Have to agree some american birders are rubbish in id.
Well Ian Wallace i think has retired from doing articles and papers ,in his time he was a exceptional birder who had all round knowledge and id skills.So would say he as been one of the all time great birders in the UK.Have to agree with you about the late PJG he was excellent ornithologist as well .If you want a more up to date birder i would say Jari Peltomaki who runs Fin Nature could be in the top ten, a very exceptional birder who's id skills and knowledge is well known in europe.He is also a all round wildlife expert and photographer.Jari has found quite a few of the finnish rarities over the years.Have to mention Jari's wife is a excellent birder to.Does anyone else have a definite opnion on who they think are the top 5 or 10 european birders are .
You never hear of Tony Soper now ,used to watch his programme Wild Tracks on BBC1 years ago.He did some interesting nature programmes but would'nt say he was a exceptional birder.I would say Bill Oddie is better than him.Bill Oddie found the first Pallas's Reed Bunting on Fair Isle with another birder RA.Broad September 29th 1976.
Hi yes i can remember some of those programmes he has done.You forget how much he has done on TV over the years.He used to do wildlife cruisers for various companies, dont know if he still does them now.Comparing Bill and Tony's birding knowledge i think Bill has the edge on Tony.Bill has served on one or two rarity committees in his time.But i would'nt put them in the top 20 european birders in fact nowhere near the standard of Dick Formans etc.Both of them are good wildlife programme presenters .
Hi yes you are right there are some very good birders and birders who are just learning .I think the older generation of birders who started in the 60s and 70s,had it a lot harder than todays birders.Birders in the 60s and 70s had to develope there fieldcraft,knowledge and id skills with out all the field guides Dvds.And they found all the rare birds themselfs ,they did'nt have pages and birdlines in those days not like today.That why i think many of the UK birders are lacking in fieldcraft,Knowledge and id skills because they have 'nt learnt them first .Some birders who are starting out birding cannot id the common birds and they are chasing round after rarities.We would have better birders in the UK if they developed there id skill and fieldcraft first.Most european birders dont go chasings after rarities they really get to know how to id birds and build there skills and knowledge up .That why i think most of them have better all round fieldcraft to birders in the UK,On the greater thread topic, though, here's my tuppence ha'penny worth..... I think of humans in two conceptual groups... those who Bird, and those who are concerned with mundanities like nationality, ethnic origin, "Lost", "Big Brother", shopping, football (oops, sorry...), etc. So there are very good Birders, and Birders who are learning. Birding, after all, transcends National Boundaries, no?
Good point, Rokermartin! Yeah, I remember as a kid in the late '60's trying to develop my "fieldcraft"...with the Observer's Guide to Birds! I might as well have been using a a Cookery Book....no, I exagerrate, at least my two kid birding mates and I had to learn all the commoner stuff ourselves. I don't know how we did it, I certainly think our eyesight and patience were better than now. In later life, coming back to birding, I had to re-learn a lot of the simple skills and it took a long time, but ID-ing is made much easier with modern methods. (At least these methods help to reduce the Margin of Error in ID-ing, no?)
Whooo, Twite, dangerous territory, you could start off a whole vicious "Behaviourists v. Geneticists" debate and we might all get Modded....
But here's a thought....I'm such a crap birder that I don't even know all the names mentioned in previous posts, but it occurs to me....are all the top birders also good bird artists, or at least sketchers? I don't mean professionals like Killian Mullarney, I mean is there some correlation between artistic ability and ID skills?
Yes you are right quite a few of the top birders are excellent artists as wellWhooo, Twite, dangerous territory, you could start off a whole vicious "Behaviourists v. Geneticists" debate and we might all get Modded....
