for The Kestrel, the newsletter of the Rocky Mountain Naturalists
by Dianne Cooper
Looking for stuff on the internet to supplement your
curiosity about birding? Wondering how the internet can enhance your field
time? Here are a few digital resources:
ePapers.
One terrific web service
automatically searches
Twitter for you then spits out a
webpage that looks like a newspaper. It is called
paper.li
And you don’t need a Twitter
account to view these ePapers!
You will see photos, videos,
tweets, and headlines with links to blogs and major website articles.
ePapers you may enjoy are:
gathering every
tweet containing the tag #birding.
gathering all tweets tagged #bcbirding, #bcnature
and #birding as well as BC rarities tweeted by Russell Canning via his
twitter account: @bcbirdalert. I
started and update this ePaper.
But, Twitter is one of those “the
more the merrier” resources.
Twitter.
How can a name like that NOT appeal
to birders! Indeed, Twitter is being used by birders and birding organizations all
over the world to share sightings, their enjoyment of birdie happenings, news, blogs,
and photos.
How it works:
You start an account, then follow others who have similar interests
or people you may even know.
POST A TWEET – share small tidbits, links to your photos and blogs, or
whatever.
FOLLOW other tweeters and read their tweets
on your timeline = the list of yours
and their tweets.
SEARCH everyone’s tweets for stuff you are interested in.
Search for a keyword, such as ‘kootenay’ or one with a hashtag such as
‘#bcbirding’.
You can do this from your internet-connected
desktop, laptop, tablet (iPad, etc.) or if you are really digital, from your
mobile phone.
Who to follow:
@BCBirdAlert
@BCBirder
@birdchick
@burdr
@Birding_Is_Fun
@DianneBirdgCoo
@10000birds
@Birdingblogs
The BEST things about Twitter are …
There are myriad nature websites
out there! Information overload can strike. Twitter to the rescue! You can use
it like a headline service.
Maybe you have subscribed to email
alerts telling you when a website’s newsletters is updated – your inbox is
flooded, perhaps, or their emails are gobbled by your email filtering. But, you
want to see what’s new on those websites, it’s so confusing! You try to
remember their name, or find the link in the bookmarks of your internet
browser, but there are just so many!
Your timeline
If a website or organisation is
active and interesting, it will have a Twitter account and post notices of new articles,
or other Tweeters will mention a good article.
Once you follow their accounts or those of keen tweeters that forward links
(called ‘retweeting’ = ‘RT’) you can
simply browse the entries on your twitter page / timeline.
Your lists
Once you really get the hang of
Twitter, you can create sets of people you follow – say birders, for example – and create a list. Selecting a list shows
you only the tweets from people on your list.
Search
Search for any topic your heart
desires, anytime.
Yahoo groups around us:
Yahoo hosts webpages where you can
share your interest in birding by geographic location.
You need a Yahoo account. If you’ve misplaced your account name and
password, just start a new Yahoo account – and ‘write’ the info down somewhere
(see Tip below).
East Kootenay
groups.yahoo.com/group/ekootenaybirds/
West Kootenay
groups.yahoo.com/group/wkbirds/
BC Interior
pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/bcintbird/
Alberta
groups.yahoo.com/group/Albertabird/
Idaho
pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ible/
Montana
pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/MOB-Montana/
Above links are disabled to stop spambots. Just put 'http://' in front in your web browser
Most good groups require granting
of permission to join. Follow the instructions when you sign up.
Tip:
Store your passwords
Create
a Word or Excel file, copy and paste the web addresses into this file – they
should automatically become links that you can just click on; your internet
browser will open on that webpage.
After
you have created this file, right click on its name in your documents and save
it as a shortcut on your desktop so it will be handy for when you want to
browse your sites.
Bird and Song Identification
What Bird:
An online identification service
using your field observations to narrow down the possibilities.
Makers of the iBird series of bird
identification applications for mobiles (phones, tablets), this site
offers birders a unique interface to
identify a new species or check your id’s. You gotta see it to figure it out,
so take a look. It would be best used if
you have taken really detailed field notes or have a very good picture of a bird
in your mind.
Nature Instructor:
Browse by species to hear their
songs and calls from all over the continent. Quiz yourself.
Run by Environment Canada and
others, this site gives you access to a comprehensive set of bird songs, calls
and photos.
After listening to bird species’
songs from various parts of the continent, you will realize there is a lot more
variation than you thought.
You may have to contact them to set
up an account (participants in the Breeding Bird Atlas of British Columbia had
their accounts set up for them already, so, if you are registered with the BBA,
contact Nature Instructor for your user name and password).
All About Birds
Online field guide searchable by
species name.
Figure out the species you are
looking for by entering your guess in the search box, then browsing the species
accounts and similar species until you narrow it down. Browse a species’ sounds from the Macaulay
Library of bird songs; photos, videos, id tips, range, etc. Run by the Cornell
Lab of Ornithology which also does eBird, Project Feeder Watch, and much more.
User-contributed Web Compilations:
eBird
Share and compile your own sightings from anywhere in the
world.
With an account, you can see your life lists, your
geographical lists by Major Region, Country, State/Province or County (Regional
Districts of British Columbia), or a list of every place you have seen one
species.
Without an account, you can still browse lists, bar graphs,
and maps generated from all contributors’ sightings.
 |
| Thailand eBird hotspots |
Tip
Finding ‘hotspots’ to visit
Hotspots are good birding locations suggested by
eBirders and accepted by eBird to make data entry quicker.
If
you are going on a birding trip to a new place you can use this trick to find
hotspots:
pretend
you are going to submit observations then
use the ‘Find it on a Map’ feature to browse a map for the names and locations
in the region you are interested in.
Internet Bird Collection
Contribute to a user-based field
guide and browse it.
Comprehensive Websites
For a ginormous amount of serious
bird info, like if you are planning an international birding trip; or have a
lot of time to bird by armchair you can go to:
Avibase
Look up a bird species anywhere in
the world, in multiple languages and get all kinds of info and news.
Run by Bird Studies Canada,
Birdlife International and Denis Lepage – who also does all the web stuff for
the Breeding Bird Atlases.
Birding On The Net
Digital compliation of all links,
archives, and anything to do with birds, everywhere.
News, anything posted by anybody on
yahoo groups, aka ‘litserves’.
Run by J. Siler of Network
Solutions, in Drums Pennsylvania.
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