I think I must have drawn this in some boring meeting somewhere. Actually, that word "boring" is superfluous ... all meetings are boring in my experience. Some of my avid readers have been emailing me ( [email protected]) and asking me ...."what is "proper birding?" Maybe all of them are, I don't know. Anyhow, I have the answer. It's all about that word " proper." Property = what is yours Proper = own, individual,peculiar to you. So ... "proper birding" is whatever sort of birding you do. You. Yourself. Therefore, you shouldn't try to tell other people how to do it. It's a personal thing. Here's some of the "sorts of birding" that various acquaintances of mine do ... you might think them odd, but it's what they like .... and it's perfectly OK with me ... Snodder ..... he bicycles all around his local patch photographing dead birds. Twigsy ......... she only ticks birds with a B in their name. Ibt sbaves bink. Bud .............. he stands outside the town hall and records all the birds he sees. Sal ................she looks out of her bedroom window wistfully counting crows. Barry ............. he's a one-off is Barry. Having spotted a bird, he goes home. Frank............... his birding life is spent with his scope the wrong way round. It's apparently a sort of penance for something he did years ago. Annie ............. she travels to Bangor every day and seawatches. She loves the sea. Gems .............. he "hour-lists" ... and he starts afresh after each hour, 8am - 6pm. Wizzer ............. a sarcastic name ... he practices " slow birding." Stodgy ............ he rubbishes other birders. Well, mainly me. I can take it ! Ha !! Flann ............. he specialises in graveyards ... all over the UK. He's got an ace list. Hez .................. She only likes wrens. She "knows" every wren for miles. Dumps ............. Gulls are his thing. He has his own "ultra-splitting" system. So far he's up to 227 UK gull species.. it's easy to do you know. Mr. G ................ he has huge picture windows and a massive telescope. Flinty ................ so called because he's devoted to birding at Flint Castle. Curly ................ he's a Visitor Experience Manager" at Grumbling Stumps. ITAS .* Amy ..............her "thing" is that she, and we, use her own real name. Odd, but OK. If any of you out there have a "non-standard" but perfectly OK birding regime, why not let me know and I'll bung you on the list. I'm keen to get rid of this"proper birding" notion. There's no such thing. Here's a song for you ... ... yes, it's sad song ...but I'm sure you want to sing along .. it's cathartic ... * ITAS ... it takes all sorts.
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AuthorThat's the author up there ... I was young and sprightly then. Archives
October 2022
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