All right Mike! That's what I do, I watch birds. I don't
know what it is to bird something. The word doesn't make a
very good verb, in my opinion.

Edwin Lamb in Bellevue, WA
edsplace2 at comcast.net

----- Original Message -----
From: "Mike Patterson" <celata at pacifier.com>
To: "Tweeters" <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
Sent: Saturday, January 14, 2006 7:46 AM
Subject: [Tweeters] RE: birding history


> At the risk of being accused of picking nits, people who
> studied
> birds before the mid-60's would not have called what they
> did
> birding. They would have been as repulsed by the term
> birding
> and reacted in the same way many did a few months ago to
> "googling".
> They would probably have cringed the way I cringe when I
> hear
> "journaling" or "scrap-booking".
>
> Back in the day, people referred to themselves as
> bird-watchers,
> ornithologist, naturalists, but not birders. The term
> came into
> common usage in the late-60's and early-70's as a
> mechanism to
> distinguish a class of "extreme" birdwatchers focused on
> bird study
> as a sport. It was an unabashedly elitist way to separate
> the list
> building, ID focused bird chasers from the little old
> ladies, eccentric
> gentlemen and shotgun ornithologists most people thought
> of when
> characterizing bird-watchers. Since that time it has
> come, more less,
> to identify all classes of bird students, much to the
> annoyance of some
> old school birders.
>
> It is this difference in the definition of what a birder
> is that
> often leads to hurt feelings and impugned characters.
> This is the
> a big chunk of the reason why some folks were so grumpy
> about the study
> done by the USFWS claiming 46 million birders.
>
> Me? Even though I came of age in the age of the "true
> birders" and
> have an elitist streak in me, I still call myself a
> bird-watcher and
> celebrate my eccentric gentlemanliness... or a
> naturalist... or an
> ecologist. I only use birder when talking with the press,
> for
> efficiency sake...
>
> --
> Mike Patterson
> Astoria, OR
> celata at pacifier.com