I’ve talked before about Betteridge’s Law of Headlines, which is “Any headline that ends in a question mark can be answered by the word no.” But this isn’t quite Betteridge’s Law, because the answer to the question, “Are oystercatchers one of Ireland’s most underrated birds?”, isn’t “No”, it’s, “I don’t know, maybe?”
I spent the last four days on the Cork Harbour Greenway, observing the oystercatchers. I’ve written about spending a lot of time there last year aswell:
But this year, there were oystercatchers gathered in big numbers, and it struck me that, if it were mute swans, there would probably be people gathered to have a look. If you’re talking about estuary birds, what could be more iconic than seeing a heron sitting silently along the estuary, barely moving, with an unrelenting determination to get their next meal? And curlews, and I’m talking from personal experience, inspire feelings of awe and wonder that drive me a bit mad in a good way.
Oystercatchers also seem to lack the “punk rock” credentials of crows, gulls, and pigeons, all birds that seem to offend good upstanding citizens. Feral Pigeons, they live in our cities, because, humans domesticated them, and then when they had no further use for them, released them. What did they expect the feral pigeons to do, fly to the moon, like a swallow? (That’s a fairly niche birding joke, if you don’t get it, don’t worry, that makes you normal!”) Herring Gulls have moved into our cities, because of human overfishing. Again, it’s not clear what else they were supposed to do. And many crows are loud. Which I think is cool, but that’s just me.
So, it seems oystercatchers get overlooked, both by people who love birds, and by weirdos who spend all day hating birds.
If you’ve never seen an oystercatcher, your first thought might be, “Well, it could be that oystercatchers are very drab looking birds that don’t really catch people’s attention.” To which I respond, this is what an oystercatcher looks like:
One of many oystercatchers I saw on the Cork Harbour Greenway over the last few days. Here’s three more I saw.
So these are not plain looking birds. In fact, these characters grabbed my attention even before I became a birder. I remember seeing them along the Courtmacsherry Estuary years ago, and just being struck by how visually striking they were.
As I said at the start, I spent the last few days on the Cork Harbour Greenway. All photos and recordings in this blogpost will be from that trip. For the last few weeks, we’ve been experiencing a fairly unrelenting heatwave in Ireland. And, in terms of what I experienced, and not to diminish the experience of people who found the heat difficult to deal with, it’s been great. I’d get up, and experience the warm glow of the sun until about 9:00 pm, then finally think, “I need to like, get stuff done, and I usually go to bed at eleven, so I need to get on that stuff now!” The first three days on the greenway were the tail-end of the heatwave, and as wonderful as it was, I was starting to worry, there have been fires up the country, and in other countries, the landscape is practically flammable now, it needs to rain!
Fortunately, on my fourth day on the greenway, it did rain, and the forecast for today is for it to rain buckets, I can hear it starting now. But as the Earth is further and further changed by the climate catastrophe, this will not be the last time when the weather is a source of great worry and anxiety.
The Cork Harbour Greenway has a really loud bridge. Even somebody walking across it is slightly loud, someone running across it is moderately loud, and somebody cycling across it is seriously loud. For years I have enjoyed cycling across that bridge immensely, it’s just so much fun when it makes that loud noise! However, while birding, that noise is not so welcome, because my main focus is hearing the birds. And of course, we must also remember Horatio’s Law:
“Any area that is a good place for encountering birds is invariably in close proximity to a main road that carries a very high volume of traffic.”
So through the wisdom of Horatio (I made up Horatio by the way), we understand that ALL good birding sites are near a busy road. Courtmacsherry Estuary? Near a busy road. Harper’s Island? Near a busy road. There’s a part of me that wonders if, in a very remote part of the world, if a really good site for birding was discovered, would a dual carriageway all of a sudden spring into existence not ten meters away?
So, the oystercatchers on this recording were competing both with the loud bridge, and the iron certainties of Horatio’s law. But isn’t it amazing how well their song competes with the noise!:
https://xeno-canto.org/1162982
That’s birds, vocally competing with an extremely loud road, and an extremely loud bridge. It was incredible to hear. Here’s another recording:
https://xeno-canto.org/1162983
Once again they compete beautifully with the constant roar of cars and trucks.
And this, being able to just, hear the birds, not straining my ears over vehicles, loud music, and, random machinery, was just such a lovely experience for me. Knowing I could hear the birds, not worrying that all of a sudden there would be a loud noise, because I knew they would be louder than the noise! And this made me feel something absolutely amazing. It made me feel like I had been taken to another world. The anthropocentric noise had been defeated, I felt so far away from it, and I was able to fully immerse myself in the absolutely wonderful sound of the oystercatchers. Their song filled my ears, and occupied every neuron of my brain, until all my fears, all my sadness, all my anger, simply, did not exist anymore.
Seeing these characters in flight is also a sight to behold, the way, on a sunny day, their colourful plumage shines, and how it stands out against the blue of the water, is simply incredible. I recorded five oystercatchers flying over the bridge, and you can hear one of their calls echoing against the landscape:
https://xeno-canto.org/1162765
I really like to hear a bird’s call echoing. Here’s another example of oystercatcher echo:
https://xeno-canto.org/1162961
I talked about climate change earlier. Frankly anyone who’s not worried at this stage isn’t paying attention. And, while hearing the beautiful oystercatcher song took me out of a lot of my worries, including my worries about the climate crisis, it is of course important not to lose sight of the fact that, if something isn’t done soon, the oystercatchers will be one of the victims of the climate crisis. On Birdwatch Ireland the oystercatcher is red-listed:
https://birdwatchireland.ie/birds/oystercatcher
Losing the oystercatcher would be an unbelievable and horrific tragedy. A bird so colourful that it can take us out of the greyness and dullness that accompanies many aspects of 21st century life, gone forever. A bird so loud that it can sing louder than the anthropocentric chaos all around us, gone forever. I dread the day when I have to tell someone younger than me, not, “They’re on the Cork Harbour, very easy to see if you’re interested,” but, “I saw my last oystercatcher two years ago, and now they’re gone.”
For the last two years, and indeed, before that, I just had less understanding of what I was hearing, the sounds of the estuary have calmed and healed my mind. Indeed, I remember cycling by the Courtmacsherry Estuary in 2012, and returning with a great sense of peace, despite having no idea what birds I had just heard. Practically all estuary birds are red listed. Are we looking at a world where the estuary no longer provides a refuge from the anthropogenic chaos all around us, but becomes just another ecological dead zone?
So, to return to the title, are oystercatchers one of Ireland’s most underrated birds, I’d like to do a 180 on Betteridge’s law. Yes, oystercatchers are underrated. And so are curlews, black-headed gulls, redshanks, and herring gulls. You might think, a lot of people like these birds. But I still maintain that they are underrated. Because all of the birds I just mentioned are either red listed or amber listed. They are rated so poorly, that our society is allowing them to just, die.
I didn’t set out to write a sad blogpost, it was supposed to be all about how happy the oystercatchers make me feel, and they make me feel immensely happy. But if we don’t feel sad, and anxious, and angry about the fact that they are in danger of extinction, then we won’t act to create a world where the next generation, and the generation after that, and the generation after that, get to experience the same joy that I get from taking a quick bike trip to the Cork Harbour Greenway. But I’m not saying we just feel those emotions and do nothing with it, we need to channel our feelings of sadness for what might become of the oystercatcher, into hope that we can save them. In fact, I just read a very joyful story from Rhode Island, where conservation efforts mean that the American Oystercatcher is making a comeback!:
That’s the choice we have here in Ireland too. Do we want to tell the next generation, “It makes me sad that you’ll never got to see an oystercatcher” or, “You’re lucky, there wasn’t as many of them around when I was young”. That’s our choice, and I hope the right one is made. I’ll leave you with another another photo and another recording of these amazing birds, and I encourage you to see and hear them when you get a chance, it’s quite an experience.
With a cameo from a redshank!:
Ponderings Of An Autist 