Birders: Tales of a Tribe

Rating:
Summary: Tales of a Tribe
Review: "So come on... Let's go birding. Remember - it's no more difficult than a hard day's shopping." An invitation to go watch birds would strike most of us with the distinct notion that there was a movie we had to get to instead, or a daytime television drama to watch, or a headache to sustain. And Mark Cocker can tell you that it is often much harder than shopping (his line is a bit of self-parody), for in _Birders: Tales of a Tribe_ (Atlantic Monthly Press), he has collected many stories about British birdwatching fanatics at the top of their form. There are growing numbers of people who deliberately set about watching birds, doing more than just looking at birds in the garden, and in many ways Cocker's book is an apologia, but it is also at times an exceptionally funny look at a hobby that may be something more than a harmless way to pass time pleasantly.

There are different types of birders. To be shunned is the "dude," who not only is a beginner, but a beginner with pretensions. There are the "robin-strokers," who do their watching from the living room window, of birds who come to the feeder. Neither term is what one friendly birder would use toward another. "Twitcher" is a perfectly good word, but it is probably used more by non-birders than birders, to refer to birders in general. Twitching, however, is more properly used to denote the pursuit of rare birds, and many of the funny stories in this book have to do with the twitching urge. Finding a rarity, being the first one to report it, is one of the ways a birder can make a reputation. We non-birders think that birders rank themselves by the length of the list of birds they have seen, but this is not so. Just seeing lots of birds to make a high list signifies that you have merely spent money, time, and mileage to tally up the numbers. A reputation among one's birding peers, however, is formed by being good enough at the endeavor to have a record of reliably spotting rare birds in the field, and subsequently providing the service to one's brethren of reporting the find so that others may participate, may verify, and may, incidentally, issue praise for a job well done. Though many of the stories here are funny, some are inspiring, and then there are shocking ones of birders who have actually lost their lives in various and surprising ways, pursuing their harmless hobby.

There are also fond portraits of the experts in the field. Birding is now practiced by millions, but it was not always so, and one of the profiles here is of Richard Richardson, who took a then socially unacceptable decision: "that birds are what mattered in life and that he would spend _his_ life birding." And that is what he did, to his own satisfaction and the improvement of the craft in others. In a surprising way, Cocker shows Richardson to have lived with "Courage _and_ imagination - now there are the coordinates for a life worth living." I would not have previously thought such terms would well apply to the life of a mere birder. While Cocker's account of his passion, and that of the many British birders described here, may not persuade you to share it, this brightly written summary can only promote understanding and even admiration for what birders do.

Rating:
Summary: The Excitement and Inspiration... of Birdwatching?
Review: "So come on... Let's go birding. Remember - it's no more difficult than a hard day's shopping." An invitation to go watch birds would strike most of us with the distinct notion that there was a movie we had to get to instead, or a daytime television drama to watch, or a headache to sustain. And Mark Cocker can tell you that it is often much harder than shopping (his line is a bit of self-parody), for in _Birders: Tales of a Tribe_ (Atlantic Monthly Press), he has collected many stories about British birdwatching fanatics at the top of their form. There are growing numbers of people who deliberately set about watching birds, doing more than just looking at birds in the garden, and in many ways Cocker's book is an apologia, but it is also at times an exceptionally funny look at a hobby that may be something more than a harmless way to pass time pleasantly.

There are different types of birders. To be shunned is the "dude," who not only is a beginner, but a beginner with pretensions. There are the "robin-strokers," who do their watching from the living room window, of birds who come to the feeder. Neither term is what one friendly birder would use toward another. "Twitcher" is a perfectly good word, but it is probably used more by non-birders than birders, to refer to birders in general. Twitching, however, is more properly used to denote the pursuit of rare birds, and many of the funny stories in this book have to do with the twitching urge. Finding a rarity, being the first one to report it, is one of the ways a birder can make a reputation. We non-birders think that birders rank themselves by the length of the list of birds they have seen, but this is not so. Just seeing lots of birds to make a high list signifies that you have merely spent money, time, and mileage to tally up the numbers. A reputation among one's birding peers, however, is formed by being good enough at the endeavor to have a record of reliably spotting rare birds in the field, and subsequently providing the service to one's brethren of reporting the find so that others may participate, may verify, and may, incidentally, issue praise for a job well done. Though many of the stories here are funny, some are inspiring, and then there are shocking ones of birders who have actually lost their lives in various and surprising ways, pursuing their harmless hobby.

There are also fond portraits of the experts in the field. Birding is now practiced by millions, but it was not always so, and one of the profiles here is of Richard Richardson, who took a then socially unacceptable decision: "that birds are what mattered in life and that he would spend _his_ life birding." And that is what he did, to his own satisfaction and the improvement of the craft in others. In a surprising way, Cocker shows Richardson to have lived with "Courage _and_ imagination - now there are the coordinates for a life worth living." I would not have previously thought such terms would well apply to the life of a mere birder. While Cocker's account of his passion, and that of the many British birders described here, may not persuade you to share it, this brightly written summary can only promote understanding and even admiration for what birders do.

Rating:
Summary: Too self-involved a book for this outsider to enjoy
Review: Although I generally love reading about birding and esp. the eccentric and obsessed birders among us, I found this book disappointing and could not make myself finish it. I don't think it was any British-ness about the characters that turned me off, unless we are to believe that a strong streak of pomposity and self-involvement are central to the British birder's character. The "those were the days" tone was not wistful, poignant, or nostalgic, but strangely superior and even curmudgeonly at times. To me, the book lacked the kind of approaches that make for good reading on the subject - objectivity, humor and/or vividly personal revelations. I just couldn't maintain any enthusiasm to continue reading about this particular tribe of more-significant-than-thou birders.

Rating:
Summary: Too self-involved a book for this outsider to enjoy
Review: Although I generally love reading about birding and esp. the eccentric and obsessed birders among us, I found this book disappointing and could not make myself finish it. I don't think it was any British-ness about the characters that turned me off, unless we are to believe that a strong streak of pomposity and self-involvement are central to the British birder's character. The "those were the days" tone was not wistful, poignant, or nostalgic, but strangely superior and even curmudgeonly at times. To me, the book lacked the kind of approaches that make for good reading on the subject - objectivity, humor and/or vividly personal revelations. I just couldn't maintain any enthusiasm to continue reading about this particular tribe of more-significant-than-thou birders.

Rating:
Summary: Tales of a Tribe
Review: English author Cocker (Rivers of Blood, Rivers of Gold, 2000, etc.) offers a combined celebration of and apologia for the national passion for birding, which in Britain provides both the thrill of high competition and the bonding of a cult. After 30 years of dealing with his own obsession for bird-watching (as it is somewhat more commonly known on this Atlantic shore), the author brings both experience and perspective to bear on the subject. However, novice birders should not expect a systematic treatise on advancing their craft. Cocker is much more interested in why than how, and he often lets his preoccupation with good form emerge in negative examples. Those who cannot deal properly with a bird's external anatomy, such as distinguishing between primary, secondary, and tertiary wing feathers, he asserts, may or may not be "bird lovers," but they're not birders. Expounding on perhaps the major difference between the way Brits and Americans typically pursue this fast-growing activity, he spends an entire chapter on the virtues of taking notebooks into the field and filling them up as fast and furiously as possible with sketches as well as text. The author is simultaneously at his best and most ambivalent in parables of fellow "twitchers," the (mostly) young bloods who have often dropped everything, including careers and spouses, to dash off somewhere far away for a glimpse of a rumored rarity. One friend and his wife, for example, cut short a US vacation and scramble back to England at word that a single Common Nighthawk has been spotted there (a rare occurrence) just a day after seeing nearly 50 of the same birds pass directly overhead in Cape May, New Jersey. Quirky and impulsive often beyond belief, some twitchers have been ultimately driven, the author effectively argues, to become among the finest interpreters on Earth of what nature can mean to human beings. Persuasive, idiosyncratic, and often quite amusing.

Rating:
Summary: In pursuit of a life list
Review: I don't doubt that persons uninitiated in the brotherhood of birding and who may have may picked this book up out of curiosity, after reading it may very well be tempted to say "life-list? forget that! Please, get a life!". Cocker understands and he has all the traits of a serious birder instantly recognizable to other members of the species. We are just a little bit defensive at times, especially when having to explain our obsession. And yes, we may be a touch overly sensitive but we do tend to react negatively to those goggle-eyed, mouth-slightly-agape ostrich-like stares of total incomprehension that usually greet us when describing our wondrous hobby. Cocker though is a great advocate because he has an abundance of that vital birding necessity - a self-depreciating wit - and a sense of humour that prevents taking oneself or their sport too seriously. That his adventures and "Tales of a Tribe" about BIRDERS are very well written just adds to the enjoyment of this book.

Cocker is not a mere bird-watcher. Outside of the US the UK has more of his particular species of birder than most other countries. This is the serious afficionado who travels cross country and around the world in pursuit of rare birds, spends good sums of money on gear such as photographic equipment and state-of-the-art optics. A person who right after introducing himself - "Hi, I'm Michael" - will prove that he's probably beyond recovery by asking "how many birds have you gone?" Were I living in the UK like the author I would be tagged as something colloquially known as a "Twitcher".

Each birder has a story about a particular quest that is their most memorable trip but few can match experiences with the characters that Cocker introduces us to. There's Clive Byers, a bird artist, who in pursuit of a rare bird trespassed on a farm and for which the farmer rewarded him by hosing him with liquid manure. Unpleasant as that certainly was it was largely harmless. Cocker shows that it's not always so and there can be dangers involved. He's poignant in telling the tale of the disappearance of a friend while on the trail of a rare Asian pheasant. His own encounters seem to have been fairly benign, and as he does throughout the book, he finds the humor. On a trip to Spain in search of great bustards he would not be denied. Most of us would speed up and keep driving if "immense white guard dogs the size of wolves" grabbed and twisted the door handle of our car with their teeth and gave us the "impression that these were carnivores used to getting their food from a tin can, one the size of a moving Citroen ZX". Cocker is happy to report that the dogs eventually "left us to concentrate on our mission" and he recounts a richly rewarding sighting of over two dozen extremely rare great bustards.

This book offers many enjoyable anecdotes about exciting birding trips. Equally as interesting as the birds is Cocker's insights into the birders themselves. Cocker has as much to say about our eccentricities as he does about the behavior of birds. It's not always clear which is stranger but as Cocker shows it's always entertaining. Most enjoyable of all is the joie de vivre with which he writes which is really what the best birding experiences are all about anyway.

Rating:
Summary: Doesn't capture the joy I get from birding
Review: I love bird-watching and have spent many happy hours around the world behind a pair of binoculars but this book captures very little of the joy I get from watching birds. Yes it's occasionally funny and occasionally well written but most of the time it consists of little more than the birder equivalent of name dropping. I came away with a strong feeling that birding is a clique of people who feel that they are the only people who know what real birding is.

Rating:
Summary: twitching personified
Review: I really enjoyed this book, partly because I am British birder in exile so it reminded me of home, but also because I could identify with many of the characters it describes.

At times I got the distinct impression that the author was writing it for himself rather than anyone else, and I mean that in a positive sense. Some of the tales are deeply personal and reflective, and yet never cloyingly nostalgic. The book recounts one man's obsession with birdwatching, but also his obsession with other birdwatchers : clearly great subject material due to various eccentricities. There are some very funny tales of long trips to see birds in Britain and abroad, some of the best ones of course being when it all goes horribly wrong. There are some very British characters and places in the book which non-UK folk may be slightly nonplussed by, but overall, I would recommend this book to them.

The chapters are distinct and so it's the kind of book you can dip into here and there, rather than one long narrative sequence.

It's a lot of fun, and some of the birds and scenes are so vividly described it made me want to book a flight there and then to see some of these thing. Maybe I will, one day......

Rating:
Summary: twitching personified
Review: I really enjoyed this book, partly because I am British birder in exile so it reminded me of home, but also because I could identify with many of the characters it describes.

At times I got the distinct impression that the author was writing it for himself rather than anyone else, and I mean that in a positive sense. Some of the tales are deeply personal and reflective, and yet never cloyingly nostalgic. The book recounts one man's obsession with birdwatching, but also his obsession with other birdwatchers : clearly great subject material due to various eccentricities. There are some very funny tales of long trips to see birds in Britain and abroad, some of the best ones of course being when it all goes horribly wrong. There are some very British characters and places in the book which non-UK folk may be slightly nonplussed by, but overall, I would recommend this book to them.

The chapters are distinct and so it's the kind of book you can dip into here and there, rather than one long narrative sequence.

It's a lot of fun, and some of the birds and scenes are so vividly described it made me want to book a flight there and then to see some of these thing. Maybe I will, one day......

Rating:
Summary: Birding at its worst
Review: I'm an avid birder, but this book was very disappointing. Filled with, at most, mildly amusing anecdotes about obsessive people "twitching" (as the Brits call it) to add to their country lists, I had trouble finishing it. This is birding at its most fatuous. The author concedes that chasing rare birds has no intrinsic value, bringing into question whether reading about the chasers has any value, either.

Kenn Kaufman's "Kingbird Highway" and George Levine's "Lifebirds" are much better books that capture the joy of birding and transcend the pointlessness of mere listing.