Hi Tweets,

Mary Manson writes:

>Is it just my imagination or are birders just a tad more violent than the
>"ordinary" mailing-list-er ?
(snip)

I've thought of a generic term: as nice as a roomful of birders.
Generically, birders are the 'nicest' people on the planet, I think (okay,
okay, I see you, Baccus: sit back down). But underneath that niceness...

I've maintained for years that a cold-eyed sociology of birding is long
overdue, and this is one of the things to look at with a *very* clinical
eye. Generically, we birders are so 'nice', but so much 'nice' has its price
and that normal human aggression has to go somewhere--and if it can't emerge
directly, it will come out sideways.

Mary, you may have intended this in humor, but it is not just your
imagination: there's lots of stuff living under that particular rock.

Michael Price
Vancouver BC Canada
mprice at mindlink.net