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Is your Dad an ornithologist? - a new term for birders (1 Viewer)

John Cantelo

John Cantelo

Well-known member
"Is your Dad an ornithologist?" was the question that one of my daughter's friends recently asked her on tumbling through the front door after an evening in the pub. I guess that the 12+ bird paintings on the wall, the shelves of bird related books and magazines were a bit of a clue.

Unfortunately, due to being somewhat "tired and emotional" what actually came out was "Is your Dad an "awful knowledgist"? Naturally, my long suffering daughter is somewaht chagrined by her failure to coin what, from her perspective, is an all too accurate description of her father's hobby! I fear that, henceforth, in the Cantelo household birders will be known by the sobriquet an "awful knowledgist"!
 
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I never took up stamp collecting on the grounds that philately gets you nowhere.

I'm relaxed about being called a twitcher since a) like most birders (even those who vehemently deny it - and I don't mean this as a dig, Jaff) I sometimes twitch a good bird and b) whether we like it or not, to the average newspaper reader 'twitcher' now means 'birdwatcher' - words, particularly slang words perhaps, always change their meaning.

On balance, though, I think I'd prefer to be an "awful knowledgist"; it has the benfit of suggesting you couldn't possibly be a nerd!
 
A few of weeks ago I was out birding on my normal route along Bulimba Creek to Minnippi Wetlands, when a couple of walkers saw my binos and said,
"Are you a twitterer?"
I told them that they probably meant "twitcher" and then, yes, I was a mild one.
 
pete woodall said:
"Are you a twitterer?"
Click to expand...

Isn't that just someone who just uses Twitter? ;)

I will always make clear to someone that I enjoy nature in all it's glory and every bird is enjoyable. Sure I'll go and see a rarity on any of my local patches but in my eyes I don't see that makes me a twitcher. I'm a birder! 8-P
 
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