Story for performance #730
webcast from Paris at 09:58PM, 20 Jun 07

The birders are as interesting as the birds they love. The birders come in all kinds and colours, tall and short. They come alone and in pairs. Some travel in groups. Some birders talk a lot, and others hardly talk at all. Some birders know all about their birds, recite volumes as their binoculars close in on their prey. But they do not know their bird until they have seen it.

The birds are interesting too. They come in all colours and in all habits. Some hide and others strut. Some are found low to the ground and others barely touch the earth, live in treetops, or come out only at night. The birds of prey, eagles, hawks, harriers and buzzards, often eat other animals, but they seldom eat other birds. Vultures, like kites, eat only dead animals, but they share them with other vultures. What once lived is now carrion, and carrion sustains these birds of prey.

Consider, on this day, these three birders. Kathy, the schoolteacher from Kentucky, Michael, an English businessman, tall and polite, and Drummond, a Scotsman who rarely speaks. They are here in Gaza to survey the Avifauna of the Wadi Gaza Nature Reserve.

The birders are creatures of habit. They have a certain dress and gait, manners of walking, propensities for observation. There are selfish birders and greedy ones. The greedy do not rest, they hoard birds, dozens, more than you can list. The selfish hide them, keep a rare bird to themselves. Birders often work in pairs, like the Englishman and the Scotsman. One speaks, the other records. It was the reign of plunder and arrogance that Fatah imposed during its years of primacy that gave Hamas its power and room for manoeuvre, the Englishman was certain of this.

The first site represents the western portion of the Wadi, wetter, near the coast, with a very important wetland ecosystem. Many wild trees especially those of Sycamore, Zizyphus, Reeds, Tamarisk, Typha, and Palms and many agricultural fields of grapevines, figs, olives, citrus and vegetables are present in the areas around, mainly the coastal sand dunes. This area provides a refuge to much wildlife including floral species.

While some hide the birds they find from the other birders, utterly ruthless birders pretend to see birds they have never seen, or they say they have seen a bird when they only saw it from a long distance flying away. Ethical birders only assert they’ve seen a bird when they see it up close, from several angles. It matters to the birder that he sees the bird, sees it alive, in its habitat, not a cage, not a display. Even the indispensable binoculars are an impediment. You see it better, closer, but not with the naked eye. Only the eye can be trusted.

The second site is almost dry except for some storm water ponds occurring during the rainy season. This area harbours Tamarisk trees in the bed and many other wild trees and agricultural fields that to a high degree resemble those of the first site. It is worth mentioning that the eastern part of the Wadi which is very close to the political borders between the Gaza strip and Israel is unreachable or inaccessible by the surveyors due to security reasons.

They ticked the Pallid Harrier, the Imperial Eagle, the Long Legged Buzzard, the Lanner and Saker Falcons, all the birds of the open areas, the Sociable Plover, the Finsch’s Wheatear, the Pin-tailed and Spotted Sandgrouse. Then the rare ones, after days of trekking, Radde’s Accentor, the Wallcreeper, the Red-fronted Serin and the Pine Bunting. Then the Isabelline Wheatear and after it the Citrine Wagtail. ‘We must not overdo the distinction between the secularism of Fatah and the Islamism of Hamas’, said Kathy that night.

And the Houbara Bustard? Still unseen. Michael thought he saw it at dawn on the fifth day. No one else did. He retracted his sighting. They waited. The Houbara Bustard is a creature of habit. In the distance were guns. They waited in a low, veiled Tamarisk. The Macqueen’s Bustard. The Chiffchaff. Finally Drummond spotted the Houbara Bustard. Kathy ticked the list. Michael listed its attributes, noted its rarity. Then the Syrian Serin. It too is a creature of habit. Not a day passed without their speaking of it. It appeared near dusk on the last day, perched with its mate on a black wire fence near the town of Nuseirat.

Still unseen was the Palestine Sunbird. It had not been seen the year before, nor the year before that. The last survey to see it was ten years earlier. Hamas had recently retaken Gaza; Fatah was fighting them to regain it. The environmental agency urged the birders to leave. Michael conveyed the message to the other two. Kathy agreed. Her husband was waiting in Louisville. Drummond walked away from them without speaking. No Palestine Sunbird. No staying.

Another night passed, another dawn. They looked. Grass, fences, and near the village, garbage, graffiti in Arabic. Drummond left to look behind the dune. Michael and Kathy saw a Black-eared Wheatear. When he came back, Drummond ticked the Palestine Sunbird. ‘How did you see it?’ Kathy asked. With his binoculars, on the dune. With his eye, through the lens. The sole bird only one of them saw.

Adapted for performance by Barbara Campbell from a story by Matias Viegener.