Twitching and suppression (2 Viewers)

[Taxboy]

Before I start I'm not a twitcher and not a great birder for that matter either 😁

I regularly see reference to suppression of rare bird sightings where it is claimed there is insufficient rationale for doing this. There usually follows a torrent of vitriol from those who have missed out. What I would like to understand is if twitching is competitive why would any twitcher wish to share news of a mega rarity until it had gone and so gain an advantage over their peers.

Please note this is not a troll but rather an interest in the psychology of twitching

 

[Mono]

A few points spring to mind:-

Most die hard dedicated year list twitchers are not patch watchers. They don't find the birds. The birds are usually found by the dedicated patch watchers and they generally want to spread the word, so the world, and the county recorder, of what delights there are in their bit of nowhereshire.

If no one spread the word then there would be no twitching and the person with the biggest year list would live in North Norfolk.

Most twitchers are not the die hard, winner takes all kind they are just train/plane/anything-else spotters who like birds.

 

[Xenospiza]

Sightings are shared because:

• all twitchers know how nice it is to see a new bird
• you would never see so many birds if no one told you they were there in the first place
• you make many friends (and other people who share your hobby) happy when they get to see a new bird
• it's a good way to get known to other people: I regularly meet people who know who I am although we have never met!
• it is only "competitive" for a few selected people: most of us have missed so many birds that we don't care if someone who has seen more gets to see yet another one!

Many twitchers who are forced to suppress a rarity (usually because there is no access) feel very bad about this.

I would state that many twitchers are die-hard birders who spend more time in the field than anyone else!

 

[Steve Babbs]

I predict a few rows raging. I would agree that most twitchers, unless they are frantic year listers ( although I know several obsessed with their country year list, obsessive UK year listers are quite rare), are foremost birders and spend most of their time birding not twitching especially those that have been going for a while. Apart from anything else once you get to around 500 there aren't many things you need for your UK list.

Of course there are many very keen birders who don't, or rarely, twitch too.

Personally if birders who don't twitch feel it appropriate to suppress that's up to them - I'll get flak for that - but I would put out news straight away unless there was a very good reason not to.

 

[Andy Adcock]

Before I start I'm not a twitcher and not a great birder for that matter either 😁

I regularly see reference to suppression of rare bird sightings where it is claimed there is insufficient rationale for doing this. There usually follows a torrent of vitriol from those who have missed out. What I would like to understand is if twitching is competitive why would any twitcher wish to share news of a mega rarity until it had gone and so gain an advantage over their peers.

Please note this is not a troll but rather an interest in the psychology of twitching

One word - Kudos.

There has been at least one instance I can remember where certain'big listers', were accused of promoting a wrong ID in the hope that a bird would disappear before the true ID was realised, so their rivals would not see it.

 

[DMW]

A few points spring to mind:-

Most die hard dedicated year list twitchers are not patch watchers. They don't find the birds. The birds are usually found by the dedicated patch watchers and they generally want to spread the word, so the world, and the county recorder, of what delights there are in their bit of nowhereshire.

If no one spread the word then there would be no twitching and the person with the biggest year list would live in North Norfolk.

Most twitchers are not the die hard, winner takes all kind they are just train/plane/anything-else spotters who like birds.

Do you have any evidence to back up the claim in your first paragraph? My impression is that the notion that the world is divided into twitchers and birders is almost entirely fictitious. All the keen birders I know will twitch to a greater or lesser degree, but spend most of their time out looking for their own birds.

 

[Farnboro John]

Do you have any evidence to back up the claim in your first paragraph? My impression is that the notion that the world is divided into twitchers and birders is almost entirely fictitious. All the keen birders I know will twitch to a greater or lesser degree, but spend most of their time out looking for their own birds.

This is particularly true of long-term twitchers, who are almost all birders who twitch: the only way to get their birding fix is to go birding as there will not be many twitches for a tick during a year. In any case, a patch watcher who reacts to a phone call from a mate by going immediately to their patch to see a bird is twitching: distance is immaterial.

Down the years I have seen so many patch watchers and county listers behaving badly to each other for petty reasons including the length of patch lists and the size of duck counts (we've all known the local whose count is always one more than anyone else's) - not to mention the level of obsession shown over their local patches at the expense of joy in birds generally - that I am quite glad to be less patch obsessed and more focussed on enjoying the variety in birds wherever they turn up.

Luckily those real weirdos are in the minority, leaving most of us to form a community across a continuum of approaches to birding and to be able to start a conversation with any real birder with "had anything?"

John

 

[Mono]

Do you have any evidence to back up the claim in your first paragraph?

From my personal experience and I was deliberate in specifying those seeking big year lists. I have known several whose sole "birding" was to drive round at the whim of the reporting services, see it, tick it and off to the next. There is a world of difference between that and the dedicated local who pops over the county line to add one more to their British list.

Personally I don't get the obsession with lines on maps. I have seen plenty of Northern Mockingbirds in the USA.

 

[Sangahyando]

Personally if birders who don't twitch feel it appropriate to suppress that's up to them - I'll get flak for that - but I would put out news straight away unless there was a very good reason not to.

I think intent matters. If the reason behind suppression is serious conservation concern (whether regarding the bird itself, or other species in the affected area) or legal reasons, then it's legitimate. If the observer is too lazy or too busy at that moment, I can also understand that. But if it's just to get ahead of the "competition", then that individual should rethink his life choices IMO.

 

[Mysticete]

A few points spring to mind:-

Most die hard dedicated year list twitchers are not patch watchers. They don't find the birds. The birds are usually found by the dedicated patch watchers and they generally want to spread the word, so the world, and the county recorder, of what delights there are in their bit of nowhereshire.

If no one spread the word then there would be no twitching and the person with the biggest year list would live in North Norfolk.

Most twitchers are not the die hard, winner takes all kind they are just train/plane/anything-else spotters who like birds.

I'll add onto what other people said, that interest in twitching is a continuum. Some people will twitch all the time, while some folks will only twitch a special bird. I am sure there are people who just treat them as a tick on a list, but they are very few.

In my experience, every person I know who is hardcore into year listing or anything related to that also spend a lot of time in the field looking for there own birds. They often are the ones who actually discover the rarities, because they are tuned into bird migrations and distribution to the point that they know when and where to check to find rare birds.

 

[Steve Babbs]

I think intent matters. If the reason behind suppression is serious conservation concern (whether regarding the bird itself, or other species in the affected area) or legal reasons, then it's legitimate. If the observer is too lazy or too busy at that moment, I can also understand that. But if it's just to get ahead of the "competition", then that individual should rethink his life choices IMO.

I'd agree; if you go for other people's birds it would be hypocritical unless there was a very good reason.

 

[birdboybowley]

So why was the 4 week Eleonora's Falcon suppressed in Norfolk last year when the bushchat was around...?

 

[jurek]

One makes a long list partially to impress other birders. The old 'my woolly mammoth is bigger than yours' thing. But it makes no sense to alienate the community you want to impress.

And it is true, that every birder likes to see rare birds to some extent, no matter how much he scoffs twitching.

 

[Farnboro John]

So why was the 4 week Eleonora's Falcon suppressed in Norfolk last year when the bushchat was around...?

I imagine the reason would be given as pandemic-related. I happen to think they would be wrong in that instance but it's a legitimate consideration generating a wide spectrum of opinion. At least we got the bushchat and Taiga Flycatcher.

John

 

[Mysticete]

I imagine the reason would be given as pandemic-related. I happen to think they would be wrong in that instance but it's a legitimate consideration generating a wide spectrum of opinion. At least we got the bushchat and Taiga Flycatcher.

John

Could protection from Falconers also be an element? Here in the states, the one diurnal bird of prey that is generally suppressed is Gyrfalcon, for just that reason.

 

[Farnboro John]

Could protection from Falconers also be an element? Here in the states, the one diurnal bird of prey that is generally suppressed is Gyrfalcon, for just that reason.

Don't think so. Illegal activity by falconers in the UK tends to be nest robbing, not trying to catch a fast wary wild bird in the flat open country of coastal West Norfolk which is heavily birded. I've never heard of a vagrant raptor being suppressed for that reason.

Even if you caught it, how would you keep it - first time you fly it, wave goodbye.....

John

 

[MikeInPA]

Luckily those real weirdos are in the minority, leaving most of us to form a community across a continuum of approaches to birding and to be able to start a conversation with any real birder with "had anything?"

John

In the good old days the opening phrase on entering a hide would be “Anything about”. People would then call out what they’d found and get you onto the birds. It seemed that this fell by the wayside in later years where people would just not say anything. I put it down in many cases to people not wanting to stick their neck out and make a wrong identification. It seems as though it was perceived that making an ID error would make them a laughing stock and destroy their reputation.

 

[Goneandhopefullyforgotten]

This all sounds like a bit of a minefield. I'm so glad I'm not a serious birder. I wouldn't want to suppress a sighting of a rarity if I actually saw one though.

So there I am, sitting on the edge of a cold wet clifftop in a gale in north west England watching the comings and goings of the auks, Fulmars and Kittiwakes, when a Wandering Albatross cruises past before settling on the water just offshore. What do I do?

I'd probably spend quite a lot of time watching it and I might point it out to any passing walkers who were interested. After a while I might think that perhaps I should tell someone. Who though? I don't know any serious birders or twitchers so I'd probably wait until I got home and put it on BirdTrack. I have a sneaky suspicion that such a sighting would then generate a request for a report to the county recorder and I'd be happy to oblige. If I got a photo I might even add it to the Gallery here although it would probably be a few days before I got round to doing that.

Still, job done. Or should I hurry to tell anyone else about it, and if so who? Am I suppressing the sighting by not reporting it to someone immediately? Whilst this particular example may be ever-so-slightly tongue in cheek the point is serious. I don't personally see the attraction of twitching but clearly lots of people get a great deal of enjoyment out of it. Should I feel obliged to report the sighting sooner rather than later?

 

[ClarkWGriswold]

In the good old days the opening phrase on entering a hide would be “Anything about”. People would then call out what they’d found and get you onto the birds. It seemed that this fell by the wayside in later years where people would just not say anything. I put it down in many cases to people not wanting to stick their neck out and make a wrong identification. It seems as though it was perceived that making an ID error would make them a laughing stock and destroy their reputation.

Still happens around here Mike. The last time I was at Cheddar Reservoir and Chew Valley the locals were really helpful there as well.

Rich

 

[Farnboro John]

This all sounds like a bit of a minefield. I'm so glad I'm not a serious birder. I wouldn't want to suppress a sighting of a rarity if I actually saw one though.

So there I am, sitting on the edge of a cold wet clifftop in a gale in north west England watching the comings and goings of the auks, Fulmars and Kittiwakes, when a Wandering Albatross cruises past before settling on the water just offshore. What do I do?

I'd probably spend quite a lot of time watching it and I might point it out to any passing walkers who were interested. After a while I might think that perhaps I should tell someone. Who though? I don't know any serious birders or twitchers so I'd probably wait until I got home and put it on BirdTrack. I have a sneaky suspicion that such a sighting would then generate a request for a report to the county recorder and I'd be happy to oblige. If I got a photo I might even add it to the Gallery here although it would probably be a few days before I got round to doing that.

Still, job done. Or should I hurry to tell anyone else about it, and if so who? Am I suppressing the sighting by not reporting it to someone immediately? Whilst this particular example may be ever so slightly tongue-in-cheek the point is serious. I don't personally see the attraction of twitching but clearly lots of people get a great deal of enjoyment out of it. Should I feel obliged to report the sighting sooner rather than later?

Well, assuming you have a smartphone you could google RBA or Birdguides and ring them: or at least you could use the phone to put it on here. From the site you are at, with a back of the camera photo if you have one.

If there's no signal then you could do it when you have a signal. Or wifi in the reserve cafe. But its up to you. There's no obligation, especially if you are a non-serious birder. But you sound like someone with a helpful attitude, so do please think about the suggestions herein. 👍

Cheers

John