On Fri, 22 May 1998, Rick Romea wrote:

[snip..]

>
> Is it possible that much of the criticism of twitching comes from
> naturalists and biologists who are applying a professional standard to
> people's free time activity?

Rick et al--

hmm-mmmmm...well, I don't think the essence of this thread
was criticism, so much as it's curiosity about the way
many of us approach this passion we have for birds.
It's sort of like the *old one/two* description in my
response to Teresa's post..i.e., *run around, or sit tight
and watch*.. those were observations and many of us
do a variety of both of those things..doesn't make one
or the other of them better.

It may be as you point out that the spending of free time
is radically different from the way our time is parceled
out in our respective job environment(s).

it is kind of fun to reexamine the motivation for why we
bird the way we do...and it's interesting to see how
differently or not-so-differently that falls out for
all of us.

Tom