On Tue, 3 Jan 95 15:49:58 -0800, dpaulson at ups.edu (Dennis Paulson) asked:

>I'd be interested in hearing rationalizations of why
>sports/competitiveness will get people out of bed in the middle of the
>night to slog across mudflats in the cold wind and rain, when knowing
>they're contributing to an environmental cause won't.

Maybe it's often just a case of "piling on" as many "benefits" of
participating in the event as one can conjure up, sports/competitiveness
being one of the benefits.

"Camaraderie," "exercise," "challenge," "stimulating," "nothing better
to do," "weatherperson said it was going to be a great/miserable day
--who could refuse?," "learn from the experts," ..., are some other
reasons that people might offer for doing what they otherwise might not
do (although I suspect that contributing to the "noble cause" makes 'em
feel good too). One is saying, "See how parsimonious I am, I reap all
kinds of practical benefits from this seemingly odd activity."

I don't have the experience of knowing/asking people _why_ they do
bird counts, so I don't have good "data" on how often one hears the
"sports" benefit being offered up.

Another possibility is a defense for "ya gotta be crazy to get up in
the middle of the night and run around for 24 hours to find birds!;
_I_ do it for the sport" (therefore, "I'm not one of those crazies" being
the implication, since everyone understands sports).

Peter