UK early birding scene (1 Viewer)

Farnboro John said:

The Dusky you mention was 1984 (my first year on Scilly and it had gone when I arrived, something to do with the trampling no doubt). I was a low-lister in those days but I knew my place and listened more than talking - that also seems to be less common these days.....

John

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Fozzybear said:

That's a good story, nice to hear when the Police go out of their way to help people like that



One reason I try to avoid that side of birdwatching, I'm nowhere near the level where I could be sure of ID, especially birds of prey and waders... and warblers... and gulls... and... But then although I get a buzz from new birds I'm too easily contented and loathe to travel for all that chasing about. :-O

I can see that once you've seen all the regular birds you might still want the buzz of the new and that may drive people to follow up rare birds but coming into the hobby purely to pursue rare birds as a sport seems to be where some (not by any means all! I'm not tarring anyone) of the problems occur as some people doing that aren't doing it through appreciation of birds but just to get the tick. As usual the small minority tend to get noticed and this blackens the reputation of the majority of caring twitchers who'd never dream of flushing a bird to get 'a tick'.

Just a guess but perhaps the social changes in the mid-80's had an impact, there was a lot of self-centeredness in some parts of society then!

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Parker said:

A couple of other people have commented on twitchers that have just started birding & don't know their common birds that well. People buy the best optics & automatically think they are birders & as the more experienced of us know this is far from the truth. There is nothing like learning & seeing all the common stuff first & then when your competant enough going to see the rarer birds. I'm sure people still bird in this way & good on them if they do. Don't get me wrong birding is a hobby & can be enjoyed in whatever way you enjoy the most & as we live in a free Country (an illusion) we should be free to enjoy our hobby the way we like it, providing we put the birds wellfare first. But it can be annoying going to see a bird & have people stringing anything they see as the bird in question.

I went up to Lincs to see the Black Kite 2 years ago, one of my bogie birds. I was surprised at the incompetance of the birders present. Gulls, Crows, Buzzards & a Marsh Harrier were all claimed as the Kite & some people wouldn't listen to reason & left having seen a Marsh Harrier that went onto their list as a Black Kite. I hadn't been on a twitch since the Steppe Grey Shrike in Northampton in 97 & was astonished at the very poor level of id skills.

End of rant.

Cheers, Neil.

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