News quickly spread by text message, emails, and website postings

Does it seem incongruous to anyone else that "text messages" would be mentioned before anything else, and "phone calls" would go entirely unmentioned?

Ahh.. twitchers. You've never seen anything more scary then a group of them descending upon any location. Also you'll never seen a larger group of snotty, self-righteous people.

/twitcher

What the hell is the deal with bird watchers?

If you shoot them in the head, they seem to stay down.

twitchers, they remind me of those people who go bird watching.

Do they twitch when you shoot them?

The Great Auk approves:

Mugato

What the hell is the deal with bird watchers?

Personally I think they're bastardized cousins of gearheads, but with a disproportionate sense of self-entitlement.

Me, I just like trying to figure out what birds are doing. I've done about 4 calendar year's worth of bird field studies and while I can say that the motivations and actions of birds are not terribly hard to figure out.. those of twitchers are damn near impossible.

Just because it was still on my clipboard.

me texan

"Personally I think they're bastardized cousins of gearheads, but with a disproportionate sense of self-entitlement."

No kidding. I caught a few of these retards lurking around on my property once. They claimed that some rare bird was seen in the area, and they took it upon themselves to trespass on my property and stomp all over my flowers. You wouldn't believe the gall of these people. They act like they own the damn place. They had the nerve to ask me to go somewhere else so I wouldn't disturb their wondrous prize. I came back with a loaded shotgun and I tell you, boy could they ever run.

I twitch when I get sleepy.

My clitoris twitches when I get horny.

Nathan Farr, just mention how Snipers got the name to them, lol.

If they came around at night they would probably be shot on my property, some cameras at night in low light can look similar to a gun, especially if they are "aiming" it, lol.

farquette

Picture this - you're in a hide watching a once-in-a-lifetime bird doing something special.

Do you -
a) silently tap out a short message and send it to friends?
b) call them up and try to speak loudly enough to make them understand you but without disturbing the bird?

Also, what's the problem with text messages? Most people under 40 here in the UK use them far more than actual calls.

isn't texting cheaper than airtime in Europe?

/the owls are not what they seem.

A couple of clarifications:

1) Some birders in GB are sometimes called twitchers because, in their enthusiasm for seeing a bird to add to their life list, they seem satisfied with a mere twitch of the bird. Seemingly more serious birders like to observe the bird for longer periods, making extensive field notes, taking photos for scientific papers and so on.

2) In the US, Birding is currently the fastest growing outdoor activity. Once you start learning how to identify birds in the field, it is very easy to want to learn more and more. Eco-tourism, fueled by birders is a multi-billion dollar industry. Birders often go to obscure and remote places to see a rare bird fueling local economies not used to a large tourist trade.

3) Interest in birding leads to a greater interest in the environment and issues like pollution, hunting, loss of habitat and other factors impinging on migratory bird populations.

4) Communication networks of birders are very complex yet efficient. Rare bird sightings throughout the US are widely reported on the interet and via subscription-only email groups. Audobohn societies in all staes and in many places world-wide have Rare Bird alert hotlines of recorded messages.

5) The code of ethics of most birders lists respect for land owners very high in priority. I'm thinking that the folks that bothered Me Texan were rank amateurs or just the odd jerks that didn't consider the impact they were having on the reputation of birders in general, let alone Me Texan's property rights. I apologize on their behalf. BTW, did they happen to mention what species of bird caught their fancy?

6) The Great Auk is extinct. The last one was "taken" by the Museum of Natural History.