Technology and birding: thermals

My friend passed me his thermal imager on a survey of Jack Snipe on patch in the winter just gone, but I struggled to use it, finding the flares of white light too distracting and the sense of scale confusing.  It had been a very successful survey.  Between us we found 27 Jack Snipe and over 50 Common Snipe in one bog.  He used the thermal, and I did a binocular scan.  It wasn't even a close competition: he found all 27 Jacks and over 40 of the Commons.  That thermal was a game changer, for someone with the ability to use it.

When I was 14 I was part of a large and active group of birders of all ages which exposed me to two things that were good for my development as a birder: experience, and a broad church of opinion.  All forms of birders were there, and I do mean all.  Strict patchers, full-blown twitchers, bird racers, conservation experts, even former egg-collectors turned real birders were part of a patchwork of views and opinions that helped me to see that there isn't one correct way to enjoy the wild spaces around us (though there are plenty of incorrect ways).  

One of the most distinct voices that I recall was a man who called himself a naked purist.  At the time, I thought he was confessing to something that shouldn't be mentioned in polite company, but my one significant encounter with him disabused me of that.  Instead, he had a bafflingly extreme point of view on birding that made me feel a little ashamed of myself, though without cause.  That old man refused to use optics to see birds.  No binoculars, no telescopes, no cameras.  And not only was he incredibly stubborn about his not using any "enhancements", he was very vocal about those who did use them, once castigating me for finding a Kingfisher on a distant branch in a telescope and proudly offering him and others a look.  In fact, I wonder if his membership in that birding club was only to belittle others, to proselytise about how none of us should use binos to bird.  Some people are just like that.

I wonder how he'd respond to a world where birders routinely carry image stabilised scopes, AI pocket assistants passively recording birdsong, apps to help locate birds from other people's finds, and the ability to see in the dark via thermal imagers.  I wonder if he'd ask how much gear we need to carry to take part in a hobby that prides itself on connection to nature and the natural?  

I think it's worth looking at a few of these technological advances in their own write-ups.  For the record, I use Merlin, and have benefitted from friends with thermals (though I'm absolutely useless at using them myself and find them more of a distraction than a help personally!), so this is an attempt at some balance while remaining an opinion piece that is inherently biased around my own experiences.

So what's so good about a thermal?  The key use of a thermal imager is for surveying in dense cover while being able to remain outside of that habitat, thus reducing disturbance for the bird.  We didn't flush a single Jack Snipe on our January survey, unlike every other time I've counted them where effectively you walk through the habitat and wait for them to panic.  Think Bittern, Long-eared Owl, Grasshopper Warbler and so on, all birds that like to lurk deep in reed bed, or scrub, and are difficult to get eyes on.  In some cases they're much more active at night when seeing birds is a real challenge.  Thermal imaging has been a game changer for night time ringing of species (eg, Woodcock, Jack Snipe) and for sharply increasing the success of such surveys.  Therefore, thermals are advancing the knowledge gathered by ecologists and other scientists and are a positive and useful development.

So they're commonly found as part of the toolkit of surveyors and ecologists.  But is this how most people who have one are using them?  Or is it more common for the average birder to see them at twitches, people turning up after last light to find a roosting rarity, or before first light to get eyes on the bird before it has even woken up, enabling them to tick as quickly as there is enough light to truly see the bird.  For the record, I don't believe anyone is actually "ticking" a bird they've only seen through a thermal, but maybe I'm being hopelessly optimistic about super listers.  It's certainly my experience that at major twitches there are an increasing number of thermals assisting with the find.  

I don't know how justified it is, but this leaves me with a slight feeling of distaste.  Perhaps there's an element of the fair chase, the observational skill needed to find a bird that is hidden that appeals to me.  Is there any challenge left when we've got AI in our optics, got an AI machine listening out for us, and now can see through the undergrowth in the bloody dark?  Where's the patience, the skill, the earning of an ID, a sighting?  Do I really need any fieldcraft, any knowledge of habitat and bird habits if I can turn up and let my array of technology do the job for me?  I suppose, like a heat-seeking missile, it's taking the chance out of the shoot, and we all like to be successful in our twitches.  Perhaps this is truly subjective - I can feel that disapproving old man rearing his head in me: binoculars are one thing, but this, well this is another altogether... except it isn't really.  It's what I'm used to compared to what works in the field now.

So it's a taste issue.  Or is it?  Is there an element of risk involved here?  Even if thermal itself is silent and non-contact, it can enable us to locate birds more easily at night, which means we can approach roost sites, cross into breeding areas, and cause disturbance. The risk is especially high for ground-nesting birds, owls, and species already vulnerable to human pressure.  In recent years at one of my local patches there has been a number of incidents of disturbance to Long-eared Owls which stemmed from the use of thermals by a well-known local photographer.  Indeed, he's made quite a following online from his thermal image videos of LEO displaying and I've caught him more than once trying to enter the Long-eared Owl roost, using his technology to locate them in the daytime in order to get more conventional photos.  This has led directly to the owls changing roost sites half a dozen times - something that usually works in terms of reducing disturbance, at least in the medium term: finding LEO roosts without a thermal isn't easy.  With a thermal, all that photographer has to do is turn up after dark and wait until the owls go back to their new roost, all exposed in glowing graphics on his thermal.  The owls can't catch a break and eventually they relocate off-site.

Worse, that photographer shared his location and images with his friends.  There have been nights with eight or nine thermal equipped photographers with literally zero fieldcraft chasing LEO across a former stronghold where they've bred with success for years.  Now I'm sometimes ambivalent about restricting knowledge about birds - there's too much control freak dressed up as conservation awareness virtue signalling for me to really believe most people, especially when the little cliques all get access and knowledge - but at least that used to mean that certain nocturnal and "high-value" for social media species would be protected from people less concerned with wild welfare than their bloody YouTube channel.  Thermals (and tools like eBird - when badly used) have blown that wide open.

So when the "right" people use thermals as a tool in the right way, they're valuable and positive - a real game changer.  When used badly, or by the "wrong" people they can be disruptive in terms of the health of the bird.  I think this is probably self-evident, so all I'm left with is a lingering sense of the erosion of skill and fieldcraft in the wake of the rash of thermals being used at twitches.  But doesn't that just leave me in the same boat as the old man who shamed me for using binoculars?  Am I the old man doing things the old way just because the old way is my way?  I'd hate to think I'm lacking in inclusivity, and whatever else these tools bring, they definitely level a steep learning curve.

Either way, the toothpaste is out of the tube and it isn't going back in.  Will I buy a thermal?  No, I don't think so.  Will I use one if my friend brings it to an evening looking for owls or gets a head start at a twitch?  Probably.  Do I wish they hadn't been made available to everyone, remaining in the hands of ecologists and professionals?  Honestly, and largely instinctively, yes.  It's probably an unfair point of view and I know it, but it's my honest feeling.  They do good in the right hands, but we can't control who gets to use them.  At least I'm self-aware.

Now, remind me how to spell h-y-p-o-c-r-i-t-e on my user profile...