Here's another one that's too good not to share.

> Longish? This one, very long. You have been warned.
>
>I loved Terry Pacey's note about the Twitcher from overseas who, at great
>expense, hired an NQ bird expert for an 80 hour drive and was satisfied to
>spend just 15 seconds looking at a bird of the species he wanted to tick,
>then said, "I've seen it now. We can head back."
>
>Birding-aus's twitcher discussion caused me to get out "Bill Oddie's Little
>Black Bird Book", a delightful mixture of information and hilarity, as might
>be expected from a professional humorist who is also a twitcher, poking fun
>at himself and twitchers generally. It deals with Twitchers in the UK, so
>circumstances are rather different from here: you can't drive the length
>and breadth of Australia in one weekend, even with five twitchers crammed
>into a Mini Minor to share driving through the night.
>
>Terry's twitcher didn't come from the UK, but he might well have done so.
>Here's Oddie's account of the (typical?) twitch:
>
> "The fact that the bird is already being watched by two hundred people
>means you don't have to identify it for yourself. So an efficient twitch
>simply goes:
>
> 'Where is it?'
> 'Over there.'
> "Oh yes. ... Great. (Tick) Tarra ...' and on to the next one."
>
>There are chapters on twitching terminology (e.g. explaining
>'ornithologist', bird-spotter/bird-fancier, bird-watcher, birder, twitcher,
>dude); equipment and clothing (there are photos of the twitching author in
>juvenile plumage, moulting into adult plumage, and full adult plumage);
>Identification - What bird is that? ... fooling the (rarities) committee);
>and so on.
>
>That last should be compulsory reading for the Australian Committee. And no
>doubt they have already studied it.
>
>Equipment advice: "The first thing to accept is that size impresses no one!
>And that goes for binoculars too."
>
>Oddie does add a caveat to that size thing however - telescopes:
>
> "Even to own a telescope proves you are not a dude. ... The hip word
>is scope. And you don't look at a bird through your telescope, you just
>'scope' it. ... Telescopes are dreadfully hard to look through ...
>whether you can actually see through your telescope or not, there is still a
>certain snobbery attached to telescopes. Hence you get quite a few marks
>for lugging around one of those extremely heavy brass telescopes like Nelson
>used to use. They pull out to such a length that you can look through them
>by lying down, applying one end to your eye and propping the other end on
>your feet. This is very uncomfortable, and proves you're really prepared to
>suffer for your art."
>
>A non-twitching reader (as I am) might wonder (I did) whether anyone really
>does use one of those ancient brass telescopes, lying down. No doubt Oddie
>anticipated that and so there's a photo (p. 28) entitled "Three hundred
>twitchers at Falmouth in March 1980 having a Foster's Tern", and the
>twitcher nearest the camera is doing just that.
>
>At page 34 in the glossary, Oddie explains:
>
> "Twitchers do not 'see' birds, they 'have' them. More usually, they
>use the past tense as they don't even like mentioning a rare bird until it
>has been safely ticked or had. Hence the phrase might be: 'I've just had
>an icky'. Which, being translated, becomes: 'I've just seen an Icterine
>Warbler'.
>
>Oddie admits that 'I've just had an icky', might draw the response, 'And I
>hope you feel better for it', but reckons there's no answer to 'I've just
>had a shag'.
>
>Being one himself, Oddie can perhaps be forgiven for being uncomplimentary
>about twitchers:
>
> " ... all of them are surely united by a common feeling, a shared
>sensitivity, a mutual love ... the mystery and magic of birds.
>
> "Do me a favour!
>
> "Bird-watchers are tense, competitive, selfish, shifty, dishonest,
>distrusting, boorish, arrogant, pedantic, unsentimental and above all
>envious. OK, not *all* of them are *all* of those things, although I know
>several that *are*. But most of them are at least two or three. I
>personally am four or five, depending on my mood. And some days I'm nine or
>ten. ..."
>
>There's a "Birder's Songbook" at the end. Not the best of them, but the
>shortest:
>
> I tawt I taw a Spotted Crake
> Creeping down the drain.
> Oh no! It's just a Water Rail
> And I've missed out again!
>
>Cheers
>
>Syd
>_____________________________________________________________
>
>"Bill Oddie's Little Black Bird Book", author Bill Oddie, a Methuen
>Paperback, first published in Great Britain in 1980.
>
>Almost certainly out of print, but you might strike lucky in a second-hand
>bookshop.

--
Dennis Paulson, Director phone 253-879-3798
Slater Museum of Natural History fax 253-879-3352
University of Puget Sound e-mail dpaulson at ups.edu
1500 N. Warner, #1088
Tacoma, WA 98416-1088
http://www.ups.edu/biology/museum/museum.html