No wonder you miss so many birds Dave.
-----Original Message-----
From:
On Behalf Of Dave Torr
Sent: Monday, January 15, 2007 10:48 AM
To: Russell Woodford
Cc: birding aus
Subject: Bird Calls and Hemlines
My only problem with this article is that I have yet to meet a lady
birder who actually wears a skirt!
On 15/01/07, Russell Woodford <> wrote:
>
> Brilliant!
>
> I think this timely response and summary is the most fitting we can
> expect to a "last word" on the matter.
>
>
>
> Russell Woodford
> Birding-Aus List Owner
>
> Geelong Victoria Australia
> http://www.birding-aus.org
>
>
>
> On 15/01/2007, at 12:39 AM, Julian Bielewicz wrote:
>
> > Over many years of birding, both Down Under and back Up Above, I
> > have often viewed the trends in our pastime much as one would
> > perhaps see fashion fads
> > in the length of ladies' skirts. When I was a younger soul, with
> > much less
> > around the middle and a lot more on top- and Cannock Chase was my
> > stomping
> > ground for birds not necessarily of the feathered genre- it was
> > considered
> > rather bad form to even be seen with a field guide. Real birders
> > used only
> > their binoculars and a notebook in which they recorded details of
> > any bird
> > not immediately recognized out in hedge or briar. Books were only
> > consulted
> > after the outing, back in the library, or, more likely, at the
> > local with a
> > pint of the landlord's best bitter to sup while considering the
> > various
> > nuances of plumage, or other characteristic details that separate
one
> > species from a agonizingly similar conspecific. Anything else
> > would have
> > been viewed as unseemly.
> >
> > Much as when ladies carried their skirt hems below their ankles.
> > Even the hint of exposed stocking would have raised eyebrows, set
> > tongues wagging.
> > Reputations were scandalized on less.
> >
> > I note with interest Peter's mention of 'RememBird', an electronic
> > notebook one takes out into the field. And yet it has overtones.
> > It can be armed
> > with birdcalls and that may be akin to offering a ketchup-smothered
> > hotdog
> > to a delegate of the Slow Food Society.
> >
> > Some time later in my birding career I came across the first of the
> > pishers and whistlers or those who preferred to suck on the back of
> > their hand.
> > They rambled up dale and down vale and never saw where their feet
> > trod, or
> > what their feed trod in. Ladies' hemlines rose above the ankle.
> >
> > It wasn't long after this that I was introduced to the scrap of
> > polystyrene and a chard of broken glass. Rubbed together they were
> > a total failure to
> > any respectable arsonist but could induce the odd bird or two to
> > break cover
> > for a fleeting moment to see the latest circus in AviTown. Ladies
> > calves
> > were becoming visible beneath their hemlines.
> >
> > Where there's a perceived need there's a capitalist prepared to
> > exploit the niche. Some might prefer the adage that necessity is
> > the mother of invention. Whichever agrees better with your palate,
> > the practice of attracting birds to artificial calls encouraged the
> > Audubon squeakers to
> > flood the market. And yes, Bob, I still have mine, attached to the
> > strap of
> > my binoculars. Hemlines rose to the knee but it is the devil's own
> > job
> > locating those small plastic vials of resin needed to revitalize
> > drying
> > timbers.
> >
> > As technology advanced so we had the bird call tapes and all one
> > needed was a portable player. At one point it came close to
> > absurdity. The challenge
> > was not so much whether or not one could recognise the call of a
> > particular
> > species but whether one could distinguish the Real McCoy from the
> > myriad of
> > frantic twitchers belting decibels of Pitta calls out into the
> > rainforest.
> > The era of the midi skirt had arrived.
> >
> > And so we have come to the ipod and its ilk. The mini skirt!
> >
> > Tastes remain personal. As a young man I was always attracted to
> > women in minis. As an older man. Some moralists have always loathed
> > the shortening
> > of the hemline, as if the two were somehow inversely linked - the
> > higher the
> > hemline, the lower the moral standard. Using calls to attract
> > birds seems
> > to be encountering similar trade winds and it depends on the tack
> > of your
> > boat as to whether it is the best thing since sliced bread or the
> > devil's
> > own concoction.
> >
> > I very much doubt whether those who don't will ever be convinced
> > that they should or those that do be persuaded that they shouldn't.
> > In a pastime
> > without official referees or rules set in concrete each birder will
> > proceed
> > in whatever manner they feel most comfortable with. After all some
> > birders
> > can twitch television programs - and set themselves strict
> > guidelines as to
> > what is or is not 'tickable'-. Who are we to say them nay?
> >
> > In the end I suspect that the words of Simon King may be a
> > reasonable compromise. His advice is to use the recorded call up
> > until such time as you hear the first response and then stop - never
> > to repeat the recording.
> >
> > Simon King, alongside the delightful Kate Humble, assists Bill Oddie
> > with the Springwatch and Autumnwatch programs produced by the BBC-
> > and therein
> > lies another tale of what can be done to attract the average person
> > in the
> > street to take an active interest in wildlife.
> >
> > Julian
> >
> >
> >
> > ===============================
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> > birding-aus.blogspot.com
> >
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