Seasoned birdwatchers are trading their old binoculars and notebooks for the latest gadgets in bird watching. From digital cameras, Palm devices with bird-species databases to iPods loaded with bird songs, the list is endless.
Today laser pointers are being used to identify birds perched on high branches as well as devices that play birdcalls. Professional alerting services, allow hard-core hobbyists to receive notices of local sightings on their cell phones. England-based BirdGuides Ltd., whose electronic-alert services have about 5,000 subscribers paying as much as $186 a year, are totally for hi-tech bird watching.
However , how good are mobile technologies replicating bird songs?
The National Geographic Society also sells sample calls loaded onto memory cards for use in handheld devices. The song libraries are meant to be identification guides, but they can be amplified and played through portable speakers to attract birds.
� Sometimes in the case of endangered birds these calls can confuse, they can distract birds from protecting or feeding their young.
� Wireless alerts can backfire when one tries to use stealth to pursue a bird. No one wants to be distracted by a ringing phone that makes the much awaited bird flee.
Therefore some companies encourage customers to limit the use of devices that play bird calls especially during nesting seasons.
Bird watching gadgets defy traditionalists for whom the whole point of birding is to commune with nature. This also reduces the jobs for field bird sighting guides. For some the joy of seeing their favorite birds overcomes all but others hate to enter forests loaded with a hoard of electronic gizmo’s.The best would be to go hi-tech bird watching but intelligently. How would you like to go bird watching?
Source: Ginesville
