What irrates you when birding! (1 Viewer)

[joannec]

Not exactly when I am out birding, but at home when my teenage daughter is giving me a hard time, she will say "why don't you just go birrrd watching" as though I am some kind of retard :C

3 Sounds very, very familiar!

 

[Pariah]

Not exactly when I am out birding, but at home when my teenage daughter is giving me a hard time, she will say "why don't you just go birrrd watching" as though I am some kind of retard

LOL

I think we all get this one from someone....the Matt Damon offence.
Just remind her that rising fuel prices when out birding cuts inter her pocket money!

Owen

 

[Clive A]

LOL

I think we all get this one from someone....the Matt Damon offence.
Just remind her that rising fuel prices when out birding cuts inter her pocket money!

Owen

Pocket money?? What's that?

 

[Storm-Petrel]

Birders, and even worse, so called scientists who use the name Winter Wren. That really winds me up. Presumably it spends the summer on Mars then? I guess the breeding Wrens I see on my local patch, must be the sub species Troglodytes troglodytes summerii also known as the Summer Wren?

It's on my list as a Wren. I accept that many English names are misleading, but if we're going to change the name of a species, please let's not change it something 10 times worse.......see, I'm getting wound up already.

the world would be a better (and much less confusing) place if we just abandoned common names and learned latin names.

 

[steve west]

the world would be a better (and much less confusing) place if we just abandoned common names and learned latin names.

That would be ideal, but in my experience neither English, Swiss, many Dutch or German birders even think about learning the latin names! In fact the only birders I know who do are Spanish birders (limiting my comments to Europeans here).
What if we tried Esperanto?

Steve
http://www.BirdingInSpain.com

 

[Pete Mella]

Another birding annoyance...

Sitting in the office looking out of the window at glorious sunshine on a Friday.
Sitting at home looking out of the window at torrential rain on a Saturday.

 

[Momo]

Hunters, getting shot at (usually by hunters), male-dayglo-yuppie-joggers-talking-as-loudly-as-they-can-about-the-secretaries-they've-shagged-while-running-flat-out-to-prove-to-the-boss-how-fit-they-are, all other kinds of jogger, hanggliders, dogwalkers, other photographers, people with telescopes, people without telescopes, people wandering around with no clothes on who think you're spying on them, people in general, ferrets, vegetation, certain types of bird ...

Actually, since I often like to sit quietly in the car next to a likely spot waiting for something to happen, I do get annoyed by birdwatchers who arrive on foot with telescopes, scare the birds off so far away you need a telescope to see anything and then complain audibly about the political incorrectness of people who birdwatch from cars. They're prolly right, but I still get annoyed by it.

M.

 

[joannec]

............people wandering around with no clothes on who think you're spying on them,........
M.

This made me laugh.3 One of the places I bird is a winter harrier roost. There is a viewpoint where you can stand and watch, in the distance, hen harriers coming into roost late on a winters day. The nearest carpark is few hundred yards away.....apparently the carpark is a known meeting place for 'doggers' or 'dogging'. I'm not entirely sure what this is , in my innocence (perhaps someone will enlighten me)..... but anyway....the police patrol it regularly for this reason. They are astonished and intrigued by people turning up with bins and scopes!:-O Apparently it has led...... shall we say, to some interesting 'interrogations' of birders by the police. For these reasons, I am advised to not go to this particular spot unaccompanied and preferably in a group!

 

[Johnny Allan]

Arriving at my local patch, minutes after a good bird has flown over.....

 

[Johnny Allan]

People at twitches with limited viewing who won't move to let other people in when they've seen the bird.

 

[Connor Rand]

Or photographers getting in the way, pushing in front of you like you're not there! A real problem when your short... I almost gave the guy at the Pallas' Warbler at Holme a few years back a right whack with my tripod! And people who blantantly walk over areas with ground nesting birds and sensitive habitats (hence soooo much surpression in Norfolk these days...)

 

[Pete Mella]

People who sit in packed hides to eat their lunch, when others are waiting for a seat.

 

[Pete Mella]

Oh, and hides with no seats that still have their view-holes at seat level. As an added bonus, one at a local nature reserve also smelt heavily of wee, meaning I had absolutely no intention of kneeling on the floor, meaning I ended up looking in some kind of bizarre stoopy crouch position.

 

[ghostrider]

This must have happened to everyone on here.
A non birding friend says "I saw this bird hovering at the side of the motorway today"
"It's a Kestrel" you reply. "No it deffinately wasn't a Kestrel" they say. "I got a really good look as i was hurtling past at 100mph"
"It was a Kestrel"
"No i'm sure it wasn't a Kestrel" having had a really good look at it as i veared across 3 lanes into the central reservation.
"It was a Kestrel!!"

 

[ColinD]

........"It was a Kestrel!!"

No, it was a Rough-legged Buzzard....

 

[dantheman]

No, it was a Rough-legged Buzzard....

. . . you've got to think rare at ALL times . . . :t:

Did you count it as self-found??

 

[ghostrider]

A self found "Kestrel"

 

[Rose Fletcher]

I'm not entirely sure what this is , in my innocence (perhaps someone will enlighten me

Joanne, just Google the word "dogging" and you'll get a wonderfully deadpan definition from Wikipedia or somewhere similar. As far as I know dogging hasn't caught on here, so I had no idea what it meant either. Apparently there is a section of the population there who can't afford television sets. :-O :eek!: :-O Not sure about going to the Harrier roost as a member of a group though - you don't think that police out looking for "doggers" might misinterpret your need for company? :'D :bounce: :'D

As for the police interrogation of birders with bins - did the men and women in blue think these were people who went in for the extreme close-up experience? :'D:'D:'D

I must admit though, I would find the sudden appearance in front of a bird hide I wished to use for its designated purpose of a crowd of people who enjoyed this form of entertainment quite irritating. :eek!:

 

[dantheman]

On the common/ rarer birds front;

Woodpigeons (which would otherwise sometimes be Peregrines, just about anything on occasion),
Lots of Large Gulls circling around (Would be a lot easier to find random Ospreys etc otherwise),
Hobbies (when red footed falcons are meant to be around),
All common LBJ's (when looking for rare migrants).

etc etc

 

[DunnoKev]

Nice to be back and see we're still going (tho' Joanne doth protest too much about those doggy people methinks.. watch out where she suggests for the next BF get together...)

I have been reminded of another pet peeve when I (begrudgingly) talk with birders... when they say 'what's the latin name?' I always wince. There is no such thing!! Scientific name please - you do a disservice to all those great greek words in there ;-)