Dear Tweeters,

Not to drag out a discussion of the names of birds,
when the birds themselves are more interesting--but
here goes anyway.

Ever notice that birders now talk about birds the way
sportsmen talk about their quarry? I refer to the use
of singular constructions for plurals.

We say, "That's a good spot for Black-throated Gray
Warbler," rather than "a good spot for Black-throated
Gray Warblers." A birder would also say, "I found
three or four Western Sandpiper yesterday," using the
singular form for what is really a plural. Similarly,
a fishermen might say, "That's a good spot for
crappie." A hunter would say, "I know a few good spots
for partridge," and of course, "I bagged three deer
last season." He'd have to say "deer," because that
word is the same in plural and singular. Still, he'd
also say "I have bagged three bear," even though
"bear" does have a plural form that differs from the
singular.

I have long suspected that the growth of "birding" as
opposed to "bird-watching" brought in a new intensity
of pursuit--the "targeting" of birds, as we read in
such publications as the esteemed "Washington Birder."
I think that the subtle change in lingo has something
to do with the more active sport of birding, which has
to some degree taken over from the more relaxed way of
the bird-watcher, who tended to look at what he
stumbled on, rather than driving around looking for
specific types of birds in specific habitats. This new
way of going about it has made the use of sportsmen's
lingo a natural for us "bird-targeting" birders.

Not that there's anything wrong with targeting--I
targeted Red-breasted Nuthatch on Sunday, came up
empty-binoculared, but still found a Pygmy Owl. It is
just interesting to observe the change in the
language.

Now for another little change in our birdspeak: the
omission of definite articles. People used to talk
about "the Black-throated Gray Warbler" and "the
Pectoral Sandpiper," but if you listen to birders now,
you will rarely hear "the" (the definite article)
before the name of a bird. If I want to be silly (one
of my favorite pastimes), and want to pretend that I
am a stuffy old early 20th-century ornithologist, I
adopt a silly-sounding, pompous accent of academia,
and spout off about "the rare American Robin." It's
that little article that makes it sound just right. I
don't know why people stopped saying "the." We just
did!




Yours truly,

Gary Bletsch

near Lyman (Skagit County), Washington

garybletsch at yahoo.com


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