What made you give up?? (1 Viewer)

As I read through the threads about the latest mega on BF there are always comments from members saying "glad I don't twitch anymore" and the like and I wondered - what makes people stop twitching?

Is it that they've seen all they wanted to, dipped once too often, hate crowds!, money, age! :h?:

Maybe all the ex-twitchers can give some insightful answers!!

And for the record yes I do twitch when time, money and distance allow! (so thats twice this year!!)

The Futility of it ........ maybe ......?
se

I used to go birding regularly with 3 mates which made travelling to anywhere (within reason!) quite economical. It wasn't always 'premier-league' twitching by any means but we certainly clocked-up some good birds in all 'categories' over the years.

Two of my mates moved away and the other one had long-term health problems so I couldn't afford to do it on my own and it was always a social thing with me, as well. A day out birding in North Norfolk just isn't the same on my own!

As a lot of my equipment was getting a bit long in the tooth, I decided that, with the money that I was not now using for petrol, etc., I would start a long-term upgrade of all my kit. This is still an on-going project so I couldn't afford to go for a Sooty Tern, or whatever, anyway, even though I could probably get a better picture nowadays compared to some of the... errr... 'record-shots' that I used to obtain!

Some of the reports of behaviour at twitches recently is a bit disheartening - although the rise of the internet and websites such as this probably means that incidents that would have been long-forgotten, beforehand, are now given exaggerated publicity to the detriment of twitching as a whole.

Main reason they don't admit to is often......they got married!

Allen said:

As I read through the threads about the latest mega on BF there are always comments from members saying "glad I don't twitch anymore" and the like and I wondered - what makes people stop twitching?

Is it that they've seen all they wanted to, dipped once too often, hate crowds!, money, age! :h?:

Maybe all the ex-twitchers can give some insightful answers!!

And for the record yes I do twitch when time, money and distance allow! (so thats twice this year!!)

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Six hundred and fifty miles round trip plus £35 boat trip to out skerries to fail to see a sooty tern only to have it turn up again 5 minutes after I finally get back to Ipswich. Combined with the knowledge that if I'd returned to day I'd have to face my class on Monday only having had 1 nights sleep out of 3. Thats whats made me give up. Well I turned down the offer of a return trip this morning anyway.

Steve

Steve

Allen said:

As I read through the threads about the latest mega on BF there are always comments from members saying "glad I don't twitch anymore" and the like and I wondered - what makes people stop twitching?

Is it that they've seen all they wanted to, dipped once too often, hate crowds!, money, age! :h?:

Maybe all the ex-twitchers can give some insightful answers!!

And for the record yes I do twitch when time, money and distance allow! (so thats twice this year!!)

Click to expand...

Too many driving penalty points, perhaps

Earache :-O

Right, here's why one former manic twitcher has given up tearing around Britain like a demented ferret! I used to go for every lifer any where in the British Isles in the early 80's and still had periods of extreme insanity right up to 1999.

1. THE COST. We now live in rip-off Britain where we pay more than 20 pence a litre more than any other country does for petrol in Europe. It is no longer worth spending £80 for a twitch to some remote part of the British Isles, knowing full well that only 5 twitches like this would see you travelling abroad and maybe getting 30 new birds and not five. I base this on what I would be likely to gain out of for example a trip to southern Spain.

2. THE OVERCROWDED BRITISH ROADS. Travel at any time in the day in the UK and you know you're going to get held up in traffic at some stage on a journey of any length. It's still OK at night but who the hell wants to spend 2 nights without sleep for just one world tick? One also has to consider the environmental impact of burning fossil fuels just to see ONE species.

3. COMMON SENSE. Yes, I admit I'm happily married and have been for nearly 20 years, (the best thing that's ever happened to me - you single guys should try it some time!) and I have 2 wonderful kids, but it never stopped me from twitching in the 90's, even if I was away from home for a couple of nights. But God yes, I do feel that if anything happened to me whilst I was tearing up the motorway at some collossal speed , I could never rest in peace. I can go abroad for new birds with the family and we can all benefit from the experience.

4. HEALTH. Yep, I've had my ups and downs same as anyone, including being diagnosed with a mild form of M.E., having a disfunctional pancreas, a very dodgy back, partial deafness and a burst appendix. Did all these things stop me birding? NO. I tried to carry on as normal, but they did make me realise that's there's more to life than having loads of sleepless nights travelling some Godforsaken UK road in the hope of seeing one tiny bundle of feathers that could be seen in their hundreds abroad!

5. CROWDS. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing like a bit of birding banter at a twitch, but when I have to either queue to see a bird, or have to try and set up my telescope so I can peer through a mass of heaving bodies, then I get fed up with it. I find NO pleasure in either of these persuits. I like to be able to set myself up optically and get good views of my birds.

Nowadays I only twitch birds that are either new for my home county list (Devon), or those just across the border in neighbouring counties that are world ticks. Please don't think I am Anti-twitching, I'm not! After all who can criticise those who dash of to see a Sooty Tern in Britain, given its extreme rarity status to these shores, when I used to do just that years ago. I'm still a twitcher, even if I confine myself to my home county and I suppose that I always will be, it's just that I have stopped bombing around all over the country for the reasons I give above.

Best of luck to anyone who's travelling tonight to see some rare bird!

The Exmouth Birder

The complete lack of respect for the bird, landowner and anything else for that matter.

It was a Short-toed Treecreeper at Dungeoness that finally finished me off. 'Birders' thrashing the bushes trying to flush it.

Then working on reserves and having to try and supervise twitches. Never had a good experience with one.

And people moan about supression, look no further than your own behavoir.

My main reason for giving up the twitching game was a chance meeting with a BTO ringer and for the first time truly appreciating the incredible beauty of close contact with even the most common birds.

The thrill of the twitching chase was soon replaced by the challenge of training to become a licenced ringer and even greater thrill of finding my first Willow Warbler nest or hanging 30 feet up a larch tree ringing Sparrowhawk chicks (not sure if that should be thrill or terror!).

15 years on and I will admit to the odd flit within reasonable travelling distace of my own county for the occasional gem (Collared Pratincole @ WWT Llanelli for example) but for me there really is nothing to beat a leisurely early morning walk along quiet country lanes looking for greenfinch nests or an evening on a riverbank ringing sand martins.

No stress, no travel costs, no stringing - good luck to those who continue the great chase but for me I know which I prefer.

Pretty much all the above for me. Though I have lapsed a couple of times in recent years, so am by no means perfect. Hypocrite? Yeah. So sue me.

So what did it for me?

Burn-out. Got increasingly manic about it until the mid 90's, then realised I was spending a fortune on year-listing alone, never mind the big twitches. Plus I realised what an enormous amount of damage I must be doing environmentally. I felt rather selfish, and very foolish.

Disillusionment. Frankly I really didn't much like a lot of the people I was meeting at twitches. Just how interesting can a crowd of obsessives be? (Apart from to a psychologist ) Witnessed some shocking behaviour too, and couldn't understand how a controlled flush was ever good for anything bar a tick on a list - it certainly wasn't doing a knackered migrant much good.

Speeding points. Strangely not a factor. I didn't get nicked at all in the manic years, which given the annual mileage and the ignorant speeding for megas I did was a miracle. Instead got caught several years later on a deserted M20 after seeing a Serin, which just goes to show Fate has a sense of humour. Unlike the copper in question.

Failed relationships. Too many casualties to mention, and let's face it, when you're prepared to let your hobby cause emotional upset in others, you've got a problem.

Marriage. Puts things into perspective all right.

Boredom. Yes, it's kind of cool to see something hugely rare in the UK, but it's a lot more fun to try and find it yourself. Which leads to...

Moving to Shetland. A real dampener on twitching, but a huge buzz in trying (and occassionally managing!) to find your own birds.

Anyway, doubtless the twitching scene is much the richer for being rid of such an antisocial, miserable, critical, undedicated git.

ce

It was A PG Warbler at Newbiggin Golf course, found by 2 great birders who are top grade, the bird did not show itself and as soon as these guys departed the tick tarts were in the bushes shaking them, i had to walk away, some of these were so called top birders, i will not let this behaviour go unchallenged again.

Cuddy

cuddy said:

It was A PG Warbler at Newbiggin Golf course, found by 2 great birders who are top grade, the bird did not show itself and as soon as these guys departed the tick tarts were in the bushes shaking them, i had to walk away, some of these were so called top birders, i will not let this behaviour go unchallenged again.

Cuddy

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Good on you mate! I've even witnessed stone-throwing at twitches in the past, God knows what defenceless tiny creatures have been killed by this unforgivable action?

The Exmouth Birder

Birdline

Phil

After reading the posts on this thread,I feel quite sick.How on earth can these people call themselves bird lovers,throwing sticks and stones into bushes to flush out some small bird who has perhaps flown 1000's of miles to find a safe haven.They are not true wildlife enthusiasts.No way can they care about the environment and habitat and the genuine welfare of birds.But these people are perhaps in the minority and all"twitchers" should not be classed in the same category.

I started twitching in the mid 70's, saw some great birds, with good company, drank lots of beer, and had a good time. Never took a day off work to do it, being a responsible person, so purely a weekender.

However, like Terry, I too saw the futility in it, rubbing shoulders with increasingly cliquey and unnapreciative birders, causing damage to habitat. With modern comms and determination, it is now possible for complete beginners to amass lists in a couple of years in excess of my own life-list, and there are quite a few of these around who can't even pick up a Treecreeper calling, or Brambling by call.

I value my self-found list (around 275 from memory) and not from birding hotspots, far more than any life-list.

Having found good stuff over the years, I became mightily cheesed by watching my local reservoir, and having birders pitch up demanding to know if the bird that I had found was in view, and just because I wasn't actually looking at it at the time, was dismissed as a complete moron.

Local habitat at one of my ringing sites, was destroyed by people trying to get 10 feet closer to singing Marsh Warbler, (a pair was present) crushing all the nettles that they were probably breeding in.

There is no doubt that many twitchers are first class birders, and caring and appreciative of what they see, but it is the mindless minority which spoiled it for me.

I broadened my interests to include other forms of wildlife, and I get far more pleasure these days from recording new species in my 10k square.

I still very occasionally go off on my own to see rarities which I have not seen anywhere in the world, i.e. Black Lark and Mongolian Plover, and have found nothing but good behaviour and restraint.

Having said all that, I can honestly say I have gained far more pleasure from finding a Firecrest in my own little wood, or Crossbill in the garden, than seeing any mega from within a huge crowd.

Everyone to their own, so not anti twitcher, just against the minority who spoil it for everyone else.

GB

1. Travel
I used to twitch mainly to see birds which I probably wouldn't get to see otherwise. Now I'm able to travel more and have seen most of the birds which turn up here in their normal range. I've never been a lister, so there's no incentive of adding the bird to a list.

2. Crowds
When a friend phoned me on Sunday to say that the Sooty Tern was at Cemlyn, I was going to go (it's only 20 miles or so). But then he mentioned that there were "hundreds" of people there, and I quickly lost interest. I'm getting increasingly allergic to crowds, at least as regards birdwatching.

christineredgate said:

After reading the posts on this thread,I feel quite sick.How on earth can these people call themselves bird lovers,throwing sticks and stones into bushes to flush out some small bird who has perhaps flown 1000's of miles to find a safe haven.

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Never in all the days I used to twitch did I see this type of behaviour, though I agree sometimes birds were approached too closely. This is not to say it hasn't happened of course, but it shouldn't be taken as representative. I think all elements of the birding communities have certain players who are less then 'correct' in their actions (think of the recent thread on behaviour of those in hides!). Individuals who show disrespect for birds or other birders deserve criticism, but not the group as a whole. For me, each to their own - you want to spend your day hurtling up and down the motorways or watching birds in the garden, then all's okay.

As for me, I used to twitch and used to have a couple of very good local patches, enjoyed both forms of birding. Leaving the UK put an end to twitching - there ain't no other birders here to find birds for me to twitch!
Mind you, on my periodic returns to the UK, I still do like to get a twitch in - only managed two in the last few years, Snowy Owl on the Hebs (not even a tick, but a very nice bird) and Ivory Gull in Suffolk. And I did contemplate a special return to the UK for the Belted Kingfisher ...but didn't want to upstage Reader in getting the trophy for most spectacular dip

Terry Smith said:

THE COST. We now live in rip-off Britain where we pay more than 20 pence a litre more than any other country does for petrol in Europe.

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This is very relative - petrol here in Lithuania is now equivalent to 60 pence a litre, whilst in the UK 90 pence (?). So, UK prices are about 50% higher. However, UK salaries are many times greater than those here - minimum salary is about £120 a month!!! A 'good' salary is about £400.

So, relatively speaking, petrol is much cheaper in the UK than in some of Europe

Jos Stratford said:

This is very relative - petrol here in Lithuania is now equivalent to 60 pence a litre, whilst in the UK 90 pence (?). So, UK prices are about 50% higher. However, UK salaries are many times greater than those here - minimum salary is about £120 a month!!! A 'good' salary is about £400.

So, relatively speaking, petrol is much cheaper in the UK than in some of Europe

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Jos

Wish I had a 'GOOD' salary in the UK! It certainly isn't that wonderful. But it's not just the fuel here now in the UK. 'Rip-off Britain' sums it up perfectly.......

The Exmouth Birder