I think if we look at the history of recreational birding (this is
way back in the days of the *first* Green Herons and things like
Red-backed Sandpipers), that's where we see the roots of the
demographics of birding today. Although things have changed a lot in the
last couple of generations, birding has been primarily the realm of upper
class (used to be the *leisure class*) white guys who started birding
with their peers and formed formal clubs that were pretty exclusive.
As the demographics and class structure has changed, so has birding. Look
back at the "hotshots" of 50 years ago and who they mentored and
those who are considered the mentors now and I think you can see a slow
but progressive radiation into other groups. Although it sometimes seems
discouraging to look at the lack of young/female/non-anglo birders, there
is certainly more opportunity to include different groups of people today
then ever before and it's encouraging to see discussions like this.

David Buckley----------------------------------------------------------------
lsdb at u.washington.edu
West Seattle, USA


On Thu, 5 Jan 1995, Dennis Paulson wrote:

> >X-Sender: whimbrel at homer13.u.washington.edu
> >Date: Wed, 4 Jan 1995 16:33:59 -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.950104163137.14058B-100000 at homer13.u.washington.edu>
> >Mime-Version: 1.0
> >Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII
> >
> >
> >Oh, I was going to mention something else someone brought up. How about
> >non-anglo birders? I think I can recall seeing less than 10 black
> >birders in my whole life, and a similar number of asians, and no chicanos
> >(despite growing up in Texas). What is it about birding that makes it
> >appeal to only white anglo-saxons?
> >
> >____________________________
> >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
>
>
>