Ideas from the Front Page

[Liis]

He has furnished us with a glosssary http://www.linnuvaatleja.ee/sonaseletused/...

So according to Margus Ots the English counterpart of "bongar" is "twitcher"

From the glossary it seems that getting around to catch a look at rarities - found and announced by others - is bonging, and collecting bird observations in general is birding.

Some highlights from the glossary
Bongarimasendus, Bonger depression: a state of mind resulting from not finding rare birds
Sender - the patron saint or good fairy of bongers, sending "raries" into the birder's way
Sponde - spontaneously found (own discovery) species; antonym: bonged species

[Felis silvestris]

Thank heaven all these "types" are no longer working like the Ornithologists of 19th century! "Interesting bird? Hm, let me get my gun and shoot it!" I am definitely a supporter of the bloodless hunt!

[leonia]

Thanks to Kaido sending me a new password I'm here again!

Hello everyone!

It was a funny evening: I was just translating the article of Margus Ots from English to German wondering what these words "Bonging" and "Bongers" should be. Than began to discuss with Felis silvestris who told me about the discussion here. Thanks to Liis we now know that Estonia twitchers are bongers.

[Felis silvestris]

Thanks to Kaido sending me a new password I'm here again!

Hello everyone!

Yes, it was a strange evening, but funny in a way

[Liis]

Thank heaven all these "types" are no longer working like the Ornithologists of 19th century! "Interesting bird? Hm, let me get my gun and shoot it!" I am definitely a supporter of the bloodless hunt!

"Interesting bird? Hm, let me get all my friends and let us go there to see it!" Even if the bird sits on top of a refuse dump, with well paved area all around, disregard of the whole environment and considering a bird outside all its normal context as a great "find" is somewhat difficult to understand for me.
"No bird is an island, entire in itself ..."

[macdoum]

Leonia (who still can't log on) and I just had the same discussion by email, and I found the old discussion through Google
viewtopic.php?f=8&t=20&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&start=160
She asked me to ask, if a bonger is a twitcher?

Alice knows all the terms, I'm pretty sure we've had this discussion before..

[Felis silvestris]

Yes, it is in the link I found for Leonia yesterday evening: viewtopic.php?f=8&t=20&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&start=160

[Liis]

I have the feeling that there may be different local subspecies to the group.

So, Jo, what is a twitcher? Do they call themselves that too? Where does the word come from?

At a guess, in Sweden they would rather describe themselves as members of the 300 Club - I think.
What about Germany?

[alice44]

I learned about Twitcher's in a murder mystery.

I still don't know if there is an American term for people who chase about after reported rare bird sightings.

I could and have driven to the dump (and the local airport) to look at birds -- although our dump has a pond for birds below the dump -- as the dump is a hill (formerly used for combat training). I think bird watching is so addictive because they are all around us not just in beautiful places. Our osprey nest was on a power pole -- they moved it, to its own pole, but it is still right next to the major road to the freeway as well as near the river. But of course we need to remember that they won't survive in our polluted noisy human environments if they do not have the back up of wilder areas. (The same might be said for us.)

[unp]

"Please don't call me a twitcher ever again!" - Discussion, feelings, origins --> HERE

[Kitty KCMO]

I think here in the USA the terms used are simply "birdwatcher" for the more casually involved (like me-- watch near home & yard mostly, do not travel specifically to see particular birds); & then there is "birder," for the person who is a more intensely involved hobbyist & will go long distances to see particular birds, keep a check list of sightings, etc. I've also heard the term "birding enthusiast."

[leonia]

In Germany the terms "Birder" and "Twitcher" as loanwords from English are used, as well as the original German term "Vogelbeobachter". The latter means an earnestly practised observation. A "birder" is a person somehow fixed on birdwatching and a "twitcher" is a person who ticks off those birds on a list he has already seen. One may for instance practise all those three sides of activities round birdwatching, just as the opportunities may be. But there are some not very popular people among birdwatchers who do nothing else than search for a rare bird until seeing it for a short moment, make a note with date and a picture and than search for the next one on the list.
From Margus Ots' selfdiscription I would call him a birder who sometimes searches for rarities, but usually seemes to practise birdwatching more seriously. From this sentence you may as well recognize that twitching is a bit unserious for us and seems like trophy hunting.
My friend (I would call him a birder) just told me that the Club of the 300 has members in Germany too, but he don't wants to have something in common with them.

[Jo UK]

Leonia, welcome back.
Was it just a password problem? I could have fixed that before Christmas, if I had known!
Good to see you here again.

[alice44]

For me a twitcher (this word is not actually used in the US) is someone who travels from rare bird sighting to rare bird sighting. I would not think that they would not sometimes just bird -- but that they find a thrill in the chase.

Keeping a day list, month list, home list, year list or life list seems rather normal


Most everyone I know is less patient than I am about watching the same old birds I see every day. I love watching our Bushtits (tiny grey birds that travel in big bunches and eat gnats in the bushes, always talking so they can keep track of each other). And the relatively giant Nuthatches that come to my feeder.

[Felis silvestris]

I must admit, that all those terms are new for me I have not really been in "birdwatcher circles". I always loved to watch animals and especially birds, but never met any "twitchers" or "bongers" ... But I can imagine in order to see a LSE, WTE or BS in nature, I could also travel somewhere.

[leonia]

Leonia, welcome back.
Was it just a password problem? I could have fixed that before Christmas, if I had known!
Good to see you here again.

Thank you Jo, I tried but didn't want to disturb your Xmas holidays
it's more or less a browser-problem, which courses the password-problem. I used Firefox in an older version, got more and more problems, a new firefox-version didn't work with some pages as well, so I remembered Safari, which I once had installed too. This worked with nearly every page, until I tried to return to Looduskalender- and a German Birdwatch-Forum. Safari gave me one Captcha after the other without accepting the carefully typed letters and numbers . . . So now I returned to the Forum with Firefox and use Safari elsewhere . . . Sorry: a bit off topic.

Bongers: I found some pictures showing birdpipes (specially for blue tit or mallard) with a plug similar to the one used in a Bong (Waterpipe), used for smoking Marihuana ore Hashish. At first I thought Bonging should have to do with birdpipes.

[macdoum]

The Birders,Twitchers and Bongers are all excited in England;

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-16515456

I suppose this should really go somewhere else

[Liis]

The Birders,Twitchers and Bongers are all excited in England;

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-16515456

I suppose this should really go somewhere else

All for one stray stowaway sparrow?
(it seems it is suspected to have come by ship)
But well - some decades later they can proudly tell children and grandchildren that WE WERE THERE and saw the ancestor of all hybrid Anglo-Iberian sparrows in UK ...

[leonia]

All for one stray stowaway sparrow?
(it seems it is suspected to have come by ship)
But well - some decades later they can proudly tell children and grandchildren that WE WERE THERE and saw the ancestor of all hybrid Anglo-Iberian sparrows in UK ...

I would be more interested to know what the sparrow's greatgrandchildren will once tell about their greatgrandfather's popularity . . .

. . . . . . . . . . . .

[Jo UK]

I saw the local TV news about this bird. The TV presenter first used the term "Twitchers" then went on to use "birdwatchers"

In the interviews, most seemed to be bird watchers, but there was one Twitcher who wanted to see something on his list, claiming he would charter boats planes, spend any amount of money to achieve that end!
So, Twitchers are wealthy people??