Learning birding - how do we pass on knowledge and fieldcraft?

A friend of mine has, in the past, been a serious twitcher, with a UK list of over 540 species.  I recently asked him what his motivation is for birding, since twitching new species is so infrequent (two new birds in the last three years, for the record).  His reply made me think.  He said that he enjoys helping less experienced birders learn how to see birds.  Helping them with knowledge, fieldcraft, and access to a community that can feel like a closed shop to those outside the WhatsApp groups and who's who of the in crowd.

For him, the idea of helping someone else see something new has replaced the excitement of seeing something new for himself, but it's more than that; it's an appreciation of all the wildlife out there that he knows about, built up over 40+ years of birding and exploration.  His research, his know-how, all the tips and the timing and the understanding of environment and weather and seasons are being used again by someone for whom it's all new.  

I thought again about my own birding education, the opportunities I had to access people with experience as a young person.  I was so fortunate to be able to join a birding group that was a couple of hundred members strong, with a dedicated group of youth leaders to develop skills that I still use thirty years later.  The mentoring that I got from that mixed group was brilliant.  Each of them had their own focus - a ringer who was motivated by science and conservation; a patch birder who loved the local area; a day lister who enjoyed big days out; and a hard core twitcher who encouraged us to take every opportunity to experience the new.  Two women, and two men who invested their time in me and helped me learn how to keep notebooks, to field sketch, to read good quality wildlife books, and to try to be aware of my environment in three dimensions at all times.

Where then, does the modern birder get this mentoring?  I don't mean in a formal sense.  I mean, how do modern birders learn?  Given that almost all the bird groups have closed down (lock down was the death knell for many), and social media has taken their place, where do new birders get their fieldcraft from?  There are some notable exceptions bucking this trend, excellent groups with a really good community feel to them, but these are the exception and not the norm.  As an educator, I can't overstate the power of modelling behaviours to aid learning - that is, you can't teach practical skills through reading alone.  It would be like passing your driving test with the theory part alone.  There is an element of learning how to watch wildlife that is demonstrated in repeated contact with someone who has greater experience, learning by emulation.  My friend Kris is one of the most observant people I've ever met.  His awareness of the environment is frankly ridiculous, and his ability to pick an owl out in pretty much impenetrable foliage is remarkable.  I've learned much from him and the way he approaches an environment just by seeing him look at the space around him with focus and expectation that there is something to find.    

North Wales is a great place for a day of birding.  Summer sunshine, a wide range of interesting species that we don't get in Manchester, and some beautiful scenery make for a good time.  Yesterday with my friend, a relatively new birder, we searched for three main species that he had not seen much of.  We found each of the three; Roseate Tern at Cemlyn was hard to pick out in the swirl of terns; Black Guillemot we missed at Holyhead harbour the first time but saw on the return leg; and Chough strangely playing hard to get at South Stack.  We talked about the idea of new birders learning from those around them and developing new skills as they spend time in the field, and he expressed gratitude at a number of birders who have taken time in person and online to give advice and to help him learn.  He is learning fast and will be a very good birder for many years to come!  However, my friend is a confident, middle-aged (sorry mate!) man, used to talking to people and who is not in the least embarrassed about asking for help.  In my experience, people like this are rare.  Nobody likes making mistakes, mis-identifying a bird, or just coming across as incompetent - so how do those less confident or more anxious about other peoples' perception, or becoming involved in a hobby that seems to be 95% old white men get this help?  By lurking online?  It's vital that we have the community around us to help us learn and be better birders.

Yesterday could have been a frustrating day, with all the elements for missing birds present - if we had given up earlier at Cemlyn (90 minutes searching in the hot sun!) or if we hadn't gone back to search more thoroughly at Holyhead, or if we had dismissed the 300th corvid at South Stack as "just another Jackdaw" we would have missed each bird.  A lot of inexperienced birders would have done just that - it's something I've done myself so many times.  Given up before I've really even tried, going through the motions, as if simply being there is the whole requirement and deserves the bird sighting rather than the focus to look and experience.  I wrote about the distraction of phones at the Song Sparrow twitch, and add to this the deterioration of attention span in people generally (young people are no more or less affected than adults by media formats!) and it's no wonder that fair weather birders see little and express frustration that they can't connect with birds.  Patience is a learned behaviour - people are not programmed for it naturally.  As hunter-gatherers, we had to learn to stalk slow and silent and patient.  Today, we are the most microwave, air fryer, Tiktok, Youtube shorts, mobile phone, 5G, instant gratification generation of a species high on curiosity and low on boredom-threshold.  You cannot learn patience from BlueSky (even less from "X").

Is it time to set up a new generation of birding societies?  Is there interest out there for them? Are the people with the skills willing to share them with a new generation of birder in person rather than online?  Given the general isolation of many people of middle-age and over in the UK, and the prohibitive cost of car, insurance, petrol, optics, books for younger people and those in retirement or living in fuel poverty, is it time that we created new societies, new networks of people who can share with each other in the field?  Company, expertise, opportunity, fieldcraft and experience.  Seems a no-brainer to me.