Thanks for the info, guys. I think there's no doubt computers of some sort
will replace notebooks, at least in some circumstances. I agree with
Scott; I would take much better notes if I had something on which to type
in the field, and something to record data automatically, as I hate
writing. I've used a GPS quite a bit, and they are wonderful, although
they are designed to be slightly inaccurate (only the military has the
pinpointingly accurate ones). You only know where you are within 50 m or
so, so no one could relocate a warbler nest just by using one, but they are
wonderful if you need no more accuracy than that. You can set a locality
in the memory, then use the machine to get you back to that locality after
hiking in the woods all day. I hope they keep coming down in price.

For routine bird censuses, for years I have suggested putting up a series
of microphones/recorders in all sorts of habitats year after year to do
bird censuses. You'd have to hire people to enter the song types and
frequencies in a database (employ more biologists/naturalists!), but it
would be most efficient to have song-recognition software that would record
species automatically, beaming the signals to a central computer. What a
way or an ongoing assessment of bird populations. But nobody ever listens
to me.....sigh.

At the same time, think how stifling it would be if you could just point a
wand at a bird and it would tell you what it was. Let's remember how to
read analog clocks, let's remember our multiplication tables, and let's
leave a little magic in field work!

Dennis Paulson, Director phone: (206) 756-3798
Slater Museum of Natural History fax: (206) 756-3352
University of Puget Sound e-mail: dpaulson at ups.edu
Tacoma, WA 98416