Still used by many birders, the policeman’s notebook fits perfectly into a pocket and is just the right size to draw field sketches and make notes.
23 : Policeman’s notebook
1840
Still used by many birders, the policeman’s notebook fits perfectly into a pocket and is just the right size to draw field sketches and make notes.
All aspects of the hobby of birding revolve around the ability to recognise and identify different species, and when the observations are to be used as ornithological data then the accuracy of this is even more imperative.
For as long as people have observed birds, the correct identification of an unknown individual bird has hinged on the details of field notes entered into a pocket notebook. The traditional medium to record notes on habitat, feeding, plumage, behaviour, call, song and numbers has often been the policeman’s notebook, a vertically opening black book measuring around 105x75mm, with a built-in elastic band to mark the page where the last entry was made, and containing around 80 to 100 leaves of ruled paper. Sometimes a short pencil will fit into the spine or a side flap of the book, and the back at least is usually made of stiff card.
The official ‘PNB’ is governed by strict guidelines, as evidence noted in the book must be admissible in court, but its history and design has meant that it is cheap, handy and practical, lending itself to rapid use in the field.
The first known standardised police notebook is documented in 1840, 11 years after the founding of the Metropolitan Police. Until that time, pads resembling jotters were generally used, and many police forces did not fall into line before the early 20th century. However, the convenience of the official notebook is such that it has survived almost unchanged to the present day.
While police officers are obliged to use standard-issue equipment, there is no law that says a birder must do so, and many different notebook styles are used, with different observers favouring side- or top-opening books, plain, ruled or graph paper and ring or perfect binding. Notebooks are now designed specifically for the birding market, and feature waterproof covers and/or paper, while waterproof pens and pencils are cheap and commonly available.
Notes may also be kept according to personal style, from straightforward, as-it-happens scrawling to carefully tabulated and itemised counts and measurements. Many keep their records for purely personal reasons, but with the advent of the concept of ‘citizen science’, more and more birders are keeping meticulous and accurate records; these can be sent in to bird recorders or entered online via survey schemes such as the Cornell Lab of Ornithology eBird and the British Trust for Ornithology’s BirdTrack. These online databases keep track of bird movements, arrival and departure dates, distributions and populations for the greater good of science and conservation. They are a sure way of making observations ‘count’ for more than just personal interest.
Traditionally, birders have often entered their notes into a journal or bird diary, much in the tradition of Gilbert White (see pages 34–35), keeping their records in a legible form and adding further sketches and annotations to make sense of what they had seen. Since the end of the 20th century, software packages have begun to be used to keep account of what a birder has seen, and these have become increasingly more sophisticated; packages now hold trip and site records, including checklists in various taxonomies, have photographs and sound recordings for reference, and cross-referencing capability. Electronic records are now often stored online, and already field observations can be immediately entered into online databases and quickly processed and analysed.
Whatever their purpose, virtually all birders take and keep notes, and it is an important part of what is ultimately an observational and self-educational pastime.