I second pretty much everything Haans has said. I do wonder why he seems
to encourage a twitter feed at the same time he laments the
fragmentation of sources of information, though. I too hail Jen's
efforts to forward news here for folks, concentrating on the more
interesting items that might otherwise languish on other forums. As for
this one, I doubt Miami University will start running ads or sharing our
addresses with unwelcome sources; it has reasonable rules understood and
observed by nearly everyone, and its sponsorship by the OOS and a major
university seeks to ensure an atmosphere of scientific inquiry and the
advancement of knowledge along with the personal enjoyment involved. The
proliferation of other forums on birding topics is healthy as well, as
they more often cater to chattier topics, etc., and fill out the
spectrum of sites available without crowding oil and water on a single
site.
        All in all, while I realize that once in a while a novice might post a
photo of a real rarity at the backyard feeder on another forum, I'd like
to see us all expect topics that nearly EVeryone on Ohio-birds will
relish to appear here as well.
Good birding to all,
Bill Whan

On 5/24/2013 8:49 AM, Haans Petruschke wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Last fall I noted the Findlay Prairie Falcon first got widely reported on
> the Birding Ohio Facebook Page and not the list serve.  That group now has
> more than 1600 members, and while it was the place to post rarities for a
> few months, it has evolved into a perfectly nice place where people post
> their photos and ask for identification help.
>
> Also noteworthy has been the development of real time posting of photos of
> rare birds from the field.  This first happened with the Brookside
> Reservation Western Kingbird.  We Ohioans seem to be on the leading edge in
> this regard, which has only become possible with the advent of "smart"
> mobiles and phone scoping.
>
> In the mean time some other pages have developed on Facebook.  Ohio Rare
> Bird Alert, which is dedicated to reporting rare birds and seems to be well
> used for that purpose.  Additionally, Listing Birds Ohio has become the
> place for more Birding related discussion and fun stuff related to the
> sporting aspect of Birds in Ohio. This seems to have also become a reliable
> forum for reports on rarities.
>
> At the same time it seems Jen Brumfield has become the clearinghouse for
> quick reporting of rarities.  If you call or text her with a find, she has
> a text group list and gets the word out quickly to everyone on that list.
>   This is sort of like the old phone trees of the 1970's and '80s but more
> rapid and perhaps egalitarian.
>
> Jen's efforts work much like a Twitter feed would, but there seems to be
> considerable resistance to getting a Ohio rare bird twitter feed up and
> running.  The resistance is not active, but just seems to be the result of
> people not understanding twitter and how it can be used for this sort of
> purpose, and the misconception that a "smart" mobile is needed to access
> the feed.  It is not as twitter will work with any phone capable of sending
> and receiving text messages.
>
> Meanwhile, this forum has not gone away and many birders make an effort to
> post here when something good is found in the field.  The major change
> being the list server is often the last place where word gets out.
>
> The really great thing from my perspective is how Ohio's birders are making
> every effort to communicate and get the word out about rare birds as
> quickly and widely as is possible.
>
> While most everyone now has a mobile it will be a few more years before
> everyone has a smart mobile which is more than just a phone.  Once 99.73%
> of the birding community have adopted "smart" mobile technology, it will be
> interesting to see how our communication again evolves.  As it is now, many
> of us are checking both the list serve and Facebook when we are in the
> field to make sure we are not missing something.  These tasks may become
> more automated as could happen with a twitter feed.  As this happens I hope
> our communication becomes less fragmented as is the current situation.
>
> A chilly 41 degrees on Gildersleeve Mountain this morning.
>
> Haans

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