Jumping!
We are the end of the intros and the beginning of the start. I am about to present the plan of the e-book and the blog series that will build it. In a way it feels like I imagine parachuting feels like. A great abyss below me and I still jump – hoping the parachute will open. To land this project in a timely manner I rely on the parachute. I will still need to direct the chute to get to the right landing place…and I will still have to land it myself. Without it? Crash landing!
I have asked many of my blogging and social media friends to help me out. To be my parachute. I haven’t given them much lee time, so I am still waiting for some replies. I will not compromise anyone by naming them here if they have not yet confirmed. Check back again and again to see who have confirmed to be part of the project.
I am aware that this is a new approach to birding. It scares me. It probably scare others. I met resistance from some birders on Facebook. I am not selling anything. I am giving away. Maybe that wasn’t clear? Furthermore, it is not about me. It is a communal project with lots of other people making it possible. It is principally about you, who just have become interested in birds. It is about giving you a tool. A useful tool for you, but not only for you. This tool you can share without limits with everyone you know. Let it go viral.
Maybe I want too much and too fast for my own good. I had hoped ABA could lead this project. But I understand it would have been difficult. One needs to convince the board and the members, that a Swedish guy who lives in Peru who says one does not need binoculars to start birding, wants the American Birding Association to lead in producing a free downloadable manual to birding in the digital age saying just that. Yeah, right!
I shall try to land this thing myself with the help of the parachute. Some people I have written will perhaps not have the time to help out. Others are inhibited by the company or organization they work with. That is OK. We fully support all the organizations mentioned in this project, and hopefully they will also do their share of cross promoting once the product is ready.
As far as I can see, the main thing is to get this done. The rest we shall deal with later. If the product is good and useful, there is nothing that can stop it. Remember it is free.
I am ready to jump. The parachute is this list of content for the forthcoming e-book, here presented as a blog. I hope I can find the people to build it. And if not, by the end of this week, each section which has NOT a name assigned to it, perhaps you, dear reader and supporter of this project, can suggest people willing to fill the still empty slots. Please give suggestions, of great people to work with, in the comment section below.
Blog lay-out – list of content.
The About section gives you a good background of the goals. Contrary to most manuals about birdwatching, this series will start with online resources and how to pick a point and shoot camera for birding, to eventually make mention of more traditional ways into birding. Binoculars are not discussed until Chapter 10!
This may seem strange. Birders argue that it can’t be proper birding without binoculars and to get binoculars before anything else. But think for a while more organically. Most people who care about birds are not “birders”. They feed birds. Or they take a snapshot with a point and shoot camera. Or they make casual observations.
It is far too early to say: Buy binoculars! It builds up to that point eventually. We will take it slow. We want to reach the masses. We don’t want to scare anyone away.
This slow process and this project will gradually convert casual observers into the next level. A fully fledged birdwatcher.
The schedule – 22 25 chapters
I shall not give exact dates, but considering that the series consists of 22 chapters it shall take about three months, with 2-3 chapters published each week, to finish the series. If you have not done so already, I suggest you sign up of for the email updates, so you don’t miss any of the chapters. There is some great stuff ahead. One important central piece to this project is a content managing system, which shall collect a lot of North American birdwatching resources into one website. This we shall have to build together as a community. Every reader of this blog, can become a provider of information to the content. More about this below.
Chapter 1. Birding on the web.
Online resources. (Gunnar Engblom).
A tour to various online resources you can start using today to learn more about birds and to get help in identifying birds you have photographed.
Chapter 2. Birding with Point and Shoot Cameras.
Steven Ingraham of Zeiss Optics gives you an introduction what to think of when choosing a suitable megazoom P&S digital camera.
Chapter 3. Feeding the birds. The best tricks how to feed the birds, when to start and when to end and what to give them. We will also link to some feeder web-cams on the internet that you can check out (give us your best feeder cam tips). Eventually, you may want to join the feeder watch program of Cornell Lab of Ornithology. See below. (Author to be confirmed)
Chapter 4: Feederwatch. Bird populations undergo changes. Modern threats such as climate change, pollution, urban development also influence the populations. It is important to watch these changes. One way to collect massive amount of data, for scientists to use in their analyses, is persuading the public to send their observations to Feederwatch. (Author to be confirmed)
Chapter 5. Bird Gardening
It is not only about feeding the birds if you have a big back yard. You may also shape the environment to become more bird friendly. Carole Sevilla Brown show her top easy tips without having to become a full-time gardener.
Chapter 6. Local suppliers for bird feeding and bird gardening.
We shall list owners of stores for supplies of bird food and bird-gardening such as owners of Wild Birds Unlimited and Wild Bird Centers stores who are also bloggers and active in social media.
If bird-feeding and bird-gardening interest you, you will learn a lot from these. If you own or run a store which sells supplies for bird-feeding and bird gardening, and you also blog or are active in social media let me know and I will include you in the list.
Additionally, this is where the content managing system will begin. We shall build a store locator for US and Canada. All stores shall be found on a Google map within the system.
This will be labor intense. Maybe someone from Wild birds Unlimited and from Wild Bird Centers could send us an excel file of all their stores. Also other franchises that sell bird food (please suggest names of such franchises) could do the same.
Everyone, shall be able to help to enter their favorite suppliers in the content system.
Visitors to the site will be able to rate stores and leave comments. The owners of each store will be able to manage their information. Gunnar Engblom is building the content managing system.
Chapter 7. Blogging – showing your birds to the world
Although, Facebook is great for sharing photos once in a while. You may want to share more and report from your explorations. Some simply delivers a nature diary of their explorations, while others concentrate on providing useful content for others. Robert Mortensen, Gunnar Engblom share some of their secrets.
We also hope to hold a webinar about bird blogging. Would you be interested?
Chapter 8. Social Media for birders.
Gunnar Engblom list various platforms and give ideas how to connect with other birders locally and worldwide.
Chapter 9. Birding with DSLR
What is ideal for bird photographer? How serious do you want to get? How long lenses do you need? What do cropping-sensors and megapixel really mean? Tradeoffs? Budget? A professional bird photographer will go through these items. (Yet do be defined)
Chapter 10. Choosing binoculars.
In spite of promoting bird photography as entrance point to birding, in the end you really do need a pair of bins. You see so much more details with binoculars and you will find it easier to take a record shot if you located the bird first in the binoculars. Most old-time birders, will tell you that while getting a picture is great, the best experience of behavior and grace about birds you experience live with binoculars. If you have reached this stage you should really consider getting binoculars.
In this post an expert (to be defined) will guide us through what to think of when choosing binoculars. And give a range of tips of binoculars for beginners and especially highlighting inexpensive binoculars and binoculars for kids.
Nothing beats visiting a dealer before buying to test the optics, why below we list all the binoculars outlets in the US and Canada that we know of. Some are even have panorama windows so you can test them in conditions close to the field conditions. Another good idea is to visit birding festivals and test binoculars there.
We shall start listing all birding optics outlets in the US and Canada in the content managing system. Again, please help us inserting the data and get in touch with the owners to manage their entries. I shall announce the content managing system within the coming 2 weeks. Keep your eyes open for this.
Chapter 11. Choosing telescope for digiscoping.
While a telescope may feel like a huge investment for someone who got into birding via a point and shoot camera it brings some advantages. Apart from being able to finally see some details on those pesky sandpipers on the mudflat, it also opens up fantastic opportunities for long-range photography exploring the technique called digiscoping. It is also a cheaper alternative than extremely long lenses for the DSLR.
We hope to get the leading experts from the field to give their tips here. Stay tuned for announcement of who they are.
Chapter 12. Describing a bird – what to look for to identify a bird yourself.
One of the pitfalls that traditional birders often mention about photography verses birding, is that the photographer stops looking at the bird while shooting away. Some information may not make appear in the photo. What was the relative size? How did the bird appear? What was it doing? What did it sound like? We hope a major field guide author will cover this topic for us. Stay tuned! Kenn Kaufman has confirmed to write this section.
Chapter 13. Identifying birds – field guides, apps and additional online resources
Sooner or later you will want to learn to identify birds by the means of a field guide or a birding app for your tablet or smartphone. There are also online resources for identifying birds. Grant McCreary and Drew Weber will go through the books and apps and give a fast review of what is available.
Chapter 14. Birding by Ear.
How to learn bird calls. Resources on line for bird calls. An expert on birdcalls, namely Tony Gallucci will write this chapter.
Chapter 15. The economics of birds and birding.
Ted Lee Eubanks has a long history of building resources for birders and building communities which supply services. Ted will show us that birding is not only fun, but it makes for good sustainable business which protects habitat and the birds we love. More birders =>More business=>More conservation.
Chapter 16. The Benefits of birding.
Dave Magpiong will show how birding can improve your life – health, cognition, social life, development of children, mental acuity for seniors etc.
Chater 17. Birder ethics for digi-birders
Birder have a long tradition of setting up ethics for how to behave as a birder approaching the birds. Drew Weber will summarize a set of good standards for people who photograph birds. These standards have been selected in a survey given to bird photographers.
Chapter 18. Become a better birder. Join a club.
A prominent birder (to be announced) will make a case why join a bird club.
For the content managing system all birding clubs and Audubon chapters across the US and Canada will be listed.
In reality it will be something of an updated combined listing of the following resources:
https://find.mapmuse.com/map/birding-clubs
https://www.aba.org/resources/birdclubs.html
https://www.thebinocularsite.com/consumer/birding/bird-clubs-in-north-america.html
This will be labor intense, but again possible cooperating. A current Excel file from Audubon with all the local chapters would be a great start. Who has the contact details to get this?
Once every birdclub is responsible for their own information in the content managing system, they shall also be able to upload all events including talks and field trips to the event calendar which is build into the content managing system.
Chapter 19. Birding Magazines.
We shall list the major birding, birdwatching and bird gardening magazines in North America – and give a short review for each. Please provide contact details to editors/owners of these in the comment section below. (Need someone to be responsible for this section. Suggestions? Volunteers?)
To be listed the magazine must promise to
- Mention Birding.com.co in their magazine and website with link.
- Put a link to download the ebook on their web-page when it is ready.
Chapter 20. Birding Festivals.
Which are the best birding festivals in North America? Perhaps we make the users decide in a survey. Hope to get a birding festival organizer to lead this topic.
Again we shall use the content managing system to place the birding festivals on a google map, as well as show the dates for each in the event calendar.
Chapter 21. Listing and ebird.
Many birders keep lists. Now lists can be kept on line. Ebird from Cornell Lab of Ornithology is one of the most important where your records also contributes to research. Chris Wood from E-bird will write this chapter. A few desktop software and apps for smartphones shall also be discussed here.
Chapter 22. Bird Conservation
American Birding Conservancy protects birds in the North America and in Central and South America. ABC president Mike Parr presents ABC.
Chapter 23. Bird Travel
It is becoming more and more popular to look for birds further and further away from home. Bird Tour Operators – a selected list of bird tour operators.
To be listed the bird tour operator must promise to:
- Upload a link to The blog – to start with,
- Upload a link to Download the e-book
- Mention the blog and the e-book in their newsletter to their clients.
We need a volunteer to lead this topic. Anyone who has traveled a lot can do this.
Chapter 24. Make someone near you a birder. Pledge to Fledge.
A wonderful new global movement to get more people involved into birding. It is simple. Just take someone birding. Next event is April 26th-28th 2013. Richard Crossley has agreed to summarize what the movement is and how you can get involved.
Chapter 25. Share this. Spread this.
The more people who get into birding, the more resources there would be for birding itself, for bird conservation and any type of birding business. Do yourself a favor. Do the birds a favor. Share this and spread this as often as you can. Print it entirely! Give it away!
You are not allowed to sell it!
The end
So what do you think? Will this work? Looking forward to your feed back in the comment section.
In the end it depends on how many people share the message. Share this and earlier posts with your friends on Facebook, Twitter and Google+. Make a blogpost about this project. Send some links to friends via email.
If you liked this post, you may want to subscribe to this blog. The first post is due in a couple of days. And Stephen Ingraham has prepared a monster post for Chapter 2 about digital point and shoot cameras. You really don’t want to miss any posts.
Gunnar Engblom
Connect with Gunnar on Facebook or Twitter or kolibriexp@gmail.com
PS: I added this author box below. Does this work? Too big? Too much advertising or relevant info?
Top photo: Before the jump by Gerard on Flickr. Creative Commons.