I was glad to get away from all that snobbism,now it's just good old plain and simple birding with the gear you've got.Jos Stratford said:Not optics I agree, but certain females wouldn't be seen dead with the wrong sort of this and that ...and certainly wouldn't be seen anywhere near my scruffy car ...snobbism rules okay, regardless of gender
In the Netherlands, it's the same. The minorities nearly all live in cities and think that nature only exists in their homelands (mountains! jungle! deserts!): most Dutch think the same anyway. Only the Turkish may go out and picknick... (and then have to cope with all those Dutch who never clean up their dog sh*t). About 1% of the minorities is member of a conservation group, compared to some 25% of the ethnic Dutch (including groups like Greenpeace). I think it's pretty much heritage. I have no faith in education changing this any time soon...James said:This made me think!
Britain now has a large ethnic mix but all I can remember seeing birding in the field are white. Is there an ethnic preference or is it just a cultural heritage?
Dimitris said:Well lets see. Greece has less then 100 of us We have 100.000 legal hunters and around 300.000 illegal ones. So I think it's natural that I get odd looks when I tell I'm interested and enjoy watching birds only and not killing them.
As for my friends. They accept me. As for others I don't give a sh!t on what they think.
Better to be hated for what you are then to be loved for something you are not. That's what I always say.
As for girls. I've had interested looks,but they'd rather talk about other stuff and I must comply...
Dimi
My wife´s Chinese, she´s wouldn´t describe herself as a birder but does enjoy and appreciate birds. Mind you, that´s really just since I came out of the closet and started birding seriously again after we were married. I can´t remember ever seeing a birder when living in China (Hunan, too....great birding province). I´ve just checked with my wife and she says she never heard of Birdwatching while growing up in China, and never knew anyone who birdwatched. So is it just non-Chinese on holiday or working there who bird in China?Chris D said:A few years ago my wife and I were strolling along in the morning at Frasier's Hill on the Malay Peninsula. Just a pure great place in every respect. The entire morning we never ran into any other "Honkies" (old degrading term for white folk). All the birders we met, and there were many, were ethnic Malays, Chinese Malay, Singaporeans, Hindu Malay, and Thai. I'm always learning things as I grow up. It was so nice to be a "Minority" for a morning.
Steven Astley said:Makes you wonder how acurate distribution maps and population estimates are in these countries with only limited people to do survey work (if any is done at all). .
I've encountered two black birder/photographers in Ohio. The most surprising ethnics were the Amish/Mennonite birders. A group of these central europeans settled in Ohio andPennsylvania generations ago. A self proclaiomed plain people who shun cars colorful clothes and electricity. These good farming folks are easy to pick out a good birding sites with women wearing drab dresses and bonnets and the men in full beards and black shirts and pants. These people drive around at home in horse and buggy. When birding they are using Leica and Zeiss optics. They move from the center of Ohio to the northern marshes on hired buses. They are outstanding birders.Pinewood said:James,
Of several dozen bird watchers, whom I have met in New York's Central Park, I have met only two African Americans and I know of one Asian. I cannot speculate on the reason.
Happy bird watching,
Arthur Pinewood :egghead:
Sancho said:I still can't understand why declaring an interest in birdwatching here is still about as socially acceptable as farting at a funeral. Consider: if you are a single male, how do you think an interest in birdwatching will affect your rating among unattached females? Fairly negatively, I would imagine. Whereas an interest in football is perfectly acceptable, even though attached women often bemoan their male partners' footie obsession and the time spent on related activities. Luckily, my wife accepts (and even sometimes shares, now..) my birding. But she didn't know I was a birder when she married me. (Neither did I, I'd lapsed from it shortly after puberty, a bit like Catholicism....).
Now that I'm back on the bird-wagon, I'm also lucky to work among a staff of eighteen, six of whom are birders (and we're working on the rest....). So in my family and work life, I'm comfortable about having 'come out' with my ornithological leanings. But really, among non-birding friends, my interest is treated as, at best, an oddness, and at worst, a perversion. What's that all about? Are you a social outcast because of your birding? Do people mention train-spotting and anoraks when they realise the awful truth about your interest in birds?
Rhonda said:Am I the only one asking why you guys aren't interested in women who are interested in birds. We are not all old and frumpy watching birds on our feeders. In Churchill Manitoba where I live and bird we are tolerated by the general public, I feel I should have a sign on my vehicle warning about sudden stops and doors being left wide open. Some real jerks like to drive by really fast and dust us out or flush whatever we may be looking at.
Churchill birding is an life and death proposition at times as I not only have to deal with an astonishing number of blood thirsty insects but also the polar bear. So call my passtime boring, but I will disagree.
Great! Another birding teacher with sassy teenagers! Honestly, the kids I teach acknowledge birding as almost normal now, I've even started putting up posters of common birds with their Spanish names ('cos I teach Spanish), and sometimes kids ask me about birds they've seen or heard (one says she has a Nightjar singing in her area, I'm sceptical but if she's right she deserves a medal, it would be the fourth known singing male in Ireland). As I said, five of the other teachers are birders too (two are converts), so the kids have gotten used to seeing teachers peering into trees. But the teenagers who are into birds themselves are not open about it. Nor was I at that age. And yet they love telling us what they've seen. Last winter (04-05) we had a big Waxwing influx, and a lot of the kids saw them in their area, we even had a flock of 50 that hung about the school for a few weeks, so lots of students got to see them. And Waxwings are indeed special, even to those who don't notice birds.BirdGal said:I'm a 28 year old school teacher in the US. . I have 14 and 15 year olds and the other day I was telling them that I was going to have to take my binoculars and camera with me on the golf cart this summer so I can do my two favorite things at once. . . . one girl spoke up and said "Ms. __, you sound like an 88 year old!" I laughed and said "Well, the birdwatching experts I am studying under are 85...so I guess they're rubbing off-- which is a good thing in this case!"
Steven,Steven Astley said:Interesting stuff samuel and now we know the real reason why they don't have cars or expensive clothes they have blown it on expensive optics
dendroica_john said:Birding is pretty popular here in the U.S., though it will get some strange reactions. Here in D.C. I have to be a little careful that my birding doesn't look "suspicious" to an overzealous cop or a busybody passerby. I have had at least one unpleasant encounter of that sort, but luckily this has not been a common experience so far.
One person who found my blog took the trouble to send me an email informing me that birdwatching is gay (with some offensive epithets thrown in).
Sometimes I get funny responses from people. This morning I met a kid who asked me if I was a photographer. When I replied that I was a birdwatcher, he looked at me like it was the strangest thing in the world.
Sancho said:Great! Another birding teacher with sassy teenagers! Honestly, the kids I teach acknowledge birding as almost normal now, I've even started putting up posters of common birds with their Spanish names ('cos I teach Spanish), and sometimes kids ask me about birds they've seen or heard (one says she has a Nightjar singing in her area, I'm sceptical but if she's right she deserves a medal, it would be the fourth known singing male in Ireland). As I said, five of the other teachers are birders too (two are converts), so the kids have gotten used to seeing teachers peering into trees. But the teenagers who are into birds themselves are not open about it. Nor was I at that age. And yet they love telling us what they've seen. Last winter (04-05) we had a big Waxwing influx, and a lot of the kids saw them in their area, we even had a flock of 50 that hung about the school for a few weeks, so lots of students got to see them. And Waxwings are indeed special, even to those who don't notice birds.