Twitchers

[GyRob]

They spend more time talking LOUDLY than looking at birds:rolleyes: there i was crouched behind a mound with large lenses hopeing for a shot of a Egret and they stand 15yds behind me ( they could see me ) and start talking :evil:
Rob.

[dewmuw]

Nice neutral colours too! They stand out like a sore thumb - sure they aren't ramblers? :D

[Jim G]

Okay, I gotta ask... Why are they called twitchers? I can't relate that to bird watching at all :p

[Cynthia in Alameda]

At least they weren't standing in FRONT of you. I've had more bird watchers, always with big hats, move right in front of me and stand in the great position I picked out, and be totally clueless that others are watching too (or trying to). I've also had nosy people come right up to me when I'm shooting, flush out all the birds, and ask what I'm taking pictures of, then want to talk f-stops etc. like I want to talk irrelevant shop while I'm trying to shoot.

[gjl711]

I have found that groups are into socialization loosely coupled to an activity. Birders, gardeners, photographers, cooks, whatever the activity. When you get a group together it’s all about the talking. It was just bad luck that they wandered into your spot. :cry: Great pic though. Now if you had gotten video and overlaid it with cackling gulls or chicken it would have been youtube material for sure.:D

[davewalters]

Please bear in mind that the people in that shot are definitely not twitchers. As a former twitcher myself I can state that the majority of twitchers are more aware of fieldcraft than any type of wildlife watcher. You can also tell by the optics these people have, all twitchers carry top of the range binoculars and telescopes.
What you have there are basic birders or dudes there's a huge difference between these and the dedicated twitcher.

[Cynthia in Alameda]

The fact that they're all facing different directions and no one's looking through their binos tells you something. :lol:

[Scottes]

When birders like this come around, I just leave. I get so tired of their yapping and noise, and talking about Great Blue-Twitched Rumblers and then staring at a pixel-sized bird through 65x Swarovski scopes...

Ayee-Yah! Go home and let me take some pictures, and even if I'm not taking pictures then go home and let me enjoy the morning in peace!

[gjl711]

When birders like this come around, I just leave.
It's not just birders. I have had the same happen when walking through my local preserve and a deer pops it's head out. Seems like all the folks come-a-runnin' yelling and screaming "LOOK A DEER!!". And last year diving an Hawaii I ran into a group of turtles. Upon surfacing I made the horrible mistake of sharing that there were a few turtles swimming about. Some yahoo yells out “THERE’S TURTLES” and a bunch of his yahoo friends more or less cannonball into the water successfully chasing them away.

[canoflan]

A couple things here...

This is the classic demize of manners in the world. Parents are no longer teaching their children basic manners, etc..., therefore, even adults, seem to see so many children acting out, they figure, what the heck and they refuse to have any dignity themselves by showing common courtesy.

I think that if you are with an outfit and they don't lay down the rules in the beginning to ensure that everyone can accomplish the main goal (i.e. shoot the birds), then I wouldn't participate and get a refund because you will probably waste time looking at nothing, or trying to teach manners. Perhpas the instructors and directors will get the message if enough people that are serious tell them why the program is losing money.

To my point...
A friend of mine from church and myself are teaching a simple digital photography course in January 2007. The course is designed to teach those who just never learned about their cameras, or just got one for Christmas. Those that know all about cameras and photography are simply not invited to this beginners-only class and this is being made clear in the first class (it is a free class also). The reason these types are going to be discouraged from attending is because they tend to ask questions to try and embarrass the instructors and disrupt the students with too many anecdotes that don't teach anyone anything. Simpy, if we didn't make it clear who our audience is in the beginning, we are doing a disservice to the participants who care about being there and are taking time from the other parts of their lives to learn a hobby.

[Cynthia in Alameda]

. Parents are no longer teaching their children basic manners, etc..., <soapbox>Not only that, they're teaching them bad behavior. Today, I saw parents jaywalking with their kids 3 times. 2 years ago in Yosemite (where you could drink the water in the Tuolumne river when I was a kid) I saw a woman take her daughter into the river to pee because she was too lazy to use the bathroom within sight. I told her that it was illegal and extremely inconsiderate to teach her kid to pee in the river, and she came back in her breathy good mommy voice and said people have different opinions on that (on what, whether it's legal to pee in the river in a national park?) and this was what they were doing. There are no common values anymore, people just do what they want.

A blind man was run over in the crosswalk the other night in my neighborhood... People won't even stop for you in full daylight, and I'm not in the big city either. </soapbox>

[canoflan]

<soapbox>Not only that, they're teaching them bad behavior. Today, I saw parents jaywalking with their kids 3 times. 2 years ago in Yosemite (where you could drink the water in the Tuolumne river when I was a kid) I saw a woman take her daughter into the river to pee because she was too lazy to use the bathroom within sight. I told her that it was illegal and extremely inconsiderate to teach her kid to pee in the river, and she came back in her breathy good mommy voice and said people have different opinions on that (on what, whether it's legal to pee in the river in a national park?) and this was what they were doing. There are no common values anymore, people just do what they want.

A blind man was run over in the crosswalk the other night in my neighborhood... People won't even stop for you in full daylight, and I'm not in the big city either. </soapbox>

More soapbox...I understand. The solution is to not become the problem, but the solution. We do that by setting the example. The only way to set a consistent example is to know truth. The truth is in the Bible. When we set the example, regardless of controversy, or chance of ostracism, we make a difference through Christ....end of soapbox Merry Christmas to you and yours

[Scottes]

There are plenty of places where simple common sense can be found, and that should be enough without getting into any religious or political statements.

[canoflan]

There are plenty of places where simple common sense can be found, and that should be enough without getting into any religious or political statements.

The concern isn't common sense, but common manners. If these folks would have exercised some of these common manners, you probably wouldn't have been so inclined to leave, as you indicated above. You proved my point.

[Scottes]

Yep, I proved it. Without any reference to religion, too.

[gjl711]

There are plenty of places where simple common sense can be found, and that should be enough without getting into any religious or political statements.

Yep, I proved it. Without any reference to religion, too.
Alas, those places are akin to the rain forests and shrinking year by year. I agree with many of the above posters. I too see a real shift in common sense and manners most everywhere I go. It as if an entire generation has become so self-centric that many have lost sight of the fact that simple common courtesy and politeness improves the environment for everyone. Sure there are those that strive to make the world a better place for all but I run into those folks less year by year.

[tiktaalik]

The concern isn't common sense, but common manners. If these folks would have exercised some of these common manners, you probably wouldn't have been so inclined to leave, as you indicated above. You proved my point.

Common manners also includes not shoving your religion onto others.

[GyRob]

Im afraid far to many people just DON'T think when it comes to photography and birds they see a large lens ( i use a 500f4isL ) And then are convinced there must be something worth looking at - yet often its just a normal little bird that they would not be bothered about at all .
iv just bought some camo scarf's to use to hide the lens to see if that keeps them out of my way .
Rob.

[deadpass]

Im afraid far to many people just DON'T think when it comes to photography and birds they see a large lens ( i use a 500f4isL ) And then are convinced there must be something worth looking at - yet often its just a normal little bird that they would not be bothered about at all .
iv just bought some camo scarf's to use to hide the lens to see if that keeps them out of my way .
Rob.


haha i can just picture you crawling around with a gilly suit on, like a sniper hunting out the best shot of a bird, haha.

oh and what is a Twitcher?

[cbr929rrerion]

I was telling a friend the other day I think my new camera is a human magnet.. Everywhere I go, to get a good position to take a photo, people gather right in front of me, so, I find another place thats empty, few minutes later, people gather in front of me..

Very irratating..

I feel your pain..

Great pic, but thats a pic of the Coat Breasted Lip-Flapper... flocks of them are common and not picture worthy... lol
.

[GyRob]

Twitcher.
a life list is all the birds you have seen and were you saw them.
below copied from the net
( Once one has got into building up a life list, you then become a twitcher. A twitcher is someone who actively seeks out new birds to put on their lifelist and the word is supposed to describe the uncontrollable spasms of excitement when seeing a new bird for the first time. Most birders are twitchers to some extent, but the degree to which the ticking of new species is important is a personal thing. Some birders can be described as "hart-core" twitchers, and are interested in nothing other than ticking new species. Twitching has led to a whole vocabulary to describe what happens when you go twitching. "Gripping" a bird means that you "got it" - you can add it to you life list. Conversely when you go looking for birds and miss out on something you should have seen then you "dipped out" on that species. )
Rob.