birding-aus

Pelagidipphobia

To: "" <>, "" <>
Subject: Pelagidipphobia
From: Peter Shute <>
Date: Fri, 22 Jul 2011 19:06:24 +1000
"By definition it is the fear of dipping by missing a pelagic boat trip."

Would it be cruel of me to point out the similarities between this and some 
gambling behaviours I've heard of? Eg Making sure the weekly tatts ticket is 
bought in case the numbers finally come up, or not changing poker machines in 
case it's about to pay out.

I think there's quite a bit of gambling involved with birding. We bet our time 
and petrol money, etc, on every birding outing, sometimes quite a lot of it. 
Perhaps it's the occasional win that's part of the attraction.

There was a recent discussion here about techniques for finding grasswrens - do 
you walk or do you sit and wait? I've no idea which is really more successful, 
but I do wonder if part of the attraction of the walking technique is that you 
at least end up certain of feeling like you tried hard.

If the motives behind birding and gambling are in fact the same, I know which 
I'd rather do.

Peter Shute


--------------------------
Sent using BlackBerry




<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>
Admin

The University of NSW School of Computer and Engineering takes no responsibility for the contents of this archive. It is purely a compilation of material sent by many people to the birding-aus mailing list. It has not been checked for accuracy nor its content verified in any way. If you wish to get material removed from the archive or have other queries about the archive e-mail Andrew Taylor at this address: andrewt@cse.unsw.EDU.AU