Birdwatching seems tame until the cops show up. One day, Andrew Dobson was using binoculars to look at shorebirds on the LF Wade Airport runway when he was stopped by a police officer.

The avid bird-watcher quickly pointed to the whimbrels he’d been admiring.

The officer was fascinated.

“You’re standing around with binoculars, and sometimes people don’t know what you are looking at,” said Mr Dobson. “They sometimes suspect something sinister.”

He will be talking about his birdwatching adventures, and showing his photographs, at a lecture at the Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute (BUEI) tomorrow.

The South Londoner came to Bermuda in 1989 to teach at Warwick Academy. He quickly became involved with the Bermuda Audubon Society, and today is the president. He has also been president of the Society for the Conservation and Study of Caribbean Birds.

“Birding in Bermuda is never dull,” Mr Dobson said.

“Whatever the season and whatever the weather there is always the anticipation of seeing something unusual, perhaps a rare duck, at this time of the year, or a scarce migrant warbler during the spring and fall migration.”

He believes the birdwatching community in Bermuda has only gotten stronger and keener in the last 30 years.

“I think there is actually more interest in birding today,” he said.

But he said bird watching is not a fair-weather sport. Ironically, the worst weather conditions often produce the most interesting birds who are either blown off course, or forced to migrate because of the temperature.

“I can remember watching seabirds in storms off the coast of Cornwall,” he said. “You can see all sorts of seabirds flying through. You have your flask of coffee to keep yourself warm.”

One of the highlights of the Bermuda birding calendar is the annual Christmas bird count, sponsored by the Bermuda Audubon Society.

The count is held over a period of three weeks in December, and is a global event designed to take stock of the world’s birds. Bermuda has been taking part since 1975.

“It originally started in the United States in 1900 as a way to stop people from shooting birds at Christmas,” said Mr Dobson. “If they were counting the birds they weren’t shooting them.

“The challenge is to be as accurate as possible when you are constantly on the move for up to ten hours of fieldwork. There is no problem in noting the less common species but it is more difficult in estimating the size of a starling flock flying over or the number of individual kiskadees that are calling as you walk around Spittal Pond.”

The count has become a valuable source of bird data.

“More than 100 years worth of data has enabled scientists and conservationists to look at changing bird patterns, populations and habitat change,” Mr Dobson said.

“It has also allowed them to better plan what action to take.”

In Bermuda, more than half of the birds counted are invasive, non-native species such as starlings, sparrows and kiskadees.

“In 40 years, we have recorded nearly 250 different species of birds,” he said. “In my talk I will be highlighting many of these species with photographs I have taken over the years.”

He became intrigued by birds as a young boy.

“I was fortunate enough to have parents who were very outdoorsy,” Mr Dobson said. “We went camping a lot, and walking on the weekends. Back then, our entertainment was outdoors.”

Between outdoor excursions he found plenty of birds to admire in the city.

“I can remember noticing migratory thrushes that visited the back garden in the winter,” he said. “There were fieldfares and redwings. I was fascinated that they’d come all the way from Scandinavia to winter in the United Kingdom.”

He became a serious bird-watcher while in university studying economics.

“We spent a lot of time on the Norfolk coast, a prime birding location,” he said.

Today, his own family are just as keen on birds. His daughters Anna, 20, and Fiona, 18, are also avid birders and love to help during the count.

“Nowadays a lot of children are too wrapped up in electronic pursuits,” Mr Dobson said. “It is important to get local children outdoors and inspired about nature. I hope some of the younger people will come and listen to the talk. It will be child-friendly.”

He hopes to inspire another generation of ornithologists.

“What I love about birdwatching is the variety and the ability to watch birds wherever you are,” he said. “Bermuda has so many migrants, passing through and birds that winter here.”

His birdwatching also hatched an interest in photography, and some of his shots have appeared in The Royal Gazette, and in international bird watching magazines and journals. He even had two photos published in the cahow chapter of Jane Goodall’s book Hope for Animals and Their World.

“Unfortunately, I didn’t get to meet her,” he said.

His lecture, Looking Back on 40 Years of Christmas Bird Counts, organised by the BUEI and the Bermuda Audubon Society, will be tomorrow at 7.30pm at the BUEI. Tickets are $20 for members and $25 for non-members, available by phoning 292-7219 or from the BUEI giftshop.