Date: Fri, 31 Mar 2000 23:31:31 -0500 Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Janet Millenson Subject: A Featherbrained Proposal Comments: To: BIRDCHAT postings MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit A Featherbrained Proposal ------------------------------ Here's an idea on how to attract rich and successful people to birding -- you know, those folks who've been too busy becoming dot-com gazillionaire= s to take the time to stop and scope the mudflats. Wouldn't it be nice to h= ave one of these tycoons supporting your local bird club? ("Leicas for everyone!") But there's a problem: ordinary birding just doesn't offer the adrenaline rush that high-powered types crave, or the satisfaction of totally stompi= ng the competition. For example, keeping a life list (or a regional list, a year list, or whatever) is a relatively sluggish sport. Each new sighting increments the count by only one, and in most cases your maximum possible number (say, 700) will have merely three digits. Outside of expensive gui= ded trips, it's tough to increase your list significantly in a short time. Le= t's face it, tracking your "score" in the stock market is a lot more exciting than tallying bird species. So how do we make birding more competitive and thrilling? My proposal is = to assign POINT VALUES to different species of birds, based on rarity or difficulty of spotting the bird. Admit it, don't you already believe that= a California Condor sighting is worth a lot more than a House Sparrow sighting? Under my system, the American Birding Association would assemble a commit= tee to determine the national and regional point values -- should be an easy enough job! -- and soon you'll have birders boasting of 2500-point life lists, or 350-point yard lists ("...and it's only April 1st"). Christmas Bird Count compilers could make use of a simple Excel spreadsheet to help tally the results: "Let's see, that's 200 Starlings at 1 point apiece, pl= us 25 Mourning Doves at 2 points each, plus 1 Merlin at 10 points..." Poorly documented claims of rarities would radically diminish if birders had to subtract points for egregious misidentifications. Sounds intriguing, hmmm? Feel those competitive juices flowing? Ready to scribble point values in the margins of your field checklist, then see ho= w high your daily totals can go? Enjoy! I'm just kidding -- I think. Happy *April Fool's Day*, everyone! Janet Millenson Potomac, MD janet@twocrows.com --------------------------------------------------- "Look at the birds!" -- Pascal the parrot ========================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey =========================================================================