HI Kelly et al:
NOPE, the waitpeople are right, Birders (and environmentalists in
general) are cheapskates! As someone who follows the publishing business
closely (especially natural history books) birders et al. have a
reputation for being cheap. Until recently publishers were wary of
printing bird books because they didn't sell. And if you at the market
today it is still dominated by a few publishers mainly Yale/Princeton (and
the Britsh company Helm/ACBlack) and Houghton Mifflin. How many birders
out in tweeterland are old enough to remember Pacific Search magazine? It
went belly-up and the publisher blamed it on cheap enviro-types. Also
independant natural history booksellers don't like to carry bird books
(especially used/out-of-print ones) because they don't sell. Birders go
on-line and look for the cheapest copies (non-natural history booksellers
also complain about the internet but that's another story). Gardening
books sell better than bird books! True we buy expensive optics (but not
very often) and travel but apparently we feel that being economical will
help the environment. I feel that the only way to beat this bad reputation
is to go out and spend (if you can afford to).

--

Ian Paulsen
Bainbridge Island, WA, USA
A.K.A.: "Birdbooker"
"Rallidae all the way!"