Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!mcsun!sunic!tut!ra!misan From: misan@ra.abo.fi (Annika Forsten DC) Newsgroups: rec.birds Subject: Re: Latin names (was: Birding Magazines) Message-ID: Date: 15 Jan 90 09:08:13 GMT References: <2359@leah.Albany.Edu> <425@fsu.scri.fsu.edu> <428@fsu.scri.fsu.edu> <448@fsu.scri.fsu.edu> Sender: misan@ra.abo.fi Organization: Abo Academy, Finland Lines: 62 In-reply-to: sandee@loligo's message of 12 Jan 90 23:36:12 GMT In article <448@fsu.scri.fsu.edu> sandee@loligo (Daan Sandee) writes: > 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. It is possible of course, it just seems to happen very seldom. Some birders have their girlfriends and wives along with them, but the female is usually not very knowledgable nor intrested. She just likes to be out-of-doors. Of the few couples I know where both are good birders, the woman was birding before she met her man. One reason for the few women is probably that while the man easily gets time of, the woman tends to feel more responsible for the home and the kids, consequently she doesn't have time to get intrested in birding. Which is why I wont get myself any kids. I know of one Finnish male birder who took the parent leave for a year instead of his wife to look after their newborn. But did he stay at home because of this? NO, he took the baby with him birding, almost every day. > In this country, hardcore birders ("twitchers" in Europe, I think) are I'm not sure what you mean by hardcore birder. I assume you mean someone who takes birding very seriously, i.e. spends a lot of time in the field and learning about birds. Twitcher, on the other hand, is someone who chases rare birds that someone else has found. It is quite possible to be both, but a twitcher does not neccessarily know very much about birds, he just has to tick them. > 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. Hear, hear. > 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. In Finland too, most birders start before they are 20. Many schools have nature or bird clubs in which birding is promoted at an early age. It is also quite accepted as a hobby, I can't imagine anyone being mobbed for being a birder. > Very good ! From which I understand that this was your first trip to the US. Yes, the first birding trip. > 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. Sorry, it isn't, not yet anyway. The coordinator of each country just sends e-mail to the coordinators in the other countries, in general a few times each month. So the total number of messages would certainly not exceed 10/month. Annika Forsten , Abo Akademi, Finland misan@ra.abo.fi