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Message: <blockquote data-quote="ovenbird43" data-source="post: 1235841" data-attributes="member: 64478">A number of these terms are rarely used in the US, and I've learned many of them only recently after reading Sean Dooley's The Big Twitch.  By now I think I've learned the jargon, though I rarely use it.I can think of one time I was gripped off by a non-birder, but not in any major way.  My boyfriend and I were vacationing in Florida and and old birding friend of mine had joined us for a day of birding at Merritt Island.  My boyfriend isn't a birder, but he takes some interest in it for my sake, and enjoys all the time outdoors.  We were driving along one of the park roads and he said he saw a blue bird with a long tail on the road.  After some inquiry, I deduced that it must have been a Florida Scrub Jay.  I'd seen them before, and they're pretty common on the refuge, but I never did see one that day.  It was New Year's Day and we were to head back to Arkansas the next day, and I had really been hoping to get that species on my year list.  Which I believe I did the following winter anyways... Speaking of non-birders with photographs of interesting birds, perhaps I can say I once gripped myself off? |<img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite8" alt=":D" title="Big grin    :D" loading="lazy" data-shortname=":D" />|  I went to Mexico as part of my undergraduate research before I became a birder, and we took a half-day break at some gardens up in the cloud forest.  I took a picture of a bird that had been watching me curiously in a tree above my head.  I returned to Mexico the following year for another research trip, and we made the same stop to the same place, only this time I was a birder and armed with a Mexican field guide.  From my memory and after researching the possibilities, I'm almost certain the bird I had seen the first year was a Violaceous Trogon.  However, I didn't see it (or any trogons) on my second trip, and my picture turned out terribly backlit such that you can't tell that there is even a bird in it!</blockquote>

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