Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uunet!mcsun!sunic!tut!ra!misan From: misan@ra.abo.fi (Annika Forsten DC) Newsgroups: rec.birds Subject: Re: Birding Magazines Message-ID: Date: 9 Jan 90 08:22:20 GMT References: <2359@leah.Albany.Edu> Sender: misan@ra.abo.fi Organization: Abo Academy, Finland Lines: 57 In-reply-to: gmr044@leah.Albany.Edu's message of 5 Jan 90 14:00:19 GMT In article <2359@leah.Albany.Edu> gmr044@leah.Albany.Edu (Gregg Recer) writes: > Just another opinion on birding periodicals: I've been a real fan of > _Birder's World_ for over a year now. Their photography is great and > I particularly like their regular "birding hot-spots" pieces (my wife, > however, just looks at me and frowns because she knows that's another > place we'll _have_ to go see at our earliest opportunity 8*] ). I like Birder's World too, very much. If I remember correctly someone recently complained that it would be better if they also gave the latin names, but the editor did not think it a good idea. What do you think? Don't you like latin names? Don't you know them? As a foreigner the latin names would make it easier, even though I'm beginning to know the North American birds by their English names. I know latin names are not used so much in England either, but here in Finland everyone uses latin names in their notes. They are easy to shorten, three letter + three letters (Gav imm for Common Loon), the notes are nice looking when all the names are the same length, and of course, one learns them fast that way which makes it easier to read foreign literature and talk to foreigners about birds. How much do you use latin names? Do you have any more information on good periodicals, like Western Birds or other more local journals? I've been planning to subscribe to Western Birds, but paying is a problem. Does anyone know if they accept Visa? Here in Finland the banks are raising their charges, so that it's very expensive to buy checks and money orders. I don't like paying the bank half of what the subscription is. I'm rather serious about birding, so I'd like journals with good identification articles. It's funny, I've read several letters in various journals where people have stated that this or that article is too 'deep', the serie on Empidonax flycatchers in Birding for instace. Here in Finland, the deeper the identification stuff gets, the better. On the other hand, birders here are not so intrested in ecology and the lives of birds as in identification, which of course is a pity as that aspect is important too. One of the reasons for this difference could be that birders here are in general males between 12 and 50, some are older, but females are very rare, although they are getting more common. Of the 300 birders I know, about 5 are females. Between males collecting and knowing is important, so twitching is common. Sunday birdwatchers (as opposed to birders) are rare, almost unknown. If you have birds as a hobby, you spend most of your free time in the field, reading about birds or watching slides and talking about identification. It is a pity, the hobby would benefit from 'normal' people being intrested in birds too. We don't have a journal of the general kind either, if such a magazine existed, it would probably promote birdwatching among women and older couples. Unfortunately there would probably not be enough subscribers to make such a magazine possible. There are currently about 8000 registered birders and birdwatchers in the country (of 5 million inhabitants). We have just started a new bird shop, which will hopefully promote bird-watching among the public. I would be very happy to meet more women and less serious birdwatchers in the field. I'm sure this would also help conservation issues. Any thoughts on the subject? Annika Forsten, Abo Akademi, Finland misan@ra.abo.fi