Subject: [Tweeters] Dennis's question about chasing
Date: Jul 12 22:39:14 2010
From: Gary Bletsch - garybletsch at yahoo.com


Dear Dennis and Tweeters,

Here is one reason I might give for going off to chase a rare bird. The "funnest" birding, in my opinion, is when you first start out with the hobby. There are new birds at every turn, and it takes little effort for a beginner to go out and see all sorts of new stuff. It's like the first five minutes a little kid spends on Christmas morning.

Rip! Yipee! Just what I wanted!

Tear! Hurrah! How did Santa know?

Once a birder has found most of the abundant, common, fairly common, uncommon, and rare birds that live within a day's drive, then it starts getting difficult. A chase demands a lot of logistical planning and lots of expenses, but sometimes, you get to say "yipee" all over again.

The best cure for this is to take a trip somewhere exotic, although this is awfully expensive.

Right now, I am studying hard, trying to learn as much as I can about the birds of Queensland. There is a ton to learn! When I get there in a couple of weeks, even though the calendar will say July, it will be Christmas morning all over again--and I won't necessarily need to find the rarities. Even most of the commonest birds there will be lifers. I did the arithmetic--there are about 400 species I could try for on this trip, and eighty percent of them are birds I've never seen or heard anywhere outside of a zoo.

Of course, one can always pooh-pooh such travels. There are other sorts of "new" things to look at in the bird world just about every day, any old place.

I took a walk with my dog today, and I saw the first California Gulls of the season. Every summer, small flocks of them fly down the Skagit Valley. I don't usually think about this phenomenon until it happens. I don't go off in search of California Gulls in summer, as I might with, say, Nashville Warblers--I don't start hunting for them in the appropriate habitat, come the appropriate time of year. The gulls just show up, and they never fail to put a smile on my face. It didn't cost me anything but a dog biscuit and a few micrograms of shoe leather to see them today.

There, there's one answer. I'll bet your question gets a lot more!

Yours truly,

Gary



Gary Bletsch ? Near Lyman, Washington (Skagit County), USA ? garybletsch at yahoo.com ? ?


--- Dennis Paulson <dennispaulson at comcast.net> schrieb am Di, 13.7.2010:

> Von: Dennis Paulson <dennispaulson at comcast.net>
> Betreff: [Tweeters] a question
> An: "TWEETERS" <tweeters at u.washington.edu>
> Datum: Dienstag, 13. Juli, 2010 07:57 Uhr
> Hello, tweeters.
>
> Here's my question, and it is directed solely to those
> people who read or hear about some rare bird being seen
> somewhere in the region and immediately start to plan their
> trip to see that bird (or look for it). Why do you do it?
>
> I don't want this to start a chain reaction of name-calling
> or disagreement, so if you respond, please don't be critical
> of anyone else's response. As a long-time teacher, and
> certainly in this case, my questions are oriented toward
> making people think, not making them react. I don't want a
> response to "why do you go birding?" but just "why do you
> chase rare birds?"
>
> Feel free to respond with brief or lengthy answers. I ask
> because I am truly interested, and I suspect many
> inhabitants of tweeterdom would also be interested, so
> please respond to the group. I know comments will be
> individual and personal, and I don't plan to summarize them
> for tweeters or compile them into a best-selling book that
> will pay for my retirement.
>
> Thanks!
> -----
> Dennis Paulson
> 1724 NE 98 St.
> Seattle, WA 98115
> 206-528-1382
> dennispaulson at comcast.net
>
>
>
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