I feel for the last few years hope is something that’s been in short supply. The horrific genocide in Palestine, the re-election of Trump, the seemingly unstoppable climate change catastrophe, well, it could be stopped if the powers that be wanted to, but they won’t, and the fact that an unbelievable amount of birdlife in Ireland and abroad is in danger of extinction. I’ve written about that here:
While there is, and always will be, good people in the world, it’s been a long time since I’ve felt that the good people were winning, and that the bad people were losing. I don’t know whether or not this feeling is going to change within my lifetime. And that’s depressing!
But, for the last six days, I felt hope, and wonder, and joy. Because I’m lucky enough to live a shortish distance from the Cork Harbour Greenway. So, for the last six days, I cycled down there, and cycled the section from Blackrock to Passage West, and photographed and recorded the wonderful birdlife that lives there.
I was inspired to go down to the greenway by the fact that it’s been more than six months since I’ve seen or heard a curlew. SIX MONTHS! There should be a law against that! Curlew deprivation is a serious mental health issue! So I got on the bike and headed down to the greenway, and there were so many curlews!
Some people ask me what my favourite bird is. And my usual answer is, too hard to answer. I love the shriek of a buzzard, and then looking up to see one sailing on the wind. I love the ridiculously complicated and skilled song of a sedge warbler. I love seeing a wood pigeon just perched on a tree branch, seemingly without a care in the world. But I think I might be able to answer the question now, and that answer might change in future, if I had to pick only one bird that I was allowed to see and hear for the rest of my life, what would it be? And if you pushed me to answer that right now, I’m going to say the curlew.
It’s amazing to consider that we think of zoos as places to see exotic animals, and yet, it doesn’t get more exotic than the curlew and they just live wild and free on the estuaries in Ireland. And, a lot of people in Ireland don’t know about them, this is in part because they tend to keep their distance from humans, as many birds do, so they are often far out enough in the estuary that if you don’t happen to have a binoculars or a camera with a good zoom handy, you can’t really see what they look like. Indeed I’ve sometimes gotten curlews and black tailed godwits mixed up at a distance.
And, one of the greatest privileges of my life was showing pictures of curlews to people who prior to that, had NEVER seen one. To think that I was responsible for being the first to show them one of the most amazing birds in the world just brought me such joy.
I’ve always thought of curlews as a very “alien” bird. Indeed, I think you could throw one into a sci-fi film and people who weren’t familiar with those birds would think “This is the best depiction of an alien I’ve ever seen.” And their song, my goodness their song, really adds to their alien quality.
I’ve tried many times to describe the way the song of the curlew makes me feel. Just, the feeling of my ears experiencing such a majestic beauty.
But I think I’ve figured out a way of describing it. I don’t drive. But if I did, I’m not sure I’d be fit to drive while hearing the sound of a curlew. Yes, their song makes me feel such euphoria, that if I was driving, I’d be worried their song would cause me to crash the car!
So, what does this car crashing song sound like? Have a listen.
https://xeno-canto.org/1014645
I’ve just been sitting here silently for a few seconds, just lost in the sound. I hope it gives others that same feeling of joy and wonder. Here’s another.
https://xeno-canto.org/1015217
Sorry, I was just lost in the sound again! Do you know what’s better than hearing a curlew? Hearing two curlews singing at the same time! Now that’s a magnificent experience. Here’s a recording I took of that.
https://xeno-canto.org/1015383
I just played the recording over and over again. The two curlews only sing together for about a second, but when they do, it is, true magnificence.
Now let’s talk about how getting a recording of a curlew is a pain in the ass. A bigger pain in the ass than the pain in my ass caused by cycling all week.
So, why are curlews so hard to record? Well, it comes down to the fact that they don’t actually make that awe inspiring, majestic and ridiculously amazing sound all that often. If you encounter a robin, or a blackbird, or a stonechat singing, there’s a good chance they’re going to keep going for a very long time! Especially the stonechats, they have unbelievable vocal stamina, do those guys even take a breath?
But, say you’re in the process of setting up your Tascam, and before you hit record, you hear the sound of the curlew right then. Well shit, you don’t know when, or if, that curlew is going to sing again.
I’ve never had a patient temperament, but in order to get all of these curlew recordings, I’ve had to do my best to simulate this thing that you humans call patience. It usually involves seeing a curlew, and then just standing there, letting the Tascam record, minute, after minute, after minute, of silence. Until, sometimes ten minutes, maybe more later, your patience is rewarded:
https://xeno-canto.org/1015653
This is a different kind of sound from a curlew. The curlew made this sound as they were taking off and flying away.
I caught this sight of curlews which I think is particularly epic. I’m not sure what’s going on here, I’ve been trying to find out from people who know more about birds than I do. I suspect that this is the courtship dance. What happened was that one curlew rushed towards the other, then the other curlew put up their wings. At first I thought they were fighting, but then they seemed to go for a walk together and were happy in each other’s company.
I love the sight and sound of curlews, but I think seeing this one event was particularly special for me, because it gave me an insight into the actual lives of curlews. What is the day in the life of a curlew like? I think when I saw this, I got a bit closer to understanding that.
When you are down at the Cork Harbour Greenway, you feel an appreciation for the gentleness of the birds. These peaceful creatures love to fly around in a pure state of peacefulness. The sheer calm, non-violent nature of the………..
Yup. I don’t know what happened, but shit got real between these two black headed gulls. And I don’t mean shit got partially real, I mean shit got really extremely real. Have a look at this!
As you can see from the last photo, eventually the gulls decided to call it quits, this is one of them flying off. But it was quite amazing to see! Another window into the lives of the birds around Cork Harbour. What do they think, what do they feel, what are their hopes? Well sometimes they think they need to beat the shit out of another bird, sometimes they feel they need to beat the shit out of another bird, and sometimes their hope is to beat the shit out of another bird.
This is what black headed gulls sound like.
https://xeno-canto.org/1014646
As soon as I heard this sound it quickly became one of my favourite bird sounds. Sure it’s not beautiful in the way the sound of a blackbird or a robin is, but it’s, just so delightfully weird! There’s something so lovely about hearing a bunch of birds making an utterly bizarre sound at such a loud volume, I love it! Here’s another recording.
https://xeno-canto.org/1014646
And here’s what a black headed gull looks like when not consumed by rage at the presence of another black headed gull.
The first birds I showed in this blogpost were the black tailed godwits. I haven’t seen them in a while, but seeing them again they have fast become one of my favourites. That bright, shiny red plumage is such a wonderful thing to see.
Such spectacular birds. And again, this is a very exotic bird that you don’t have to go to a zoo to see. You can see them living wild and free on the estuaries of Ireland. Isn’t that fantastic!
And, when the greenway overloaded my brain with joy with all these birds, the greenway decided to overload my brain even further with even more joy. Because, I didn’t realize it at the time, but the greenway is also great for one of my other favourite animals, bees!
And my visit to the greenway seemed to have solved a bit of a mystery for me that’s been in my head for a while. Have a listen to this starling recording:
Starlings are very celebrated mimickers. Is mimicker a word? It is now. I’ll never forget going to a talk by Cork ornithologist Seán Ronayne last year, and he told us the story of how a starling imitated Seán himself, saying “C’mere”, (Come here), complete with a Cork accent!
But this recording is where I was able to definitely establish that there’s mimicry going on. I had recordings where I suspected mimicry was going on before, but this is my first where I felt I was able to be sure. And the starling is mimicking a curlew!
To me this presented a mystery. Curlews live in estuaries, but starlings live, or so I thought at the time, mainly in housing estates and along country roads. Not near the estuary to my knowledge. How would a starling have crossed paths with a curlew?
Well, have a look at this. Mystery solved!
So there you have it. Starlings are estuary birds, or at least they are part time. I used this photo because it’s probably my clearest shot of starlings of the estuary, but there was way more of them there than just these three. Starlings like to visit estuaries, and that’s how they picked up the sound of a curlew!
And do you know who else are estuary part-timers? Wood pigeons!
Imagine that, the estuary provides such treasures for our birdlife that even starlings and wood pigeons like to pay the place a visit. I never associated either of these birds with estuaries, isn’t that incredible!
So, the title of this blogpost mentions hope. How have my recent visits to the estuary given me hope? After all, the birds I mainly talked about, curlews, black headed gulls and bar tailed godwits, are all in danger of extinction.
Fuck.
Something I have suspected for quite some time, is that the bad humanity does outweighs the good. Not all humans, sure, of course, but there is a nasty tendency for the bad humans to gain all of the power. So, it does seem to be the case that, while (I hope) the humans that are doing most of the bad stuff is a small minority, because they cause such a catastrophic level of damage, it STILL works out that the bad that humanity does outweighs the good.
What is space exploration, music, books, and art worth in the face of bigotry, genocide, climate destruction and species extinction?
Yeah, perhaps I shouldn’t have put “hope” in the title there, because I’m not sure how I’m getting myself out of this one to be perfectly honest!
Perhaps this is my answer to it. And yes, I don’t know if this answer provides comfort only to people in relative privilege such as myself, maybe it provides nothing to those out there who are really suffering. I don’t know.
But, when I was along the estuary over the last few days, thoughts of the genocide in Gaza, the climate catastrophe, species extinction, the fact that there is a completely self serving psycho in the White House right now, all of those thoughts still occupied my mind.
But, when I saw and heard the wonderful birds, I held onto those beautiful emotions, tighter than I’ve ever held on before. I let the amazing sight of the black tailed godwits flood my brain, probably more than ever before. I let the song of the curlews dance within my auditory system, probably more than any time previously.
We might lose the fight against all of the evils of our world inflicted on us by those in power. It’s sadly, a realistic possibility. But now is not the time to give into despair, because if we do that, they will DEFINITELY win. So I’m taking the beauty, the wonder, the absolute majesty I experienced over the last few days, and using it the push me away from despair, because, despite the time of darkness we are living in now, when I hear the enchanting sound of a curlew, I know this blue and green planet we live on is still worth fighting for.
So I’ll leave you with two things that I hope you find just as joyful as I do. The flight call of a curlew (although FUCK that truck in the background!) And a curlew going for a paddle. Because there are still things worth fighting for in this world.
https://xeno-canto.org/1013603
Ponderings Of An Autist 
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