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February 23, 2006, Eastpoint, Florida

woodstrehl published on January 14, 1970

Definition - twitch - to seek out a rare bird based on a telephone or internet message (hotline) system. We twitched successfully this cool and foggy morning in Apalachicola, Florida. A fellow birdbrain, no birder, reported a current sighting of a tropical kingbird at Water and I Streets on January 20. We saw the message on the 21st, but had other plans for yesterday. Chuck reviewed the literature and decided that while it was possible we might find this bird in south Texas, it was by no means certain. So, we decided to make the forty mile trek this morning. The weather forecast was poor. Fog, cloudy, and a chance of showers. We might as well be in the car, and the coastal road looked interesting. The road was picaresque, but the Gulf was largely fogged in. We stopped at an old lighthouse and saw another great horned owl and our first chipping sparrows of the year. We crossed the long bridge across Apalachie Bay in the fog and found our way to the waterfront district. The directions said to look near the abandoned boat, but there was more than one. We parked and began walking. We saw cardinals and lots of "butterbuts" as usual. Then a yellow bellied bird flew across the road and landed in a small tree. Sure enough it was a flycatcher with a long sturdy bill. We enjoyed long views through the scope and attracted attention of locals who also enjoyed seeing this "Mexican bird." We visited the Gorrie Museum and saw a replica of the first ice-making machine. The original is at the Smithonian. It has always seemed appropriate to me that it was a Floridian who invented refrigeration. I didn't realize he was a physician and developed it therapeutically. We then drove out to St. George Island State Park to see its dunes and birds, but the dunes were blown away by Dennis and the park remains half closed. We lunched on the beach and saw the fog receed in the face of a strong westerly wind. We are returning to camp now and stopped at this branch library for internet access.

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Twitch
Mark published on February 23, 2006
Where do you get your twitching information? Is there a site that reports these sitings? By the way, you might be interested to see that Ding Darling is prominantly displayed in the wikipedia article on birding. Here is another definition of twitch:
Yesterday's post referred to 'listers' and 'twitchers' as branches of the BIRDING COMMUNITY. You probably already know that a lister is a birder who keeps track of birds spotted through the use of checklists ranging from simplistic to Byzantine. In order to answer the unspoken, but obvious questions, our birding word of the day is 'twitch' as in, "My first successful twitch was the Willow Ptarmigan." To twitch is to deliberately pursue rare birds to add to your life list. Twitch is a verb, but it may also be used as a noun. One who twitches is, of course, a twitcher. You may be one yourself. There is nothing wrong with twitching. I do it all the time. But twitching is very far to one end of the birding continuum. Twitchers will travel across the world just to see one special bird. They will brave the most adverse conditions and penetrate the most forbidding terrain. Twitching may be fun, but it is also very serious. Since 'twitch' is, to my knowledge, a U.K. term, I would like to quote Rich Bonser of British Isles Birding: "The pursuit of seeing rare species of bird, known as 'twitching', has developed into a culture in which individuals travel the length and breadth of the country in order to increase the number of species that they have seen. 'Twitching' involves a fanatical group of individuals who are obsessed about birds yet despite being rooted in this obsession with natural history, their traveling is a form of 'collecting' ? in a similar vein to philanthropists and train-spotters. The notion of 'twitching' contests the boundary between nature and culture and allows one to become increasingly aware of a community that is shaped by nature." And yes, the term twitch does have something to do with the spastic exultations a successful bird sighting has been known to induce.
Then of course there is the issue of whether twitching is politically correct. See this twitchers commentary:
I am a bird-watcher. Wouldn?t you think that was an innocent, enjoyable pastime, beyond the reach of the politically correct social reformers? It is not. They have stuck their unwelcome noses into my inoffensive hobby and I don?t like it. They tell me I mustn?t feed wild birds, I mustn?t attract birds by playing tape recordings of their songs, I must call birds by their officially endorsed names. They say it is reprehensible to be a twitcher. Their influence is such that many perfectly respectable twitchers disown the description. Well, I don?t see anything wrong with feeding birds (as long as you give them the right food and don?t let them become dependent on it). Attracting birds with tape recordings is okay by me in moderation. I reckon you can call birds whatever you like, it?s your business, and I am a twitcher. The Oxford English Dictionary defines a ?twitcher? as ?a bird-watcher whose main aim is to collect sightings of rare birds.? What?s wrong with that? I am proud to call myself a twitcher. Others are not. Once, on a bird excursion, when I stated openly that I was a twitcher, a woman actually flicked me with her jumper to express her absolute disgust. Can you believe it? Most people don?t stoop to physical violence, they choose not to believe me. They usually say something like, ?Sue Taylor calls herself a twitcher, but she isn?t really. Sue appreciates a bird?s beauty and enjoys observing its behaviour.? The implication is that people who appreciate a bird?s beauty cannot be twitchers. Let me tell you that they can!
- twitching
  woodstrehl published on February 25, 2006
  Yes, We're proud to twitch, and we observe and enjoy the birds, too. The starting point is www.birdingonthe.net. Once you get on the site, you pick your area. Let us know if anyone finds this helpful. Then you can be called Twitchers too.

Congratulations on your
marywoods published on February 24, 2006
Congratulations on your successful twitching. We saw pelicans, osprey, and anhingans, and a large iguana up a tree., Mary Helen saw a red fox on Sanibel.