Simple pleasures of birding

I spend the Christmas & NYE week in a hostel in Connoor, at “Birdhouse Hostel”. It’s run by 2 friends I met in Leh mid-2024. ICYDK, Connoor is a small hill-station near Ooty & is part of the Nilgiris.

While in Connoor, I had a fun time trying my hand at birdwatching.

How did I get introduced to Birding?

I’ve hung out with birdwatchers before. Once in Binsar Wildlife Sanctuary, Uttarakhand, I went on 2 hikes with a couple who were into birdwatching. While on the trail, they’d occationally hear a ruffle in the bushers or a chirp and pause. They’d then patiently wait with their binoculors, waiting for the bird to reveal itself. They were also kind enough to help me spot the bird and show it to me through their binoculors. They’d tell me which bird it was and any trivia they knew about it. It was a cool experience. Since then, I’d wanted to try my hand at this but like many other things in life, I pushed it to the backlog.

In Sept 2024, I hung out with another birdwatching enthusiast and this re-ignited my interest.

First spotting

In Oct 2024, I “officially” spotted my first bird - that too a Malabar Grey Hornbill - a magnificient & uncommon bird. I spotted it while on a short hike in Ranipuram, Kasargod. Adding the bird to Merlin - the app used by most ametuer birders to identify & track their spottings, gave me a huge dopamine kick. It felt like catching a new pokemon in that old Pokemon gameboy game.

Back to Connoor

So in Connoor, everytime I went on a hike or even out on a small walk, I carry with me my decathlon Monocular and look for birds. I’d look for movements in the trees or bushes. Listen for bird calls and wait for them to reveal themselves. I ended up spotting about ~20 species. Funnily enough, most of them were spotted near the hostel, often in the trees & bushes right in front of the hostel.

Company of Ayush, Prashant who I met at the hostel who were also into birding way & much more knowledgeable helped drum up the interest in me too. Thank you guys.

My favs are:

1. The Red Whiskered Bulbuls ofcourse takes the fist place. Connoor seems to be filled with them. They’re so cute. But eventually I got tired of seeing them. Often, I’d look for movement and spot a bulbul and be a little annoyed.
2. Blue Bearded Ant Eater: Just 1 spotted. Merlin App says it’s an uncommon bird for that time in Connoor. This is my favourite spotting because of the improbability of it. Spotted from far away, movement detected from the corner of the eye, green bird surrounded by leaves, near perfectly amaflouged.
3. Tickell’s Blue Flycatcher - it’s soo Blueeee.

What I like about birding

I already described how spotting a new bird often feels like catching a pokemon. Childish sense of wonder. It makes me a lot more aware of the nature around me. Both in a physical way - noting birds sournds, hyper aware of movement in trees, bushes. But also in a, I don’t want to use this word, by in a spiritual way - I’m more observant & appreciative of nature. I caught myself watching a bee over a flower & thinking hey I have never paid this attention to this before but I feel a keen sense of beauty & awareness of this now.

Spreading joy

Wathcing me go around the hostel, holding my monocular or walking with me on hikes where I’d constantly pause & look for signs spaked a similar interest in some others in the hostel too. Couple of others (hey Aby, Ayush, Ezra, Prashant, etc if you’re reading this) also interested. This felt nice. Being able to spread the curiousity and fun & take part in thie childish wonder experience with others felt nice. I wonder if this would have happened if I was a pro at it or if I was hanging out with other pros.