• Bird Accessories,  Bird Book,  Bird Field Guides,  Uncategorized

    A Bird Book and the Hospital

    bird bookToday I was supposed to write about the term bird book. But instead I sit in the intensive care unit at Shore Memorial Hospital one block from the bay in South Jersey. I did notice some rather large sea gulls early this morning by the marina.

    My mother is not doing so well, she’s had a heart attack, and when they went to move her to do the stent, they discovered pneumonia had set in along with a blood infection. So now it’s complicated as she’s on a ventilator to breathe easier. This person doesn’t look like my mother, who walked into the hospital just last week with all her faculties about her, of sound mind, now in an induced coma.

  • Bird Accessories,  Bird Book,  Bird Field Guides,  Uncategorized

    Audubon Bird Field Guides Go Mobile

    Nature at Bird Watchers’ Fingertips!

    North American Guide to Birds app now available on iPhone and iPod Touch.

    Woodstock, Vt. (Nov. 20, 2009) – The best-selling series of National Audubon Society bird field guide books have gone mobile, putting the most authoritative and comprehensive birding information at the fingertips of iPhone and iPod Touch users.

    The Audubon Guide bird app provides a wealth of interactive information in a mobile package, giving bird lovers a fun and exciting experience that makes bird watching richer, more informed and instantly sharable. The bird app along with others in the Audubon Guides series is now available in the reference section of the apps store in iTunes.

    “Mobile platforms allow field guides to be used to explore nature in fun and interactive ways that are not possible with printed books,” said Andrew Stewart, publisher of Green Mountain Digital, the electronic publishing company that created the Audubon Guide app series in alliance with the National Audubon Society. Features like bird calls, GPS-location and the ability to share outings with family and friends are just a few finger taps away. These new apps transform field guides as we know them.”

    From Chickadees to Condors, the Audubon Guide bird app covers more than 740 species of birds with information on appearance, habitat, behavior, diet, nesting, mating, migration, endangered status and more. Features include thousands of professional color photos, more than 2,200 bird sounds, and range maps for each species. Every species in the app is described with rich and detailed information updated from the book versions: all accessed wirelessly and in real time through elegant, interactive and intuitive search features. Search parameters include common and scientific names, family, shape, range, habitat, color, and size.

    “This is a giant leap forward in connecting people with the nature that surrounds them,” said John Flicker, president of the National Audubon Society. “And it’s the first step in building a commitment to protecting the wonders this app will help a new generation discover and savor.”

    The apps’ geo-location search features also allow users to find which bird species are located in any zip code, state or region. A universal dashboard enables navigation back and forth between species information, search functions, sightings, and more. When loaded onto a user’s iPhone, the apps work independently of cell phone connectivity.

    Other innovative functions include the ability to create personalized life lists, post GPS-enabled bird sighting lists, and upload user-created photo albums.

    The Audubon Guide bird app is supported by AudubonGuides.com, a free companion Web site that syncs with the app, providing a lifetime of automatic updates. The Web site features all of the comprehensive subject matter found on the app, as well as scientific news, user forums, articles and blog posts contributed by nationally recognized scientists and naturalists.

    “The Web site really adds to the overall Audubon Guide user experience because it includes all of the information contained in the app as well as contributions by app users themselves,” said Stewart. “As people share their birding experiences on the site, we’ll see it becoming an increasingly useful tool in the research and cataloging of the natural world.”

    The Audubon Guide bird app is now available in Apple’s iTunes store at the introductory price of $19.99. Three additional apps in the Audubon Guides series – Wildflowers, Trees and Mammals – are being offered at the introductory price of $9.99 each.

    Birds, Wildflowers, Trees and Mammals will be followed in the next few months by mobile guides to Insects & Spiders, Butterflies, Fish, Reptiles & Amphibians, Seashells, Seashore Creatures, Mushrooms, Whales & Dolphins, and many other subjects. In this way, the Audubon Guide app series looks to deliver all of nature to consumers’ fingertips.

  • Bird Accessories,  Bird Book,  Bird Feeders,  Tube Bird Feeder,  Uncategorized,  Wild Bird Feeders

    Some Forums Better than Bird Books

    bird books

    Recently I was milling through some birding forums, and was pleasantly surprised to find some great information there! I mean real, useful, and practical tips for backyard birders.

    Here’s a great idea you won’t find in bird books:

    A person wrote of a great solution to the too-well known problem with tube feeders.  The seed condenses and clogs at the bottom…happens all the time.  This person took their bird feeder apart and placed a few ping pong balls in the bottom.  Sounds kinda crazy but solves the problem of clogged tube feeders!

    The seed disperses around the balls instead of clumping up at the bottom of the feeder…genius!