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BIRDERS BLOG

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Birders are silly.

posted by Anonymous eBirder at
on Monday, May 9, 2011 

It's funny how birders will drive 6 hours to see a rare bird in St. George, but that same rare bird could be located 6 hours away over a state line & few would care :).

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3 Comments:
Blogger Unknown said...

I recently thought the same thing. Ya gotta love those state lists! We are silly and I embrace the silliness.

May 9, 2011 at 10:17 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

People are selfish by nature and birders are no different. We rarely think of not guzzling gas or conservation costs over our own personal agendas.

May 9, 2011 at 2:37 PM  
Blogger Tim Avery said...

@Carl: Awesome timing on this. The proof is in the actions of a number of birders. The Palm Warbler found in Salt Lake this week has had quite a few people go to see it. Your sighting didn't get so much as a nod. Granted 6 hours is much further than 15 or 20 minutes. But for a lot of people who enjoy listing It is important to them to see the said bird in the area they are listing. However, I will say this isn't all birders. I have chased rare birds in Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, as well as the stuff I normally chase in Utah. And a lot of birders will do the same, as it is exciting.

Ironically a couple of years ago I would have bolted to see the Palm Warbler in downtown Salt Lake to add to my county list. Now, I don't even really care. It all depends on the bird, and how interested I am in seeing it.

@anonymous: Again, you can't say people or birders; the generalizations lump everyone into one group, and it isn't that simple. There are varied groups within people--and birding. I would say quite a few birders are actually VERY aware of gas guzzling and conservation, and make efforts to help with conservation and watch the driving.

You could say science abuses the system, if we take fieldwork for instance where field techs drive all over a state conducting surveys, potentially putting on 8,000 miles in a 3 months field season (I've done that a few times). Is the data gathered worth the amount of gas used?

May 10, 2011 at 3:40 PM  

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