Askewed Birding Anorakism

Birding's a funny ol' game he said in cliched fashion.

I have often felt uneasy about, for lack of a better term, "Birding Culture". 

You can't stop it, I realize that, it's inevitable. Most subsections or tranches of society will invariably go down the route of developing their own customs, idiosyncrasies and terminologies. 

It still, however, more often than not, feels off to me, especially the creation or incorporation of language for our own purposes. 

Dipping, stringing, even the use of the word Gank, (which I generally adore) can at times feel weird for me. An aberration of the English language.

It's consequently ironic, therefore that I would engineer a term to describe an aspect of birding.

Askewed Birding Anorakism, hereafter referred to as ABA, is a term I use to describe a particular mindset in birding. I describe this as any birding viewpoint which refuses to, or simply can't, touch base with reality or how the rest of the human populace works. It is that askewed view that the world works in a fashion that should facilitate your birding and seeing birds at all times.

Muppets - Today's Sesame Street is brought to you by the phrase Askewed Birding Anorakism

I suppose I've always been aware of it, but the first time I was really jolted by it, was many years ago, when a Roller turned up in Britland.

The bird turned up in the grounds of a nuclear power plant, and there were some out there complaining that security at the facility was not allowing birders in to view the bird.

Amazingly, when I tried to point out that maybe security SHOULD be highly restricted at a nuclear facility, I was accused of being controversial for the sake of being controversial.

Wow.

Luckily there were some sensible bodies there to shout down that idiot, but the insanity of it, the sheer blinkered incapacity for rational thought astounded me.

I've seen other, less bonkers, but still out of touch ABA scenarios since. 

Debating whether or not to vote for brexit on the basis of how it might affect your British list is..a tad pathetic, but singularly harmless one could say. (Well, except for your economy but who cares about that)

Recently it was discussed online that the Western Palearctic Big Year team, currently zipping around western Europe, broke into a reserve in Spain in order to add Elegant Tern to their year list. They then kinda went bragging about it, detailing their ninja-like stealth in doing so in a blog post. This was stupid. 

It was just stupid. They admit this themselves.

What was even more surprising, however, was how many applauded them for doing so, even when they admitted wrong doing.

I've birded a lot in Spain. I'm sure many people are aware how seriously they protect their reserves, and for good reason. There have been wildlife crimes committed in the past. Parts of the peninsula have been fighting wildfires this year etc etc. Sites like this can't discriminate between well meaning birders who would mean no harm or some young fellas out to drink a slab of cans around a campfire. The rules exist for a reason and it's not to twart an unforeseeable attempt to gain the highest year list within an arbitrary boundary on a map.

Askewed Birding Anorakism is born of obsession. Not necessarily the good kind of obsession, that might lead to amazing discoveries or vital social change, but that weird "that guy keeps his toenail cuttings in jars" kind of obsession.

 

That's not pasta...

When did we start applauding that? That inability to control one's own mind and behavior? Conflating the "oh my God I MUST see that bird at all costs" with dedication?

The recent Pallas's Grasshopper Warbler in Norfolk in Britland is to me, symptomatic of the same thing. 

 

Twitchers abusing wardens who have asked them to leave property they shouldn't have been on. 

Now don't get me wrong. At the end of the day it's probably inconsequential (though I guarantee you the people who say that loudest will also cry loudest if the next major bird there is subsequently suppressed). 

It's all nonsense. Birding itself is nonsense. I concede that. 

Personally though, I could stand to see this particular breed of nonsense disappear.

EDIT - June 2020

The latest best example has been British Twitchers coming over to Ireland during the pandemic for Cayenne Tern, ignoring Irish government restrictions.

Apparently, some of those have been very critical of others breaking lockdown in Britain.

Anorakism