Why do we bird? The standing theory is that our passion is a sublimation of primal predatory instincts. To be sure, birders employ their senses and a similar set of skills as hunters in pursuit of their quarry, particularly those of us who\u2019ve become \u201ctarget birders\u201d, focusing our efforts on tracking down and documenting a particular species.<\/p>\n
This entails understanding the habits, habitat preferences, and seasonal movements of our target bird as well as boning up on the species\u2019 vocalizations and plumage variations.<\/p>\n
Then there\u2019s the sheer exhilaration of being out in the field–senses tuned to the sights, sounds, smells as well as the physicality of the moment, our quiet presence in the midst of nature\u2019s beauty and wonder.<\/p>\n
That experience alone for birders and hunters alike can be deeply fulfilling, the proverbial \u201cthrill of the hunt\u201d, even when the vagaries of the natural world send us on our way empty-handed. Yet when we succeed…every birder and hunter knows that feeling!<\/p>\n
The difference, of course, is that for a birder our lasting memory of that moment when we first set our bins on our target bird, when we make our first observations, when we capture our first images, is of an encounter with the sublime–a wild thing driven by the same mysterious life force that drives us all. Hunters surely experience this as well but what then remains after the shot\u2019s been taken or the quill\u2019s been released? The vacant husk of a once dynamic expression of beauty, energy, and motion.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ll never understand the desire to destroy life except when it\u2019s essential for survival. That\u2019s the essence of sublimation–elevating the primal impulse to a higher order of expression, elevating what is all too human to the level of the humane. For me, being a birder means stalking the sublime!<\/p>\n
After three months of lockdown due to COVID-19, the Saudi government finally declared that from June 1st onward domestic travel would be permitted once again outside the curfew hours (8 PM to 6 AM). Despite the fact that infections had jumped up once the government began gradually lifting the lockdown orders–over 4,000 new infections daily at the time–so long as it\u2019s allowed, as far as I was concerned, I was going to take my chances and the necessary precautions, of course! So when I was asked if I was available for IELTS testing in Abha that weekend, I agreed without hesitation.<\/p>\n