Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ncar!mephisto!prism!fsu!loligo!sandee From: sandee@loligo (Daan Sandee) Newsgroups: rec.birds Subject: Re: Latin names (was: Birding Magazines) Message-ID: <448@fsu.scri.fsu.edu> Date: 12 Jan 90 23:36:12 GMT References: <2359@leah.Albany.Edu> <425@fsu.scri.fsu.edu> <428@fsu.scri.fsu.edu> Sender: news@fsu.scri.fsu.edu Reply-To: sandee@loligo.UUCP (Daan Sandee) Organization: Florida State University Lines: 102 In article misan@ra.abo.fi (Annika Forsten DC) writes: > >I suppose, because birding isn't a common hobby among Hispanics, they don't >get the bug from their friends, so it doesn't spread, etc. After all, most >birders start birding because their friends do, and in the way their friends >do it. That's probably the reason why there are so few female birders here >in Finland, and fewer young boys in the US (if I've understood the matter >correctly). You mean Finnish women can't catch the bug from male birders ?? Come on! Myself, I got it from a girlfriend, so I know it can be transmitted heterosexually. Seriously now (and at the risk of starting a sociological discussion): It's a fact that if a particular activity is very much restricted to a certain age/sex/social group pattern, this is difficult to change. The members within the group will have some resistance against outsiders, and outsiders won't feel comfortable when they get in. I'm not accusing any particular (age, sex) group of discrimination - just stating a sociological fact. A deplorable situation, but no less true. In this country, hardcore birders ("twitchers" in Europe, I think) are predominantly (but not exclusively) male. I don't think there is any sexist attitude behind this (and I'm not presenting it as an example of the previous statement). Rather, I think it is because of the element of competitiveness and challenge. In less competitive birding, on the other hand, women participate equally, I think. It is true that there is very little interest among teenagers in the US, and that is a very great pity. In the Netherlands (and I believe also in Britain) it is common to see teenage boys with binoculars and field guides ; indeed, during the vacations birding hotspots are swarming with them. (Teenage girls are extremely rare, though). I think in this country the problem is within the teenage group. Birdwatching is not regarded as a proper activity by high-school kids, and peer pressure is enormous. >> ... so you don't have to get them interested ; they already are. Although >> you could start a discussion in those journals and try and find somebody >> to publish in the preservation society's journal. > >Sorry, I'm not sure of I or you misunderstood. The members of the Associaton >of the Birding Societys already are birdwatchers (8000) and that's not nearly >enough. There are a birding articles in the preservation societies' journals, >but these hardly ever deal with birding or identification, just conservation >issues. I have a feeling they don't promote birding very much. Also these I don't think we're talking at cross purposes. This is exactly what I meant. >Pieter Bison bison@hnykun53 or bison@kunpv1.psych.kun.nl >Rolf Deby deby@henut5 or deby@henut5.bitnet thanks. ... > >My boyfriend and I spent two weeks touring the country, we visited the >Keys, Everglades, Tamiami Trail, Sanibel Island, Myakka, Fort de Soto, >Pine Island, St. Marks, St. Merritt Island, Kissimmee State Park, >'the prairie', Loxahatchee. Total 176 true species and 6 escapees. >I got about 135 lifers. The trip was solely for birding, i.e. we spent >all daylight hours in the field (or driving to the next site). Very good ! From which I understand that this was your first trip to the US. > >Do you guys travel a lot? To Central or South America? To Europe or Africa? >Elsewhere? I've done birding trips to Israel, Morocco, the Gambia, Sri Lanka, >Pakistan, Siberia, Mallorca. There's a fair amount of world birding being done from the US. Lots of organizations offer tours (as you know, because you read the same journals), and there are some good books. Myself, I've never done it. Partly because it sounds a bit to strenuous ; partly because I don't like the idea of visiting a completely strange birding world with too little time to see enough of it. I prefer to do it slow and thorough. After 4 years of hard work in the US, I'm beginning to reach the point of exhaustion there - lifers are farther and farther between. Recently I have made some trips to Mexico, which has enough similarity to the US that I can handle the strange birds ; also, there are some good books, targeted at the US birder. But I don't think I will ever exhaust Mexico. I haven't exhausted Europe either, my birding there has been in bits and pieces. Sooner or later (and if I can't find a job, it could turn out to be sooner) I will go back, and I may then take it up more seriously. >In December I visited Morocco, where we had 195 species, among those 1 >Slender-billed Curlew (The European counterpart of Little/Eskimo Curlew?) Eskimo Curlew. One of those that is assumed extinct but every few years there is a sighting. > >If I'd come to the US to watch shorebirds, which site and which time of >the year would you recommend? Others have answered this one. I'm not am allround expert on where-to-bird, but: For ease of access, East coast between NY and DC. There's a whole row of wildlife refuges between Jamaica Bay and Cape May. Early May, late August. Texas Coast at Galveston. (You might even get that Eskimo Curlew). West Coast, both close to LA and close to San Francisco, there are some good places ; but I think there is some place in Oregon that is even better (Tillamook Bay ? Some such name. I can look it up, if you want.) > >If you are intrested I could post some of the information that comes >through Euro Bird Net. Please post your views. If it's just a regular BITNET/EARN mailing list, I could subscribe to it myself, and would prefer that ; assuming the ***** at the computer center haven't scr*wed up my BITNET feed. If somebody tells me how. > >Annika Forsten , Abo Akademi, Finland misan@ra.abo.fi Daan Sandee sandee@sun6.scri.fsu.edu Supercomputer Computations Research Institute (IP: 128.186.2.102) Florida State University sandee@fsu.bitnet Tallahassee, FL 32306-4052 (904) 644-7045 sandee@fsu.mfenet