In most cases, novices are welcome to join more experienced birders.
My love is an experienced birder; I'm a novice.
After Cornell got Gallagher's first sighting report, the ornithology lab excitedly sent down another experienced birder.
This count compiled by experienced and novice birders provides a capsule view of bird populations in a given area.
All of the activity starts early in the morning and runs through dusk and while experienced birders dominate the ranks, novices are welcome, too.
Any moderately experienced birder who had listened to recorded calls of ivory bills could recognize one.
Yesterday, the tramping and binocular-squinting were done by about 60 people - some experienced birders, some first-timers, some with names often seen in the society columns.
An experienced birder can pick out individual calls from the nocturnal cacophony.
Called pishing, this technique is recommended only for experienced birders.
As by far the least experienced birder on the tour, I gauged the impressiveness of this feat by the reactions of the others.