I want to thank all those who have responded in such an interesting way to my musings; I'll eventually respond personally to everyone. I'm going through the responses, looking for commonalities, and in spite of personal differences I'm finding that most responders have very similar feelings about individual ("solo") birding and birding in groups. I do want to add one more public response to Rob Sandelin's note; Rob says that he's a naturalist, not just a birder, and I think it's worthwhile noting that quite a few of the people I was with, especially the leaders, take a broad natural-history view of the world. Butterfly-watching, for instance, is really catching on big, and while it is taking on a lot of the listing atmosphere of birding, I find a strong aesthetic component in it. It's often much easier to watch butterflies for their beauty than it is to appreciate birds in the same way, because the butterflies sit still for much longer times. In general, I find a lot of people paying attention to the plants, the invertebrates and mammals, and the ecology of each habitat; this sometimes annoys the strict birders in the group. I don't know if this is a trend, but the more general interest is clearly there.

Burt Guttman
The Evergreen State College
Olympia, WA 98505 guttmanb at evergreen.edu
Home: 7334 Holmes Island Road S. E., Olympia, 98503