Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!unmvax!nmtsun!john From: john@nmtsun.nmt.edu (John Shipman) Newsgroups: rec.birds Subject: Birding vs. birdwatching (was Re: Birding magazine question) Keywords: birding, birdwatching, Rare Bird Alert Message-ID: <3713@nmtsun.nmt.edu> Date: 5 Jan 90 05:52:42 GMT References: <9001031916.AA06453@jade.berkeley.edu> <3712@nmtsun.nmt.edu> Reply-To: john@nmtsun.nmt.edu (John Shipman) Organization: Zoological Data Processing Lines: 39 First I wrote: +--- | I liked Greg's example of the difference between | birdwatching and birding. Just one question, Greg: if I | spend two years looking all over New Mexico for Common | Ground-Dove and then get my state bird on my backyard bird | feeder, is that birding or birdwatching? +--- And Greg Pasquariello (grp@unify.UUCP) answered: +--- | It depends on whether you saw it while getting your morning | coffee, or heard about it on a Rare Bird Alert! :-) +--- Does my nextdoor neighbor Phil count as a Rare Bird Alert? He told me he'd seen it. (``Right, Phil, I'm *sure* you saw a Ground Dove. Which one? The one right in front of the Inca Dove flock? The one with the plain back? and the dark spots on the wings? Oh...(blush)...okay, I guess I'll believe you now,'' I said, while performing the obligatory State Bird Dance.) I got spoiled listening to Joe Morlan's excellent Northern California Rare Bird Alert. Unfortunately, there is no RBA in this state. It's not fair. New Mexico's checklist has 450 species, and it's the fifth largest state, with 6 of the 7 life zones represented; its eastern plains get a plethora of eastern warblers (like our Swainson's and Chestnut-sideds from the spring), while its southwest corner is faunistically quite similar to that Mecca of birding, southeast Arizona (Olive Warbler, Bendire's Thrasher). I'd like to start a Rare Bird Alert, but I wouldn't know how to go about it. Any suggestions? -- John Shipman/Zoological Data Processing/Socorro, New Mexico USENET: ucbvax!unmvax!nmtsun!john CSNET: john@nmtsun.nmt.edu ``Let's go outside and commiserate with nature.'' --Dave Farber