From yesterday's Wall Street Joournal:

> -----Original Message-----
> 
> Subject: WSJ--Why Birdwatchers Now Carry iPods And Laser Pointers
> 
>  February 26, 2007, The Wall Street Journal PAGE ONE
> 
> Why Birdwatchers Now Carry iPods And Laser Pointers Devices 
> Help Spot, Call, Identify and Spread News; The Noise of 
> Wireless Alerts By ANDREW LAVALLEE February 26, 2007; Page A1
> 
> Birdwatchers have long headed into the woods with little more 
> equipment than binoculars and a notebook. But when Laura 
> Erickson sets out on a birding trip, she now brings along two 
> digital cameras, a Palm device with a bird-species database 
> and an iPod loaded with bird songs.
> 
> "I used to be a very low-tech person," says Ms. Erickson, a 
> 55-year-old ornithologist in Duluth, Minn. "It's become such 
> a high-tech kind of thing, with so many people carrying so 
> much equipment now."
> 
> Earlier this winter, she used a parabolic microphone in her 
> backyard to record the sounds of woodcocks three-quarters of 
> a mile away. "That doesn't seem any more cheating than using 
> binoculars" does, she says.
> "But to some people, that would just be a horrifying thought."
> 
> Indeed, many traditionalists who think that the whole point 
> of birding is to commune with nature bristle at the 
> technology now available to the modern birdwatcher, from 
> laser pointers used to identify birds perched on high 
> branches to devices that play birdcalls. Professional 
> alerting services, already popular in the United Kingdom and 
> springing up in the U.S., allow hardcore hobbyists to receive 
> notices of local sightings on their cellphones or BlackBerrys.
> 
> "I have seen good friends in the field that looked like 
> electronics stores when they came down the trail," says 
> Richard Payne, president of the American Birding Association, 
> a Colorado Springs, Colo., nonprofit that counts about 18,000 
> members. "It's not my style."
> 
> According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, 46 million 
> Americans observed, fed or photographed birds in 2001 -- the 
> most recent year for which it has data -- and they spent 
> $6.01 billion on binoculars, cameras, film, field guides and 
> other stuff.
> 
> "For me, it's much more about the simple joys of discovery. I 
> appreciate what technology can do, but I don't want the 
> distraction, and I don't want a barrier," says Tim Abbott, a 
> 38-year-old birder in North Canaan, Conn., who confines 
> himself to binoculars. "I don't want to spend all my time 
> wishing I could recharge my computer so I could get the bird 
> atlas going."
> 
> Terry Hunefeld, a retired sales coach in Encinitas, Calif., 
> recently saw an American oystercatcher in nearby Point Loma. 
> "It was a big find," he says of the large bird, identified by 
> its long, red-orange bill. He got a good look and then 
> reached for his BlackBerry, firing off text messages to 
> several friends. Six of them showed up in time to see the bird.
> 
> The device came in handy again when he encountered a crested 
> caracara, a raptor rarely spotted in Southern California. "A 
> rare bird, when you find it, could be gone in two minutes. 
> But it could also be there for an hour or two," so getting 
> the word out quickly is key, he says.
> 
> When a long-billed murrelet, a seabird that normally lives 
> near the Pacific Ocean, was seen in southwest England in 
> November, more than 1,000 birders hurried to the site. Many 
> were notified by one of the bird-alert services. "You could 
> practically hear the stampede," says a spokeswoman for 
> Sheffield, England-based BirdGuides Ltd., whose 
> electronic-alert services have about 5,000 subscribers paying 
> as much as
> $186 a year.
> 
> Rival Rare Bird Alert, in Norwich, also notified its 
> 1,000-plus subscribers about the sighting. It advertises that 
> its news service is staffed 15 hours a day, 365 days a year. 
> "People have walked out of weddings, people have walked out 
> of their jobs, to see a bird," says a spokesman for the company.
> 
> Discussions over the use of technology in birding can 
> "sometimes get a little bit steamy," says Paul Green, 
> director of citizen science at the National Audubon Society 
> in New York. "This community is a very complex one."
> 
> One point of contention is the use of mobile technologies 
> that replicate bird songs. MightyJams LLC, in Atlanta, sells 
> an iPod loaded with its BirdJam software and sample songs of 
> 650 birds. The National Geographic Society also sells sample 
> calls loaded onto memory cards for use in handheld devices. 
> The song libraries are intended as identification guides, but 
> they can also be amplified and played through portable 
> speakers to attract birds.
> 
> The American Birding Association's code of ethics advises 
> against the tactic for rare or endangered birds because it 
> can distract them from protecting or feeding their young. 
> "It's a very kind of personal, selfish thing to do," 
> Audubon's Mr. Green says.
> 
> Denese Van Dyne, one of the partners of MightyJams, says the 
> company is aware of the controversy over the use of recorded 
> calls and encourages customers to limit their use during 
> nesting seasons. "We have an admonition in all our ads: 
> 'BirdJam is a powerful tool. Please use it responsibly.' "
> 
> Camera flashes are similarly disruptive, and laser pointers, 
> which some use to point out a hard-to-see bird, also pose 
> risks, according to the American Birding Association. "Some 
> people have a tendency to take that laser pointer and point 
> it right at the bird, i.e., on the bird's body, which is 
> really a mistake," says Mr. Payne, the group's president. A 
> laser pointer can injure a bird's eyes.
> 
> Also, wireless alerts can backfire when one tries to use 
> stealth to pursue a bird, he says. "I don't want to be 
> disturbed by someone's cellphone ringing out in the field. 
> And that's happened to me before."
> 
> Lillian Stokes, a well-known figure in U.S. birding, says she 
> has taken advantage of technology -- within limits -- to help 
> her spot birds. In September, Ms. Stokes, who with her 
> husband, Don, has written popular field and audio guides, 
> coordinated a hawk-watching trip in New Hampshire. The 
> birders, equipped with cellphones, split into two groups and 
> hiked on mountains 15 miles apart. When Ms. Stokes saw a bald 
> eagle headed toward the other group, at Crotched Mountain, 
> she phoned in the alert. Someone returned the favor when an 
> eagle was spotted heading toward Ms. Stokes's location on 
> Pack Monadnock.
> 
> Both groups saw eagles they otherwise would have missed. 
> Technology is coming into birding "big time," Ms. Stokes says.
> 
> Still, some birders prefer to keep things simple. Merrill 
> Webb, a 65-year-old biology teacher in Orem, Utah, says that 
> even though he often uses a laser pointer in his classes, the 
> thought of taking it outside has never crossed his mind. To 
> draw out birds, he uses man-made sounds, a practice called 
> "pishing," certainly not an iPod. "I tried using one of 
> those," he says. "I couldn't keep it charged."
> 
> Write to Andrew LaVallee at 
>   URL for this article:
> http://online.wsj.com/article/SB117226240759417633.html
> 
>   Hyperlinks in this Article:
> (1)
http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/media/American-Woodcock.mp3
> (2)
http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/media/Crested-Caracara.mp3
> (3)
> http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/media/American-Oysterca
tcher.mp3
> (4) http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/media/Bald-Eagle.mp3
> (5) http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/media/Least-Tern.mp3
> (6) mailto:[log in to unmask]
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