⌘K

Sign In Sign Up

A place to stand still — Calm, observant, and content to remain at the margins — where noise thins out. © Gyorgy Szimuly

A place to stand still

A quiet reflection on observation, stillness, and birds as a discipline of attention, marking the opening of the Bird Observer site.

Gyorgy Szimuly

Gyorgy Szimuly

January 18, 2026 – 2 min read

What's Next?

How PatchBird Changed the Way I Bird — <i><em class="italic" style="white-space: pre-wrap;">A Franklin’s Gull in breeding plumage, photographed in Mexico 21 years ago — from a time when tools like eBird did not yet exist, and many moments like this could only be held in memory. © Gyorgy Szimuly</em></i>

How PatchBird Changed the Way I Bird

PatchBird began not as a project, but as a shift in attention — fifteen minutes of stillness that transformed everyday birding.

An Almost Perfect Day: From Marsh Warbler to Golden Eagle — <span style="white-space: pre-wrap;">Marsh Warbler has been singing near the Port of Aberdee© Peter Winn</span>

An Almost Perfect Day: From Marsh Warbler to Golden Eagle

A singing Marsh Warbler in Aberdeen, an Arctic gull along the pier, and a Golden Eagle drifting through southern skies — a day where chance encounters captured the essence of why we keep looking up.

Fifty Years in the Same Direction with Birds — A life in nature rarely reveals itself through milestones. It is shaped — in returning, again and again, to the same instinct to step outside. © Gyorgy Szimuly

Fifty Years in the Same Direction with Birds

A quiet reflection on fifty years spent observing, moving, and remaining outside — not in search of answers, but in search of direction.

The Slender-billed Curlew I Knew Might Vanish — And Did — The European Turtle Dove is still present in parts of Europe — but far less secure than its song suggests. © Rudi Petitjean

The Slender-billed Curlew I Knew Might Vanish — And Did

I understood extinction in theory. I did not believe the Slender-billed Curlew would finish within my lifetime. Now another familiar bird stands on that slope.

Welcome (Back) to Bird Observer — One of my favourite bird photographs, taken during those times when I lay in liquid mud to capture intimate moments with my favourite birds – the shorebirds. © Gyorgy Szimuly

Welcome (Back) to Bird Observer

After a long pause, Bird Observer takes flight again – with new stories, field reflections, and the same love for birds that first inspired this journey.