Quoting John Watson but failing.......o doing so manually " Curiously, I'm not sure I've ever heard any birders use the word "Twitcher" - and "Bird Spotter" (for me) is intolerable & will be corrected. Though most of us have done the odd crazy thing (Fraserburgh & back in a day for a Ross's, then finding 2 more?). The term "birder" is far more comfortable & generalised - but too boring for a TV pseudo-documentary
"Bird Watcher / Bird Spotter "seemed to be a Yorkshire term when I grew up and my relatives over there high in local RSPB groups still use it. They were using it a few weeks ago when we went on a trip to Scotland.
In Cheshire and Lancashire I've been tongue whipped a few times "Its Birding lad, Birding". (At Burton RSPB). And cripes the tongue lashing I got at Budworth when I'd come back from a period of working in America and said to a lady asking what birds I'd seen I mentioned "Common Merganser" on the mere were the first I'd seen that second winter. "You haven't seen any Common Mergansers, they are Goosanders. Now wash your mouth out!".
Bird spotting - need to know what birds look like and they can be anywhere. Quite tricky especicially at the echelons on the 'sport'/twitching (esp before the info services made it onto everyone's mobiles.......I still remember being at my aunt and uncles in the early 1980s, they had no phone so the Shefield recorder phoned my uncles neighbour to tell him if there was something local to go for....the message usually got passed on in a couple of days).
Lorry spotting - bit trickier can take many routes, random migration north south up and down the tramping roads, gets rebranded as companies get taken over and Stobards/Richardsons/Culina gets lumped into one species. At least one skill level below bird spotting.
Train spotting, limited liveries, numbered, run on timetables (in theory ) generally found on railway tracks. Lets say one or two skill levels below Bird spotting.
I work in the electricity supply industry......
.........we encounter on our land Pylon spotters. Where is the fun / skill in that? We concrete the pylons into the ground. They don't move. To make sure they don't move we tie them together with the electricity pipe wires. 99% of the UK Pylons are of the same 3 designs. So at least three skill levels below bird spotting. Yet it exists......
I think this just shows the great British value of eccentricity and I hope it grows into the next generation if we can get the teens out their bedrooms off their X-boxes.....................otherwise humanity is definitely doomed.
For some there's an element of OCD - but the same goes for many other hobbies or passions.
You're not wrong, that was the whole premise of at least 2, if not more (I got a whisper that more were planned even if they eventually weren't made!), programmes, each one looking at different hobbies and the general 'obsessional' nature of them. I especially remember the butterfly one too! So that was what they were showing, exactly what you said
Off the subject a bit but this thread will be a very short one otherwise
There was the one film about the flash , Pennington Flash - for some unknown reason called Erics Flash when Eric was just someone who was in charge of the rangers at the time at Penny. In fact many birders had been doing the flash and local conservation for half a century before Eric got involved, also there was a NW programme, I havent seen since it was broadcast, following Frank Horrocks birdwatching on Astley and Chat Moss . The following weeks one on Ferreting for rabbits on Pennington Flash is still available on youtube showing local young lads chasing rabbits with Ferrets and dogs ,although don't watch it if your squeemish as it was a different world back in the 1970s , still its a part of local social history . (I knew all those lads) of what life was like in a northern pit town , the sub titles are because no one understands anyone from Leigh except Leythers link to it below.
https://youtu.be/eDsZHJs5Z3U?si=BoampmZpS7c6mWvh
The reason there are not a lot of birding , twitching tv programmes is that for 99.9 % of the population , it just doesnt interest them and they just think birders and expecially twitchers and all are nutters that may as well be train spotting, and even now after 50 years of birding my patch I still find it slightly arkward and get strange looks when people ask what I do as a hobby and I say I go birdwatching and have done all my life , they usually say ha one of those twichers or immediately go off the subject and never speak of it again lol
Curiously, I'm not sure I've ever heard any birders use the word "Twitcher" - and "Bird Spotter" (for me) is intolerable & will be corrected. Though most of us have done the odd crazy thing (Fraserburgh & back in a day for a Ross's, then finding 2 more?). The term "birder" is far more comfortable & generalised - but too boring for a TV pseudo-documentary
Using the label "Twitcher" hides the huge variety of passionate interests - enjoying nature, getting fresh air, compiling lists, exercise, getting away from home, conservation, etc, etc. For some there's an element of OCD - but the same goes for many other hobbies or passions. So what?
For me, I often think of it as a "treasure hunt", and who can argue with that?
To answer your question about Twitchers: A Very British Obsession, Andy, myself and 3 mates were an inkling away from being in it
Myself, Malc Curtin, Pod Antrobus and Phil Woollen were asked by a freelance TV producer to do a test programme about twitching. He joined us several times, we had 2 vehicles and we filmed lots of scenes, did several twitches and he interviewed us all one to one! We were asked to ham up the scene a wee bit nd we went through a few weeks f shooting it. The idea was then passed on to the production company that did the final programme and we didn't feature. We were all relieved that we'd dodged a bullet as the final programme made Twitchers look like obsessed, overgrown schoolboys, chasing around and being silly (so what's new ?!!!).
So the answer is we helped in the very beginnings of the idea, and the 'pilot' for it, but thankfully never made it onto the small screen Somewhere our footage may be lurking..........
When I first bought into satellite TV there was a channel called 'All Bird TV' which was produced in, and focused on, birds in the US. It was hosted by a Dr Smith (can't remember his first name) who was wacky even by American standards, but he was ultra-enthusiastic about birds. It was truly superb and really fired my interest in the birds of the States. I had the whole series on video tape and studied it for identification hints before several of my trips out there. Those were the days.
Theres one on YouTube called Encounters -Twitchers from 1996. There are a few well known faces on there including several from the NW. Its an amusing watch.
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Of course we had the Twitchers: A Very British Obsession from the BBC. A interesting programme with personality famous in the twitching world (anyone here featured in it?).
Then The Big Year, the 2011 American observational comedy film starring comedy heavyweights Steve Martin, Jack Black and Owen Wilson in a fun filled romp along to out big year each other.
One I've been sent recently links to is the Youtube film LISTERS: A Glimpse Into Extreme Birdwatching https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zl-wAqplQAo. It seems a segue of the two above (albeit obviously focussing on American birds so perhaps that's why non of you Manchester birders have mentioned it) but has no right to be such a well produced self funded Youtube video with interest, intrigue, plot and birds. I think I might miss watching The Traitors final on Thursday to get this one watched in peace whilst the wifes watching the BBC!
Of course we have the great proper nature documentaries by Attenborough et al, this was more a Q about the warts and all end of birding / twitching / listing.
Thinking about it I might do one for Moore NR "A Patchers Year #12". Which is a repeat of "A Patchers year #11" (if you blink and miss the Yellow-browed Warbler), which is a repeat of "A Patchers Year #10" etc etc
) generally found on railway tracks. Lets say one or two skill levels below Bird spotting.
