Give ‘em a Day and the World Will Know
(Originally published April 6th, 2013 on http://scienceofbirds.blogspot.com)
A Spotted Redshank, an ABA Code 4, appeared in Goose Pond Fish and Wildlife Area in southern Indiana recently, and conveniently ended many of our wintertime birding blues. Tens of birders have gone to the chase, with people from at least 5 states appearing almost as suddenly as the bird itself to add it to their life lists, their overall experience with birds, and maybe even just for the thrill of the chase. The bird is stunningly rare, and its appearance in the center of the continent is mind-blowing to say the least, but something else mirrors my amazement with the bird: its first appearance was two days ago, and yet birders from around the entire east are already gravitating towards this bird. This bird, while providing too an example of the wonders of wandering shorebirds, provides an example of the effect the information revolution has had on even the outdoorsy and nature-oriented pursuit that is birding.
The curtain opens at 9:30 AM on Thursday, March 28th. The Indiana Birding listserv is enjoying the perks of the long-delayed springtime arrivals, and suddenly, a short and concise email about a Spotted Redshank at Goose Pond pops up nonchalantly, making followers of Indiana birding aware of Indiana’s first mega-rarity of 2013. In less than an hour, a series of forwards, re-tweets and shares bring the news across the east and probably further, and the web of information continues to grow. More people know about it with each hour, and by the end of the day, people are planning the chase for the next day or even that night. It’s still Thursday the sun has barely set, and a northern Illinois birder, for example, is preparing to drive halfway there that night, fruitlessly attempt to sleep in a motel, and drive down to it early Friday morning. I know that many of us can get lost in our various forms of technology and start to believe that this is normal, that this is expected, but taking a step back and looking at the greater scheme of things, this is truly miraculous.
What makes this even more mind-blowing is that we’re talking about an activity that focuses exclusively on nature in the outdoors. With an activity like birding, one wouldn’t immediately associate the use of today’s technology to such sophistication with the pursuit, but with further investigation, one would realize that birding is made of an extremely, almost unbelievably, connected bunch of people. Birding, through the years, has developed a system of codes, etiquette, and language to be used with modern technology. Birders use a myriad of blogs, email listservs, Twitter, almost every function of Facebook, and leave traces almost everywhere they go on the internet. Through these media, birders’ sightings and ideas make up one of the most publicly accessible, scientifically relevant, and under-appreciated conglomerates of information in existence, and yet it goes on unnoticed right under the noses of the media and the majority of the public. Amazing!
It’s this connectedness that made all the additions to the life lists and experience of a variety of birders possible, and that’s pretty darn cool. It’s one of the shining examples of the benefits of social media, and it does and doesn’t surprise me that it doesn’t attain more notice. Regardless, for those of you who can remember a time when the birding community was connected by a loose network of people who had each other’s phone numbers, you can really appreciate the change social media has made. In this way, though social media is often blamed for disconnecting people from nature and the outside world (not without merit), it has also been instrumental in connecting people all over the country to nature, be it for the first time, or as an enhancement to one’s previous experience. This is something I really appreciate, and I hope you all do too.
Just a few thoughts from out my way. Happy birding!
