The tale of a twitch
To many people outside the birding community all birders are referred to as "twitchers". The mass media often take this to refer to people spasming with excitement at the thought of seeing a new bird. As usual with the mass media this is wrong. Mark Cocker explains the truth in his book "Birders: Tales of a tribe". The term developed as the original twitchers used to travel around England in foul weather on a motorbike and would be shivering from cold when they got off.
To some extent the term can be used perjoratively since the twitcher is seen as someone who just keeps score and doesn't 'enjoy' the inner essence of the bird (IEOTB). Or some such postmodern bushwa. There are also tales - fostered by the mass media, who would find a negative story in the end of world hunger - that twitchers are not responsible but trash the countryside.
Within the Canberra birding community a small number of us have formed what we refer to as a twitching group. One outcome of this is that we keep a score of the number of species seen in the ACT. However one of the reasons for the formation of the group was to establish a "rapid response team" so that there were multiple observations of unusual species, thus making the sighting easier to confirm. At times members of the group are time-limited so the observation may just be enough to confirm identity: at other times folk are able to hang around and IEOTB is given a severe workout. The group's sightings are passed on to the birding community at large as soon as the ID is confirmed so many people can see the bird and poke and prod its IEOTB as they wish.
That introduction got a bit longer than I intended. On to a recent event.
On 21 January a COG member (and top photographer, but not a twitcher) posted a message on our chatline about identifying a Channel-billed Cuckoo at Campbell Park. This generated some responses (available in the linked location), commenting on various aspects of the sighting, but it was thought likely the bird had moved on (and there was no doubt about the ID) so twitch generally didn't mobilise. One member did follow up, in the afternoon and found the bird being mobbed by Noisy Miners and Noisy Friarbirds. An all-points SMS to the twitchlist was sent.
As I have had never seen one of these birds in the ACT I decided to try to get to see this one. On arrival in the area I met another member of the group who had taken time out from preparing to move house. We wandered about' scanning treetops and listening for the sounds of mobbing. A third member of twitch turned up - wearing business attire, including a tie !!! - as he had just got off a plane at the nearby airport when he received the SMS: he was heading home to grab food en route to a banding weekend about 300k away. All was quiet so after about 20 minutes the other two headed off on their other activities and I prowled around the area on my own for perhaps another15 minutes.
As I decided to leave I encountered a 4th member of the group who had taken a few minutes off work. We were standing at almost the place where I had waited earlier. A 5th member of the group turned up, en route to collecting a child from some activity. He said lets try playing a call and did so. A monstrous grey shape launched itself from a tree about 15m from where we standing flew right over our heads and perched in full view for about 5 seconds before being attacked by a Noisy Friarbird and departing (without revealing a great deal of its IEOTB)! TICK!
All three of us had other business so followed the bird's example.
To some extent the term can be used perjoratively since the twitcher is seen as someone who just keeps score and doesn't 'enjoy' the inner essence of the bird (IEOTB). Or some such postmodern bushwa. There are also tales - fostered by the mass media, who would find a negative story in the end of world hunger - that twitchers are not responsible but trash the countryside.
Within the Canberra birding community a small number of us have formed what we refer to as a twitching group. One outcome of this is that we keep a score of the number of species seen in the ACT. However one of the reasons for the formation of the group was to establish a "rapid response team" so that there were multiple observations of unusual species, thus making the sighting easier to confirm. At times members of the group are time-limited so the observation may just be enough to confirm identity: at other times folk are able to hang around and IEOTB is given a severe workout. The group's sightings are passed on to the birding community at large as soon as the ID is confirmed so many people can see the bird and poke and prod its IEOTB as they wish.
That introduction got a bit longer than I intended. On to a recent event.
On 21 January a COG member (and top photographer, but not a twitcher) posted a message on our chatline about identifying a Channel-billed Cuckoo at Campbell Park. This generated some responses (available in the linked location), commenting on various aspects of the sighting, but it was thought likely the bird had moved on (and there was no doubt about the ID) so twitch generally didn't mobilise. One member did follow up, in the afternoon and found the bird being mobbed by Noisy Miners and Noisy Friarbirds. An all-points SMS to the twitchlist was sent.
As I have had never seen one of these birds in the ACT I decided to try to get to see this one. On arrival in the area I met another member of the group who had taken time out from preparing to move house. We wandered about' scanning treetops and listening for the sounds of mobbing. A third member of twitch turned up - wearing business attire, including a tie !!! - as he had just got off a plane at the nearby airport when he received the SMS: he was heading home to grab food en route to a banding weekend about 300k away. All was quiet so after about 20 minutes the other two headed off on their other activities and I prowled around the area on my own for perhaps another15 minutes.
As I decided to leave I encountered a 4th member of the group who had taken a few minutes off work. We were standing at almost the place where I had waited earlier. A 5th member of the group turned up, en route to collecting a child from some activity. He said lets try playing a call and did so. A monstrous grey shape launched itself from a tree about 15m from where we standing flew right over our heads and perched in full view for about 5 seconds before being attacked by a Noisy Friarbird and departing (without revealing a great deal of its IEOTB)! TICK!
All three of us had other business so followed the bird's example.
Comments
I enjoyed your post, having followed some of the reports of the Channel-bill's discovery on the COG chatline.
This report is much more entertaining.
Can I say, as an old-fashioned birdwatcher, and definitely NOT a Twitcher, that I enjoyed the use of the acronym IEOTB.
But as an old-fashiponed birdwatcher, kindly allow me to sneer in the general direction (in a Monty Pythonesque way) at anyone who uses recorded calls to trick birds into showing themselves.
Even if it works.
Damn. It is simply not cricket!
Even MORE SO BECAUSE it obviously works.
.
Incidentally, Environment Consultants are very fond of this technique, especially for Owls, but there are protocols against it, because it is said to disturb their breeding.
Now in the case of a juvenile Cuckoo, that argument is fairly weak I admit.
So - perhaps allow me a small sneer - not at you, but your 5th colleague (mercifully nameless).
.
I shall depart, now, sneering ever so quietly.
Seriously, I did enjoy the post.
Cheers
Denis
On the matter of playing calls I had intended to reply quoting John Wayne (in "Stagecoach") saying "A man's got to do what a man's got to do.". But it appears he never said it! Neither did Alan Ladd in "Shane". (Nor did Charlton Heston, but I would refuse to quote anything by a President of the NRA on principle.)
We are very cautious about playback as it certainly can disturb birds. In these circumstances a quick electronic squawk didn't seem to be a risk. I agreed to playing so will accept part of any approbation on offer.
I am pleased to see that you are able to use a 7 letter word (also used to refer to relatives of grasshoppers) despite living so close to the Bradman Museum and what has gone on this Summer. Perhaps the 50 over game some benefits?
Martin
Pythonesque has 11 letters. It also indicates the "seriousness" (or otherwise) of my objection.
As for Cricket, or other orthopteran issues, we Robertsonians would never refer, much less defer, to the population of Bowral!
Cheers
Denis