Wildlife UK Forum - Discuss the UK countryside and wildlife

I only took up birdwatching again in April last year after a very long absence from the hobby and it has been great getting the buzz again from seeing new species.

One thing that sometimes leaving me feel a little nauseous is when I meet the most zealous twitchers. You know the ones. The ones who will get a text at 6am to hear that a rare warbler has been spotted in a remote part of the country. They then drive 500 miles to see the bird and then drive straight home again.

I met one such man the other day who announced that he had seen 470 British birds and that there was very little likelihood that he would see more than one new species a year.

It is difficult to be too critical because at the end of the day it is their time and their money! I know how I feel when I see a new species and I have a long way to go as I haven't got anywhere near 200 yet.

Perhaps the most irritating thing is that some of these people have absolutely no interest in conversing about interesting species that have been seen at a local patch. A few weeks ago I told one such twitcher that I had just seen a Green Sandpiper and he dismissed it as though I had just told him I'd seen a Sparrow!

I'd be interested to know what other people think.

I enjoy spotting new birds, but there comes a time when one could spend vast amounts of time and energy, not to mention money for petrol!, motoring all over the countryside for a bird which may or may no longer be there.

Having said that, I will take a look at possibilities when I go on holiday, just to see if it's possible to spot something different.

I hate to think I would become so jaded that I would not enjoy hearing about someone else's new-to-them bird.

Kingfisher

I suppose I have a unique position here, let me explain.

I work part-time in a shop which sells optics, accessories and books for birders. When I first started, we also ran a paging service which informed of rare bird sightings. My boss is one of the top twitchers in the UK, but he is more than a twitcher, he is also a birder, while he will charter a plane to fly to the Orkneys to see a rare bird, he will also just go for a walk locally to simply birdwatch, so I suppose he's not a "typical" twitcher.

We get plenty of "real" twitchers in the shop. Many of them are really weird people with total tunnel vision, they care not for anything but getting the new "tick", often with behaviour that brings the whole thing into disrepute. There's currently a rose-coloured starling in a private garden Pembroke. The instructions to birders is that it should be viewed from a public lane, but of course this is not enough for some idiots, who have to enter the person's garden just to get a better look. The owner of the property is really sick of the whole thing. At the other end of the stick, there has been a white-crowned sparrow in Norfolk. Birders have been asked to donate and over £30,000 has been collected for repairs to the local church tower.

I think I am literally a bit of a twitcher. When a bird comes flying past me, I suddenly spring back into life and watch them with my binoculars! I absolutely love to see new species of bird that I can easily recognise, but hate it when I see a new bird, and haven't got the foggiest clue to what it is!

That is a most interesting and brilliant solution! At least there is a benefit to a local charity in Norfolk.

Kingfisher

There are as many different types of twitchers as there are people so it is hard not to generalise.

There is a just a particular breed of twitcher who is a just a collector and is really just chasing the tick with no actually interest in the bird's ecology and certainly no interest in its welfare. Quite often twitched birds meet a wretched end to life, suffering constant disturbance.

Some twitchers have the attitude that if it is a rare or accidental migrant blown off course then since it cannot breed it doesn't matter what happens to it.

Also these birds often appear at sites important for other bird species who then suffer from the increased disturbance - a lot of which is irresponsible and often illegal as mentioned ealier and some will follow the bird all day.

I think the main problem with twitching is the sheer volume of people who descend upon an area until the bird has eiter died or left. It gives all birders a bad name. For this reason I would never promote the location of a rare species (not that I need to because someone else always will) because I can't see how it, or other wildlife benefits from the attention.

Having said all this there is nothing better than coming across something unusual or going to an area specifically to see what birds are about.

We all (including me) need to consider the consequences of our actions and try and watch wildlife in a responsible and non-intrusive way.

It's exactly the worst kind of twitcher that I'm talking about. It seems like it becomes some sort of addiction similar to gambling or drug taking. I have also noticed a kind of unpleasant arrogance about these sorts of people.

I also wonder at times how many of these people would actually know the difference between a Willow Tit and a Marsh Tit if they weren't told which one was about!

My condemnation is tentative for several reasons.
1. men particularly like to collect things and sometimes people who collect obsessively have slight special needs (or in some cases an additional chromosome) and the collecting can be a necessary part of life and therapeutic. It is a kind of addiction.

2. I collate species lists as part of my job and I feel a satisfaction in the collation and cataloguing (sp?) of the information. I also feel a satisfaction in seeing things for the first time and given the opportunity to see something rare*; If I can do so in a way that does not cause unecessary disturbance I will usually take it. I can therefore understand the attraction.

*but not for the sake of seeing something - it would have to be something that I was interested in and in the hope that it will improve my identification skills and my knowledge and understanding.

You make a very good point when you talk about the twitchers not wanting to discuss commoner species and it is a good test.

To some extent we all overlook what is all around us and under our feet but often these species are the ones we are most fundamentally connected with and they are as unique and have as much to offer to us, if not more. I was really pleased that everyone's top 3 birds list featured lots of these species.

Ah, the old 'twitcher' thread. I wondered how long it would be. Personally i think the moderators should remove this thread. It is ones like this that i have seen on much bigger Forums that i now rarely use. It should not matter what anyone feels about 'twitchers'. Peoples views on twitching should be kept private. Live and let live and concentrate on the flora and fauna and not so much the people involved. That way the Forum remains a friendly and enjoyable experience.

I don't think anyone is really approving or condemning here as such, just telling things as they are. As I have already said, I come into contact with many twitchers, from the totally obsessed to the all-round birder. Just as with any group of people, there are good and bad, but I've never met so many nutters in a group of people as I have in twitchers (and my wife works in a mental hospital, where I visit her at work ocassionally)!!!!

I wasn't saying anyone was condeming or approving (although most of the comments so far have been negative to be fair!). Some of the posts are quite stereotypical and 'tar all twitchers with the same brush' as it were. It is a bit like starting a thread "How do you feel about Novice or young Bird watchers" or "How do you feel about Moth Collectors". I just think that the people who use this forum are intelligent enough to create threads about Wildlife and discuss them sensibly. When it comes to people being discussed, no matter how rational peoples posts are, someone always ends up being offended. Its human nature.
(I haven't been offended by the way!)

I think it is a valid topic for discussion but the posts have been a bit one-sided so far. I can only speak from experience but it is just my opinion and doesn't make what I say right. Like all threads it will run its course and disappear into the ether.

It is one of those things where there is a difficult line to walk - on one hand no-one wants to see things disturbed unecessarily, on the other hand if no-one cared about birds so intensely then their protection would be much lesser and we would have lost some of our distinctive species.

I don't agree that it is a case of views being kept private though. We can have an adult discussion and then move onto the next thing.

As for live and let live - people can twitch no problem. All I am saying is that I wish everyone would do it in a responsible way, e.g. to some code of conduct which minimises impact. Sadly that is not always the case, but a lot of the time it is. Maybe it would be useful to have a thread talking about good field craft and equipment.

I agree totally

Out of interest, the fund raised by Birders at the WC Sparrow was near to £6000. Not £30,000 as mentioned earlier.

Well, so far we are all being civil, so I will leave this in place.

Fair enough?

Kingfisher