Hi all.

In my opinion, this is pretty darn trivial and distracting from what birding
should be about... amazing physical features, variation in those features,
natural history, behavior, distribution, migration, variation in migration,
changes in distribution ranges, displaying, breeding, nest construction,
epiphany, and wonderment (to name a few).

Gary Snyder the nature writer and pulitzer prize winning poet warns us not to
get caught up in the names lest we be distracted from more important things.
Another great essay on the matter is by Ursela LeGuin called "She Un-names
Them."

I'm going out to watch the birds.

Karin Sable
Gig Harbor, WA
Scott Atkinson wrote:

> Hey Shypoke:
>
> Are you implying that those of us who prefer Oldsquaw to Long-tailed Duck
> have been disrespectful? If so, I say rubbish. The Oldsquaw name was
> handed down over many years and field guides, a name that has a uniqueness,
> brevity and a certain history on its side, albeit not necessarily a happy
> history but it's there, you can't erase it. Let's stop blaming today's
> people for yesterday's events, already. And because we are the contemporary
> purveyors of the common name Oldsquaw, the meaning also shifts somewhat with
> our usage. To me, for example, it's a name associated with many memories
> and different circumstances, none of them even remotely tied to the crude
> epithet for native American women that you alluded to.
>
> By the way Tweeters--is it just me or does the "Long-tailed Duck" seem
> un-duck-like? (Thinking of Ruddy, Muscovy, Wood, and various dabbling
> ducks). "Long-tailed Scoter" would at least have the right habitat
> association, but we would not be standardized.
>
> International name standardization (as opposed to politically-correct
> orthodoxy) does seem a worthy goal, it's just hard to immediately accept our
> loons all becoming--divers, our buteos--buzzards, Mews--Common Gulls, etc.
>
> Scott Atkinson
> Lake Stevens
> email: scottratkinson at hotmail.com
>
> >From: SHYPOKEGM at aol.com
> >Reply-To: SHYPOKEGM at aol.com
> >To: tweeters at u.washington.edu
> >Subject: Fwd: delete if you've heard enough Oldsquaw talk
> >Date: Thu, 22 Mar 2001 13:41:34 EST
> >
> >
> ><< message3.txt >>
>
> _________________________________________________________________
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