Date: Mon, 12 Feb 2001 18:49:57 -0500 Reply-To: l-appelbaum@mindspring.com Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: "Laura M. Appelbaum" Subject: Birder or Birdwatcher? MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit I'm with Bob Moul (hi, nice to meet you, Bob! ) vis a vis "birder" versus "birdwatcher," tho' I don't think I'd go so far as to say that birdwatchers are Beverly Hillbillies ... Both terms are legitimate, I think, but have different connotations; "birdwatchers" are people who put up feeders in the backyard, maybe even a martin or bluebird house, and enjoy doing exactly what that terms suggests -- watching birds. They like to see birds eating, fighting over turf, building nests, bringing food home to the chicks. Their focus is on the life cycle of birds, any birds, as long as they're in the backyard. "Birders" on the other hand, are obsessive/compulsive list makers who get a charge out of seeing something "new" and preferrably difficult to locate. If they were born in the '80s instead of the '60s, '50s, '40s, '30s etc, birders would be into "extreme sports" like free climbing El Capitain and then jumping back down into the valley with a parachute. But we weren't, so instead of collecting first ascents and broken bones, we collect birds. Birders are often birdwatchers too, but birdwatchers are rarely birders. A very similar linguistic war also accompanies those of us who crawl around in the mud under the earth's surface. The media likes to call us "spelunkers." Cavers, however, know that we are "cavers" and that "spelunkers" are those people who enter the underground with a Coleman lantern, a length of clothesline, and a six-pack of beer. Cavers are the people who have to rescue spelunkers. ;D LMA Birder and Caver ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================