Bird spotter Remco Daalder loves birdsong and The Ramones

Remco himself is not such a fanatic birdwatcher. He prefers to go bird watching from Amsterdam North by bike. “Through weather and wind, at least you can feel what the birds feel,” he says with a laugh.

Remco’s interest in birds started when, as a 14-year-old boy, he rode a bicycle from his hometown of Amsterdam to the Gouwzee near Marken to watch birds. “I wasn’t very good at football, so the fun quickly wore off. And the great thing about birdwatching is the adventure. You don’t know what to expect.”

In his book De Species Hunter he writes about the fanatical bird watchers whose life is dominated by spotting as many or as rare as possible birds. “Although I’m not that kind of person myself, it fascinated me and I wanted to write a book about it.”

Binoculars or rifle

In the book he also describes the primeval bird watchers from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Instead of using binoculars, they set out with a rifle. “When there were no binoculars or cameras, you had to shoot a bird to study it. Someone like Darwin, a fantastic biologist, of course, shot everything out of the sky he could get his hands on.”

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You will not soon find Remco among those huge groups of birdwatchers with telescope lenses aimed at a very rare bird behind a farm. “For me, the charm is the unexpected and if you go after a report of a rare bird, it is predictable. You know what you are going to see,” says Remco.

He just keeps his eyes and ears open, even in the city. “Last week I saw a young white-tailed eagle fly over at Franckendael in the Watergraafsmeer. Then my day can’t go wrong,” he laughs. But he is also on his balcony watching birds while drinking coffee in the morning. “Then the sport is to spot as many bird species as possible within an hour. My record is twenty-five.”

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In addition to bird watching, Remco has another great hobby: music, especially loud music. “I love metal and punk and have been going to concerts all my life. My all-time favorite is the band The Ramones. So good, hard and basic.”

The question is, of course, whether listening to loud music does not get in the way of bird watching. Doesn’t that noise make him deaf so he can’t hear the birds singing? “No,” he laughs. “I’ve been wearing earplugs all my life. And I can recommend them to everyone.”