A recent posting caught me in an iconoclastic mood (I only feel this way
about 16 hours each day).

It was written (no names, to protect the innocent), "Yesterday I had my
first Vaux's Swift of the year." Is there anyone else out there who
objects to the verb "to have" to describe an encounter with a bird? This
has become so common, just another one of the many things about the English
language that make us old purists flinch. Believe me, no offense meant to
the perpetrator; just about everyone does it, and you just reminded me of
it!

Most people look at me blankly when they say something like "I had a flock
of Pectoral Sandpipers yesterday," and I respond "That must have been
difficult."

I'm sure this tweaks me because of the hunting/gotcha aspect of it at least
as much as the (perhaps) misuse of the verb. So much of birding nowadays
seems to revolve around that aspect that some days, when I'm in a mellow
mood, I sort of wish we still saw and heard birds, not got them.

Really--this posting is about birds.

Dennis Paulson, Director phone: (206) 756-3798
Slater Museum of Natural History fax: (206) 756-3352
University of Puget Sound e-mail: dpaulson at ups.edu
Tacoma, WA 98416