Ted and Scott,

You both make great points. I have my own opinions on gadgets. I don't own
a scope or binoculars but I do own a business phone with the Sibley Bird
Guide on it, but I don't ever play bird calls outside. That said but I
don't judge anyone who does (except for songs played during nesting season
and with sensitive and endangered birds).

I work for time for a conservation organization and one of our biggest
challenges is getting more folks involved in conservation. We need to get
more folks involved in nature. You protect what you love, and you love what
you know.

Some folks are more visual, some have an easier time with sounds. Lots of
folks like the tactile feel of books and others are more comfortable with
the lighter weight and ease of transport of electronic guides.

When i asked the question about the app for identifying bird calls, I was
asking for a good friend who heads up a conservation organization and was
trying to interest his daughters in birds and nature. They are quite
intrigued by electronics and he thought this would help inspire them by
enlightening them to the colors, shapes and feathers lerking in the
surrounding woods.

As Mark so thoughtfully pointed out, these are tools. Folks use different
tools for different reasons.

I so much appreciate all the passion on this site and welcome the
opinions...and the different ways people link into the natural world. I hope
we keep coming up with ways to involve more folks in saving the precious
resources that remain.

We should be find ways to include more folks and educate each other through
a supportive community.

Paul



On Sun, Sep 11, 2011 at 8:02 PM, Ted Ryan <coffeemonkey101 at comcast.net>wrote:

> I wonder if this conversation occurred when binoculars and scopes were
> introduced to bird watching. ?You can only bird with your own eyes!? say
> the purists. ?And you must bird naked, no clothing assisted bird watching!?
>
> Insanity is trying to project your idea of how to enjoy the natural world
> onto others.
>
> Ted Ryan
> Fredrickson, WA
> coffeemonkey101 AT comcast DOT net
>
> *From:* Guttman,Burt <GuttmanB at evergreen.edu>
> *Sent:* Sunday, September 11, 2011 4:16 PM
> *To:* tweeters at u.washington.edu
> *Subject:* [Tweeters] Phone apps
>
>
> Yesterday I went up to Edmunds, for their birding festival, and did my
> one-hour presentation on getting started in birding, as I?ve done at their
> festival for a few years now, and also at a few other festivals and other
> occasions. I begin by talking about the delights of birding,
> butterflying, botanizing, and so on that we all share in various ways. Then
> I explain one of the primary reasons I feel it?s important to talk to people
> about all this and why I wrote my little workbook about how to learn birding
> and enjoy doing it: because I see people in our society trying more and
> more to live in an artificial little electronic world, glued to computers
> and the internet and the little phone gadgets that are being programmed to
> do more and more. And I say, quite directly, that when I see people
> walking through a beautiful forest or a wildlife preserve, carrying their
> little electronic gadgets, typing on them, listening to them, being absorbed
> in that electronic world instead of the wonderful, beautiful world all
> around them, then I say to myself that we have become a truly sick society?I
> will go so far as to say a truly insane society.
>
> ** **
>
> So now I see my fellow Tweets asking about birding apps. And I can well
> understand the advantages of having essentially all the material in a book
> programmed into the little gadget, which is easier to carry and use, and
> which can play bird calls, as the book cannot do. I understand that. But
> now I see people asking whether there are apps that will do more?for
> instance, an app that will listen to the bird call and identify it. Someone
> writes about an app that will look at the leaves of a plant and identify it.
> Maybe there are apps that will look at a photo of the bird and identify it.
> And now, my friends, I say we have crossed a line and are in danger of
> making birding and butterflying and botanizing into insane activities, into
> non-human activities. For if you are asking for the gadget to do these
> things, you are asking the gadget to replace the human mind and the human
> heart. It is one thing to use a source of information to help you process
> the world with your own eyes and ears and your own human intelligence?to
> help you learn about the natural world and enjoy it. But when you ask the
> electronic gadget to do what humans should be doing?well, why not let the
> little gadget live your entire life for you? Maybe we can make gadgets
> that will select our food and drink and feed them to us and enjoy them for
> us. The Friends App will select your friends for you and keep sending
> them messages telling all about what you?re doing and thinking. The Music
> App will select music for you and listen to it and tell you that you?re
> really enjoying it. Wow!! We?ll never have to actually live our lives
> any more. Everything?everything!!?will be done for us electronically.
>
> ** **
>
> You wanna live in that world?
>
> Burt Guttman
> The Evergreen State College
> Olympia, WA 98505 guttmanb at evergreen.edu
> Home: 7334 Holmes Island Road S. E., Olympia, 98503
>
>
> ------------------------------
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>


--
Paul L. Bannick
Nature and Bird Photography
www.paulbannick.com
206-352-1940

The traveling exhibit based upon my first book, "The Owl and the
Woodpecker," is touring North America.
http://www.burkemuseum.org/owl_woodpecker/about.php

A smaller exhibit based upon the book is also touring Washington State. For
more information on hosting this exhibit see:
http://www.burkemuseum.org/booknow/traveling_owl_woodpecker_wa


For sample pages, book event dates and more information, see:
http://www.paulbannick.com
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