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Perhaps English twitchers are particularly
peculiar. (I have never been there.) I don't take a field guide out with me
around home, because I don't need it, however I usually do in unfamiliar places
and always have at least two different ones in the car on longer trips. I guess
in England most birds are predictable, so experienced people don't need a book,
hence it would be uncool to take a book with you. It is only for the rarities
that they need a book. It may be considered good discipline to take your own
field notes for those occasional unexpecteds, as you would need
those notes to justify the id for rarities, (just as for
here).
Philip
I have nearly finished
reading Mark Cockers' book 'Birders: Tales of a
Tribe' about the
twitching phenomenon in the UK. It has been a very
enjoyable read but a
comment in this book which was similar to a statement
made in Bill
Oddie's autobiography had let me to believe that I continue to
make an
enormous faux pas everytime I go birding. Both books allude to the
fact
that it is poor form to take a field guide out in the field and one
must
make notes and diagrams of what one sees. In taking my copy of
Slater
with me into the filed, have I committed a cardinal sin of
birding, or is
this a particularly English
peculiarity?
Cheers
Alastair
PS Presumably those that take
chairs into the field do so, so they can
accommodate the larger field
guides or even HANZAB on their lap.
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