Miserable Birders??? (1 Viewer)

[lgonz1008]

I've only had one truly bad miserable birder experience, I'm not to act like I know every bird out there, I missed a lot of birds and my ears while good for picking up noises are almost useless because my brain cannot memorize bird calls (a bit jealous of birders that can tell apart the simple 'chip' notes of warblers by species, best I can do is Cardinal and Warbler).

But I'm digressing, a few years back, I found a pretty good bird for my county during Fall migration, it was a few Snowy Plovers that were foraging among some Piping Plovers and other shorebirds, I told them apart by the leg color and the black marks behind the eyes that some birds still had. Didn't think much of it, since I had seen them a week prior in the Gulf coast and while sadly threatened, I had my fill of them and didn't photograph them. Turns out they were a rarity in eBird and some obsessed newbie bird photographer wanted to see them (the reason I say newbie is because he had started birding the year prior and was helped by someone I know at the beginning).

A few days later, in a local park, there were reports of a Nashville Warbler that I failed to see, but I met him there, he condescendingly asked who I was, when I said my name he said: "I went looking for those Snowy Plovers you claimed you say and didn't find them, are you sure you didn't confuse the birds?". I simply said, I saw those field marks and continued focusing on finding the warbler in question, at that point, he arrogantly said: "let's split up and find the bird, you go over there (away from the tree the bird was reported) and I'll look here, if I see the bird I'll let you know".

Needless to say that I was a bit upset and somewhat offended since someone I never met was talking down about my ID skills and of my favorite hobby, but I chose to just bird elsewhere and gave up on the bird (that guy never saw it either). I'm just glad I met someone like him years into the hobby and not at the beginning, because it's gatekeeping a**holes like him that ruin and push off newcomers to the hobby. Haven't met him since, and I hope I never do.

 

[stuartvine]

I've only had one truly bad miserable birder experience, I'm not to act like I know every bird out there, I missed a lot of birds and my ears while good for picking up noises are almost useless because my brain cannot memorize bird calls (a bit jealous of birders that can tell apart the simple 'chip' notes of warblers by species, best I can do is Cardinal and Warbler).

But I'm digressing, a few years back, I found a pretty good bird for my county during Fall migration, it was a few Snowy Plovers that were foraging among some Piping Plovers and other shorebirds, I told them apart by the leg color and the black marks behind the eyes that some birds still had. Didn't think much of it, since I had seen them a week prior in the Gulf coast and while sadly threatened, I had my fill of them and didn't photograph them. Turns out they were a rarity in eBird and some obsessed newbie bird photographer wanted to see them (the reason I say newbie is because he had started birding the year prior and was helped by someone I know at the beginning).

A few days later, in a local park, there were reports of a Nashville Warbler that I failed to see, but I met him there, he condescendingly asked who I was, when I said my name he said: "I went looking for those Snowy Plovers you claimed you say and didn't find them, are you sure you didn't confuse the birds?". I simply said, I saw those field marks and continued focusing on finding the warbler in question, at that point, he arrogantly said: "let's split up and find the bird, you go over there (away from the tree the bird was reported) and I'll look here, if I see the bird I'll let you know".

Needless to say that I was a bit upset and somewhat offended since someone I never met was talking down about my ID skills and of my favorite hobby, but I chose to just bird elsewhere and gave up on the bird (that guy never saw it either). I'm just glad I met someone like him years into the hobby and not at the beginning, because it's gatekeeping a**holes like him that ruin and push off newcomers to the hobby. Haven't met him since, and I hope I never do.

You are obviously a very even-tempered birder! I would have said something particularly offensive.

 

[lgonz1008]

You are obviously a very even-tempered birder! I would have said something particularly offensive.

Probably should have in hindsight, but at the time I was just so surprised someone would be acting like that in a community that until then, I had met nothing but nice people in it.

Hell, to this day, I feel somewhat embarrassed when I meet a random birder who asks if I remember them a place I was birding years ago in another part of the state or because they know me since my name comes up in the rare bird reports quite often (I tend to chase short-drive rarities or the eBird filters for some exotics are set to 0 so the bird is flagged as rare). It's a community that for the most part has good and well meaning people in it, but like they say, if something grows big enough, you'll eventually find a big crap dumped in the middle of it all.