>X-Sender: whimbrel at homer13.u.washington.edu
>Date: Wed, 4 Jan 1995 16:29:02 -0800 (PST)
>From: Michael Smith <whimbrel at u.washington.edu>
>To: Dennis Paulson <dpaulson at ups.edu>
>Subject: Re: young birders/female birders
>In-Reply-To: <9501042330.AA17549 at mx4.u.washington.edu>
>Message-Id:
><Pine.A32.3.91c.950104161808.14058A-100000 at homer13.u.washington.edu>
>Mime-Version: 1.0
>Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
>
>On Wed, 4 Jan 1995, Dennis Paulson wrote:
>
>> now? That remains to be seen in another decade or so. How many
>> 22-year-olds are leading field trips out there right now?
>
>Just for the record, I did this when I was 22 (am now 26). And the
>people I worked with were all similarly-aged (early 20s). We led birding
>trips for Mass. Audubon to Monomoy NWR, and elsewhere around Cape Cod.
>The naturalists at 2 sanctuaries out there are less than 25 (Jackie Sones
>at Wellfleet and Sarah Jennings at Stonybrook). Both are accomplished
>naturalists, Jackie having found several Cape Cod records: Kentucky
>Warbler, Black-tailed Godwit, Sedge Wren (rare on the Cape), N. Wheatear,
>and probably more. Sarah is probably one of the top 5 botanists in
>Mass., and leads birding trips to Florida. The 3 of us are planning
>Mass. Audubon trips to South Texas and hopefully to the Northwest.
>
>> And speaking of age differences, how about sex? We haven't explored in
>> this medium the reason why females are so underrepresented among those of
>> "hotshot" birder status, even though they are overrepresented in most
>
>This I think is because of the 'granny birder' syndrome. I notice there
>is a large contingent of birders who are the stereotypical
>little-old-lady birders, the younger females not really being interested
>in the competitive aspects of birding. Since women outlive men (in
>general), maybe this is a good social activity for senior women. The
>older men are generally people who have birded since they were young
>(driven by the competitive aspect maybe?), or have been converted by
>friends. I did not initially get into birding because of competition,
>but I must admit I like it now and then. I have run into few young
>female competitive birders, but I did meet one in Texas, forget her name,
>but I believe she is what you would call a 'hotshot'.
>
>Thanks for the food for thought...
>
>____________________________
>Mike Smith
>Univ. of Washington, Seattle
>whimbrel at u.washington.edu

Dennis Paulson 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