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Washington Post article about competitive British birding (2 Viewers)

Microtus

Microtus

Maryland USA (he/him)
United States
The Washington Post has an article about competitive British birding, titled "In Britain, bird-watching gone wild". This morning it is on the top page of the online edition and is accompanied by a photo of John Lees and Garry Bagnell looking at "shore larks", though the article specifies a single lark. Other prominent British birders are mentioned in the article, which should be accessible to non-subscribers unless you've already read 20 articles in the past month.
 
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Made mistake of reading excerpts to wife, who instead of laughing along with me went off on a rant about the amount of time I "waste" on birds! Guess I picked wrong time
 
Think it best you head off out birding for a few hours until she cools down ;) She should be glad you have a healthy outdoor hobby anyway :t:

Good article....didn't realise the Americans weren't as obsessive as the UK 3:)
 
At the ABA region level it's hard to develop much in the way of cutthroat behavior/antagonism between different birders. Birders from across the country just have a limited ability to interact, and big years are so epic in scope that they require collaboration with others.

On a regional level. Well...areas with high densities of birders like Socal can be pretty similar to what that article describes.
 
Mysticete said:
At the ABA region level it's hard to develop much in the way of cutthroat behavior/antagonism between different birders. Birders from across the country just have a limited ability to interact, and big years are so epic in scope that they require collaboration with others.

On a regional level. Well...areas with high densities of birders like Socal can be pretty similar to what that article describes.
Click to expand...

I've found a high ''incidence'' of birders on visits to Central Park, New York, and have found hospitality, good humour and civility of the very highest order, absolutely no complaints there.

Cheers
 
I was assisting with a birding tour in Arizona last spring with birders from England and Scotland (amongst other places), and they commented several times at how cooperative and forthcoming with information the other birders we encountered were. They told me that most UK birders are relatively tight-lipped and aren't real quick to offer assistance or help in finding birds.

I think American birders can be every bit as obsessive, but I don't think the competitiveness is the same, which is strange because generally we like to compete at everything.
 
ptickner said:
I was assisting with a birding tour in Arizona last spring with birders from England and Scotland (amongst other places), and they commented several times at how cooperative and forthcoming with information the other birders we encountered were. They told me that most UK birders are relatively tight-lipped and aren't real quick to offer assistance or help in finding birds.

I think American birders can be every bit as obsessive, but I don't think the competitiveness is the same, which is strange because generally we like to compete at everything.
Click to expand...

I think US birders are less protective of their information because it is less valuable. Unlike the situation in the UK, the birds in the US can go anywhere, even Canada or Mexico, without oceanic crossings. So stuff happens essentially anywhere. Finding birds here is more a matter of skill and luck than it perhaps is in the UK, where patch knowledge is often essential.
 
There is a diference between twitching and bird watching. I don't do much bird watching in the UK, because I live in Germany, but I've met a few bird watchers in Scotland and England who were happy to share knowledge and swap information with me. I don't do the twitching thing, but have read a few articles about the extreme behaviour of a few of that ilk. We have quite a number of people on BF that also like a twitch, but they are also very willing to share the knowledge and experiences on the id forum. I think these über twitchers that the article refers to are fortunately in the minority.
 
A good read and interesting article, i must admit if i had the funds i would do a lot more serious birding but not twitching, to much stress.
 
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