Delights — Gaming my way to Birding
In 2021, I felt lost—professionally discontent in an abusive work environment, personally struggling with abject cynicism, and psychologically tired. It was also a year into the pandemic, and the travails of the Delta Wave in India took a toll on me as it did on so many other people in the country. While many people had started venturing into the world as soon as legal restrictions allowed them, some even before, Pooja and I were still largely stuck at home, stepping out masked only to large, open spaces. It was in this state that we became regulars at the Biodiversity Park, which had opened only a few years back, close to our new home. We found evening walks around this large park, among its little forest of eucalyptus trees, small hillocks and young trees native to this region very therapeutic.
Around the same time, I encountered a game on Apple Arcade called Alba. The game followed a young girl, Alba, and her bird-spotting adventures in a tiny, fictional Catalonian island, Pinal del Mar. I had never played video games of any kind in my entire life except for a childhood brush with the demo version of Road Rash. But this life-affirming game where Alba and her friend Inez, with the help of a small village of supporting characters, must save the island’s nature reserve from destruction to make way for a hotel, drew me in. This journey over a week had constant themes of exploration, rescue and restoration. The gradual uncovering of the stunningly detailed and idyllic Pinal del Mar, and the game’s soothing, immersive pace awakened a wanderlust I had never known.
One of the birds that I enjoyed spotting in the game was the Eurasian Hoopoe. Now, I grew up in a small town in North-east Bihar for the first ten years of my life, with its share of the fauna around, but I had never paid any attention to birds my whole life. Aside from being scared of black kites as a child, and annoyed with the pigeons that infested our urban spaces, I had barely noticed them. While playing Alba, I assumed incorrectly that most of the birds I had spotted using Alba’s handy app were only native to the Mediterranean. So, it was a delightful surprise when I came across it in our neighbourhood park the very next evening. That day Pooja and I were delighted to follow Hoopoes, Red-wattled Lapwings, Asian Pied Starlings and Cattle Egrets on what would be the first of hopefully a lifetime of birding adventures.
We have now seen over two hundred birds, mostly around Delhi. It is always a thrill to see a new bird for the first time. But what we find more comfort in are regular encounters with birds where we live, their behaviour and the assurance of knowing that we will see them when we head to the neighbourhood park. We have seen over sixty birds in our neighbourhood park over many evenings of patch birding, as we mark the passage of seasons through the arrival and departure of our avian friends.