1826: Birdwatching

2017-04-19T17:10:55Z

MarkPfeifer: Fixed incorrect word - different --> difficult

{{comic
| number = 1826
| date = April 19, 2017
| title = Birdwatching
| image = birdwatching_small.png
| titletext = No, tell the park rangers to calm down, it's fine--I put a screen on the front. I just want to get the birds a little closer.
}}

==Explanation==
{{incomplete|Needs more information on birdwatching.}}

{{w|Birdwatching}} is an activity to observe birds. Usually this is done at a distance, as birds are flying in the air, and are far away. Cueball notes that even with {{w|binoculars}} (or a camera?), the birds are difficult to see because of their distance.

Cueball's solution is to use a {{w|vacuum cleaner}}, specifically a {{w|shop vac}}, to pull in the birds. This is physically impossible with such a small device. Even if the shop vac created a perfect vacuum, it can only pull out air at the speed of sound, which amounts to approximately 1 cubic meter per second considering the apparent size of the hose. This is not enough to create a significant amount of wind or affect the atmosphere.

The title text refers to {{w|park ranger}}s, who would naturally be distressed by birds being forced to coalesce via an extremely powerful vacuum. If such a vacuum were created and used for this purpose, it probably would pose a threat to said birds. Cueball says he has solved this problem by placing a perforated screen in front. In doing so, he can safely attract the birds without trapping them inside the vacuum. He implies that this should remove the danger to the birds, which is not the case. While the birds can no longer enter the vacuum itself, having a large number of birds pulled into a (presumably small) screen would probably fare poorly for the birds, so Cueball's solution is rather poor.

==Trivia==
This comic was originally published with a very large picture, much larger than the standard screen. The original image was named [https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/birdwatching_huge.png birdwatching_huge.png] (the image at that location has also been downsized to normal dimensions). It was later updated to use an image without the _huge in its name, at the usual size. While this unexpected size may have been interpreted as being part of the joke (the reader was only seeing an inconvenient subset of the magnyfied image through a screen, while Cueball was experiencing an inconvenient subset of the magnyfied sky through his binoculars), it seems it wasn't the case, as both the size and name of the image were later corrected.

==Transcript==
:[Cueball and Beanie Man are standing with camera and binoculars.]
:Cueball: Birdwatching is hard. They're all too small and far away.

:[Both raise tool eyepiece.]
:Cueball: That Hawk is over a mile up! How did you even spot it?

:[Both, lower eyepiece. Cueball looks down, fuming.]

:[Cueball now has a SHOP VAC and has it pointed to the sky.]
:Shop Vac: WHRRRRRR
:[Beanie Guy looks at Cueball, confused.]

{{comic discussion}}

explain xkcd - User contributions [en]

1826: Birdwatching