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Birding Etiquette (1 Viewer)

I was in a hide today with my wife at Alkborough on the confluence of the Ouse and the Trent. Also present were two retired gents who had turned away from the open flaps of the hide and were ignoring the birds present . They proceeded to bitch about other birders for the twenty mins we could stand being there. Both would appear to have been twitchers, as apposed to birders and did not have a good word to say about others that they met on recent trips. Is it good manners to leave or challenge them on their unsociable behaviour?

Only way to avoid these sort of boreburgers? Avoid hides,twitches and find your own birdwatching hotspots.
I've got my own long list of such places locally-but I'm keeping them to myself!
 
re: brightly coloured clothing ...

Since birds see into the uv end of the spectrum that we don't, it stands to reason that clothing (eg white T-shirts, think 'glowing' under clubbing uv lights) or other bright colours may well stand out a lot and make you more conspicuous.

How close you get to species varies a lot too - a flock of Long-tailed Tits will almost ignore you at close range, whereas others are far shyer (eg in the UK), so if you can remain still and bend into the background you have much better chance of good views at times.
 
As a rule of thumb head to foot camo gear, (...) and then a matching camo camera. Never fails to see the bird. Don't forget when you have seen the bird get in everyone else way and talk really loudly on your phone

That is description of bird photographer. Especially Chinese one.
 
re: brightly coloured clothing ...

Since birds see into the uv end of the spectrum that we don't, it stands to reason that clothing (eg white T-shirts, think 'glowing' under clubbing uv lights) or other bright colours may well stand out a lot and make you more conspicuous.

And a lot of people forget / don't know that most washing powders contain 'optical brighteners' to enhance the apparent "cleanness" after washing; these work by being UV-active - so that camo gear shines bright to birds after the first time it's been washed :-O
 
I doubt smoking affects birds much; outside of a few groups like vultures most birds have a very poor sense of smell. The smoking thing I think is more important just because if I am in a hide or at looking for birds I don't appreciate having to breath in another person's smoke, especially since I and many others are sensitive to it.

Mammals though I would imagine would pick up and run off at the first sign of smoke, so if you are also into other critters it might be a problem.
 
Sorry everyone. I didn't tick the notify me of replies box. They were twitchers as apposed to birders, in my eyes at least. They were discussing life and year lists and a recent trip that they had taken to Chesterfield to see a wind blown visitor that is not normally in the UK. The tone of the conversation was about their "friends" commitment to travelling for such a rare visitor.
At the time that we encountered these sour old men it was raining quite heavily and the next nearest hide at Alkborough is at least 15 mins walk in either direction and I didn't want a confrontation with them so chose to go back to the car and move onto Blacktoft Sands.
 
Just simple:
-don't get into view of somebody else and try not to block others,
-don't talk loudly,
-keep distance not to scare the bird, if there is a group or a twitch is expected, don't move forward and keep extra long distance, for birds are more afraid of the group than a single person (photographers have trouble with that one),
-move calmly and slowly (but do not crawl or hide!)
 
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