Geeking Out is for the Birds

It’s been fascinating to watch the evolution of nature-lovers and technology. When I first began bird watching, for example, we took our binoculars and we — get this — went outside. You went places where you had heard — by speaking to other people — that birds might appear. Then, if you were lucky, you saw them. Getting high-tech meant you brought along a spotting scope.

Then audiotapes came out that allowed you to hear songs without actually being around birds. That was cool! Cassettes meant you could play them in your car, or Walkman. Cutting edge. Once desktop computers became common, you could track your sightings and sort and re-sort your life lists, ad infinitum. Hand-written journals became so yesterday.

Then came the Internet, which made it possible to e-mail your field sightings for other birders to read. I remember being enthralled with tracking songbirds as they migrated north by reading each state’s listserv reports. Two days ago hummingbirds were spotted in Georgia; yesterday in North Carolina, today in New Jersey! Suddenly, you were psychic, virtually psychic! You knew when the first red-winged blackbirds would arrive in Nashua — because someone had just posted their sighting in Massachusetts last night.

And it just keeps going. There are webcams devoted to watching nest-boxes all over the world, podcasts from birding geeks (also known as BEEKs) and of course, blogs, blogs, blogs. And don’t forget about tweeting about birds on Twitter!