merrilyn's words of wisdom.
Merrilyn: My advice would be to just have fun and get out in nature. You might see birds, but you also might see other things like orchids, fungi and trees. You know, when you're looking for birds, you see lots of other things in the bush. And I think it just enjoy all of it. But don't try and identify every bird. Just go out with a few birds in mind that you might want to see. And just look for those. Listen for them. And see if you can work out something about them. Like, are they birds on the ground or are they birds up in bushes or up in the trees? So have a little bit of information about your bird that you want to see so that you can find it in the bushland. But just be aware of the birds that are in your backyard and start there when you gardening or even just going out to the letterbox. Stop, listen and look for some birds. They're often up on the electrical wires even. Your local pigeons - they're interesting birds, even if they are introduced birds.
Merrilyn: I think that birding is fantastic for your mental health as well, because if I'm feeling a bit anxious or a bit worried about something, I can take my binoculars, go up to my local bushland area, and just spend half an hour just walking around or even walking around the streets looking at birds and it just takes your mind off all those concerns. I feel calmer and happier when I come home. So I think birdwatching is fantastic for all parts of your health. You get a walk, you get calmed down and you get excited about things.
Kirsty: Many thanks to Merrilyn, my mum, for being the first ever guest on this podcast. Her love and mentorship is why I'm a birdwatcher, nature lover and teacher. A transcript for this episode can be found on our website weekendbirder.com. You'll also find links to different resources and our social media accounts so you can ask questions and learn more.
