What Do the Birders Know?
By BRIAN KIMBERLING
Published: April 19, 2013
A BIRD-WATCHER is a kind of pious predator. To see a new bird is to capture it, metaphorically, and a rare bird or an F.O.Y. (First of the Year, for the uninitiated) is a kind of trophy. A list of birds seen on a given day is also a form of prayer, a thanksgiving for being alive at a certain time and place. Posting that list online is a 21st- century form of a votive offering. It’s unclear what deity presides.
see http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/21/opinion/sunday/what-do-the-bird-watchers-know.html?ref=opinion for further analysis of birding activity and of the value of birding observations …
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