Jane Turner
Well-known member
I would have thought it was worth $100 to one of the search teams!
Ilya Maclean said:Did the searchers have compact binoculars?
IBWO_Agnostic said:You elitist birders. So you have to have a thousand dollar pair of binoculars to see an Ivory-billed Woodpecker? The snobbery on this list is just disgusting. blah blah blah...
(I just thought I'd get there first and save ______________ <insert intrepid IBWO searcher here> the trouble).
Tim Allwood said:I think Mr Agnostic was being sarcastic.
Compacts?
oh dear
Tim
choupique1 said:...have you ever seen a good turkey hunter in the woods?
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I think Tim can use his equipment . Or so I've been told... More than I can say for some of the IBWO searchers judgindg by recent unfortunate incidences. As for high quality descriptions the less said the better. Hmm guess it was me that was showing off what bins I have. Kind of funny the way it was interpretated given how long I birded with a set of crap bins before I got them and how I used to get annoyed by all the Robin strokers in Norfolk with their Swarovskis and Leicas. Didn't really mean it that way. Just meant most birders would go for a slightly lower quality set of non compacts than compacts particularly when birding in forests.humminbird said:This has got to be the most snobbish statement I have seen yet on this board. Not everyone has the best and the most current equipment, and for us to simply blow off the observation on the basis of equipment is uncalled for. Frankly, I have seen people give a better description of a bird seen with the naked eye than someone with good equipment who did not have a clue how to use it.
Ilya Maclean said:I think Tim can use his equipment . Or so I've been told... More than I can say for some of the IBWO searchers judgindg by recent unfortunate incidences. As for high quality descriptions the less said the better. Hmm guess it was me that was showing off what bins I have. Kind of funny the way it was interpretated given how long I birded with a set of crap bins before I got them and how I used to get annoyed by all the Robin strokers in Norfolk with their Swarovskis and Leicas. Didn't really mean it that way. Just meant most birders would go for a slightly lower quality set of non compacts than compacts particularly when birding in forests.
Jane Turner said:Maybe - but serious birders are likely to compromise on food, clothes, personal hygiene, their partner's well-being(if they can keep one) before they compromise on their optics.
IBWO_Agnostic said:Another note, if you are birding with a better birder, you are even less likely to call out an ID if you are unsure, and you are less likely to disagree with the calls made by the better birder. We know that Gallagher is a more experienced birder than Harrison (note the compact binoculars around Harrison's neck in the early photos of his searching....experienced birders know that compacts are crap for birding). I'm sure Harrison would admit that he is less knowledgeable than Gallagher.
IBWO_Agnostic said:I knew this would degenerate into accusations of snobbery and what not. Let's go to the replay:
This was simply to show that Harrison is a LESS experienced birder than Gallagher. And I still think it is safe to say that the birder in the picture with the compacts
http://www.weeksbay.org/newsletter/Fall_2005/Bobby Harrison 5X7.jpg
is less experienced, less committed to getting the best view possible, and
more likely to defer to the birder with the Zeiss...that is just the way it works out there.
I was trying to find the photo of the two of them, but it seems to be only in "The Grail Bird'. Opposite p145. This was taken a year after their sighting, and Bobby still has his compact & Tim has the Zeiss. Perhaps IBWO searchers spend more on their camo than their optics....sad, really.
In my experiance, you either have to be very dedicated or very rich. I've seen an older neophyte birder lend out her new Leicas to total strangers who were just at a Nature Conservancy preserve looking around. On the other hand, most folks with really good optics appear to be rather experianced birders, although I'm really not sure. I may try to get some stats by asking everyone I see with the big three (Swaro, Leica, Zeiss) what they do with them.IBWO_Agnostic said:I knew this would degenerate into accusations of snobbery and what not. Let's go to the replay:
This was simply to show that Harrison is a LESS experienced birder than Gallagher. And I still think it is safe to say that the birder in the picture with the compacts
http://www.weeksbay.org/newsletter/Fall_2005/Bobby Harrison 5X7.jpg
is less experienced, less committed to getting the best view possible, and
more likely to defer to the birder with the Zeiss...that is just the way it works out there.
I was trying to find the photo of the two of them, but it seems to be only in "The Grail Bird'. Opposite p145. This was taken a year after their sighting, and Bobby still has his compact & Tim has the Zeiss. Perhaps IBWO searchers spend more on their camo than their optics....sad, really.
Jane Turner said:Maybe - but serious birders are likely to compromise on food, clothes, personal hygiene, their partner's well-being(if they can keep one) before they compromise on their optics.
In the UK these days the cost of optics around someone's neck is absolutely NOT a reliable indicator of the experience/knowledge/expertise of the birder (unlike about 15 years ago). Swarovskis seem to be the worst culprit (which is annoying as I use them myself). Plenty of times I have begun to discuss the perennial "what's about" with a Swarovski-toting chap, only to discover he couldn't tell a Shelduck from a shoebox. No idea why this is, other than the fact that some people these days have clearly got more money than sense....curunir said:In my experiance, you either have to be very dedicated or very rich. I've seen an older neophyte birder lend out her new Leicas to total strangers who were just at a Nature Conservancy preserve looking around. On the other hand, most folks with really good optics appear to be rather experianced birders, although I'm really not sure. I may try to get some stats by asking everyone I see with the big three (Swaro, Leica, Zeiss) what they do with them.