Sean Dooley
‘Twitcher Porch Thoughts’
When you sit down to interview a ‘twitcher’, be prepared for the interview to be cut short. A twitcher is wired for sound, on call 24/7 hoping to receive a ‘tweet’ or a call to learn that a migrating bird took a wrong turn and landed in Australia; making it rare and a ‘must have tick’ against its name on a watcher’s accumulating and prized list. But first a twitcher must hunt it down through a pair of binoculars.
Following the news of a rare sighting two weeks ago in Australia that set twitchers, well, twitching, I caught up with our most famous twitcher and ten year Australian birdwatching record holder (2002-2012) Sean Dooley; who best explains his ‘habit’ to non-twitchers as being, ‘wildlife hunting for nerds - without weapons.’
Sean’s twitch began during primary school in Seaford North and officially outed himself as a bird-nerd during his early 20s performing comedy sketches at the Melbourne University Comedy Reviews. He has since written three books, worked as a comedy writer on TV shows such as Hamish and Andy and Spicks and Specks and is currently editor of Australian Birdlife, the membership magazine of BirdLife Australia.
Although Sean doesn’t twitch as much these days, he is flying the flag and hunting down our support to help save our endangered birds by raising awareness and educating the public through his writing, story-telling, lectures and regular radio appearances on ABC Radio and 3RRR.
Just in case a ‘tweet’ comes through about a rare sighting that you just can’t resist to see Sean; what is your Porch Thought For The Day?
If you take the time to notice birds, they bring so much joy to your life and they are such amazing creatures. We really owe it to them to do what we can to make sure they keep on singing for our children and their children.
What drives your passion for birds?
Birds are the only regular contact we have with a natural world. They are the one creature that you can see stepping out into your backyard. It’s hard to see a mammal or a reptile but birds are in your face and a reminder that we are part of the natural world. It is important to have a connection with them.
What do you love about birds?
They are incredible creatures. They come in a variety of shapes, sizes, colours and they sing in a multitude of voices. They also fly which is also pretty inspiring for us ground creatures.
How many birdwatchers and twitchers are currently active in Australia?
Australia’s peak birdwatching conservation body - Birdlife Australia has around 10,000 members. Around 1000 of its members are active ‘twitchers’ and up to 200 being totally obsessed.
What occurred a couple of weeks ago that caused a great flutter in Australia’s birdwatching community?
A Forest Wagtail from overseas just turned up in Alice Springs. Normally this time of year, it should be nesting in the forests of China or Japan. It was identified on the Saturday and by the following Tuesday, 30 twitchers had already flown to see it.
Why did twitchers feel compelled to jet off to Alice Springs?
The more experienced you become, the fewer options there are to see new birds. You have to go further afield.
In 2002, you broke the Australian record sighting 703 species (720 by the revised 2013 international count list). What distances did you travel and who verified your sightings?
I travelled 80,000 kilometres by car, 60,000 kilometres by plane and 2,000 kilometres by boat. Most of the rare birds I saw I had someone with me to back me up. What it came down to was being satisfied I had experienced the whole essence of seeing the bird. You need to be honest and reliable. Reputation, like virginity, can only be lost once. This is especially true in the birdwatching world and so far, fortunately, my reputation has remained intact.
When you do go out these days, what runs through your mind in terms of changes to the environment and the future of our birds?
I begin to understand what birds need to survive and where they live. I can’t help but to become concerned. There’s been a massive drop out of many different birds across so many types of landscapes and habitats.
What major threats are our birds facing?
Mainly habitat and tree clearances and also the draining of wetlands. Our woodlands birds are hanging on to reminiscent scraps of woodland. They are disconnected from each other. A fire in one area or a drought in another can wipe out the birds, or even a plague of foxes. In the past they could repopulate in adjacent areas, but now those adjacent areas are gone.
What can be done to help save our birds?
Tell stories about the birds and stories about conservation projects. Birdlife Australia really punches above their weight in terms of conservation impacts, particularly for birds. Their real strength is their volunteers who are bird watchers and invest their time to go out and survey and monitor the birds. The first level to save something is getting people to be able to connect and the second is to know what we’ve got, what we have left and what needs to be saved.
Do you know of any successful projects that are making a difference threatened species?
Over the past few years one of BirdLife Australia’s successful projects has been the beach nesting bird’s project, working with communities all along the coast to protect the breeding habitat of Hooded Plovers and other shore beach nesting birds.
How has it succeeded?
Project Managers and hundreds of volunteers go out during the summer to locate nests, fence them off and to stand guard to keep people and their dogs away. This project has shown that monitoring and overseeing their habitat has increased the rate of breeding and raising their young by 400%. The Federal government’s conservation funding model is moving away from threatened species programs so ongoing funding for this project is now in jeopardy.
How can community members join in the fight to ensure our birds keep on singing for our children and their children?
Volunteer in one of their projects through the threatened bird network or offer your time to help conduct surveys or even help spread the word. We need to find new recourses of funding through government grants; benefactors or through donations. We owe it to our birds.
What is you Porch Thought For The Day?
“Help our threatened birds and to learn more about birdwatching, twitching or volunteering visit www.birdlife.org.au.”