Bill

I used a voice recorder for over 5 years on a weekly count on my local patch. I started with a tape version, then onto a digital and now just use the voice recorder function on my mobile phone. I found it invaluable for quantities of information that I then wrote up when back at home.

On the digital model it had voice activation but I found it was that sensitive the wind noice was activating it in my pocket (soon turned that off - listening to endless minutes of fresh air whilst sat back at home was tedious in the extreme !!!)

But I always carried a notebook with me, just for that odd occasion where something unusual turned up (not often on my patch !!) and I wanted to illustrate something (either individual birds or behaviour). I also sometimes carried a sketch map of the site to try and draw territories of resident Robins, Wrens, Dunnocks for a time (not something you could do on a recorder !!!)

I also used the digital recorder to record warbler song early in the season when they aren't in full song and effectively in "practise" mode. Could then take it home and compare to recordings on the net.

Horses for courses I suppose !!

cheers
Nick

Henry - I wonder if there might be a few more of us about than you think?..... but that you have just been avoiding them? Imagine...... you see a birder walking towards apparently holding a very animated conversation with their shirt pocket and you would probably wisely give them a very wide berth!!

Ian - you suggest that voice recorders are no substitute for describing the jizz of a bird - surely if a descriptive word can be written in a notebook then that same word can be spoken into a voice recorder?

I agree that a notebook is essential for drawings on the spot of scarce/rare birds but realistically most birders use notebooks for 99.9% of the time for the much more mundane logging for sightings of and counts etc of commoner species. Yes, I agree that as a user of a voice recorder that I may be in a very small minority but probably not as small a minority as those who use a notebook to record the finer details of the scapular pattern of a Caspian Gull!!

As for notebooks and drawings.....I would also suggest that you are in a very small minority of birders who are blessed with the ability to be able to draw well. Dare I even hint that a majority of the drawings attached to any rarity report form received might possibly have been done back in the warmth and comfort of the finders home?........ quite possibly with a copy of the good field guide very close by, which just by sheer coincidence has fallen open at that relevant species page?

Cheers,


Bill.

I have 2 Digital Tally Counters in my coat pocket, and the iPhone App too!

Surely you use the excellent tally counter app available for your iPhone Rob?

Trouble is though I generally count a few species or more often everything I see which means I'd need a lot of tally counters!

Thinking of 'field' gadgets: if any of you out there are interested in doing nature projects or work with groups of kids/adults then I found out about a fab little gadget on an outdoor festival residential at the weekend. It's a mini printer called a polaroid pogo. Basically it has a rechargeable battery (lasts for around 15-20 prints) and you can take it anywhere, either bluetooth or link camera and it instantly prints pictures on to little cards 2x3'' that are stickyback and waterproof-ish. It is ink free too. Great for making books or quick observations. Gadget can be bought fro around £24, the photo card x70 about £11. We used it to make a book about a tree, with sketches, rubbings, touchy/feely, and transparency pages. Worked really well especially if you expand a project from a print. I'm definitely going to buy one.
Rae
PS I am not saying use one instead of a notebook!!!!!

It's good to see people watching and recording birds using allsorts of techniques. I've never bumped into anyone using a dichtophone whilst birding but I imagine it offers different strengths to notebook birding like conveying the atmosphere of a place effectively or being able to update the days sightings whilst still walking perhaps.

Got to say though that I see very few people using notebooks whilst out in the field even though the upsides of just stopping for a moment and jotting down a few scribbles are great and many. The camera must be in part to blame for this.
Henry.

-- Edited by Henry Cook on Tuesday 16th of March 2010 11:27:39 PM

I tried a 'tape dictaphone' back in the mid 80's when they wen through a fashionable stage, fortunately the fad lasted all of a couple of outings before I realised it was no substitute for a notebook

Voice recorders are no substitute for notebooks when it comes to recording plumage details or jizz. How do you accurately illustrate in words the greater coverts of that Caspian Gull or indeed it's scapular pattern? I could draw it much much faster than you could speak it and in doing so not only commit to memory much better their true appearance (because I really have to look at them in order to draw them efficiently) but also more easily compare that drawing to those in field guides etc and also to photographs. If you don't know the topographical term for a certain feature then how do you express it accurately to voice recorder? How do you accurately record the bill lengths of two different species seen together? Or the different jizz of that Long-toed Stint you come across? It is no coincidence that all the well known bird artists are also top birders in their own right. Why? Because drawing birds forces you to truly look and understand the subject. As a rarity assessor, I would always rather see a true field drawing where ever possible as often they can contain features the artist didin't realise and also be much clearer in getting across features and shapes. Let's face it, we all look at the artwork in field guides first before reading the text and why? Well, you do the math...

As for recording counts, I do a full site count for Pennington Flash and only last week recorded well over 100 Robins. I use a simple tally system in my notebook but how would I go on with a voice recorder? Soggy notebooks? Waterproof now Bill, waxed pages easily written on with a propelling pencil filled with loads of 'lead' so it won't run out.

Notebooks, who needs them? Me, that's who. Oh and also the vast majority of birders. I have yet to actually bump into someone who uses (or owns up to ) a voice recorder. If it works for you Bill then great, go for it but you are in the vast minority for a reason

Following on from the brief exchange of comments recently on the Chorlton WP thread about the usage of voice recorders for logging bird records and whether they might be better than/worse than/no different from a traditional field notebook.

I have for the last 6 or 7 years always carried a voice recorder with me when out bird watching - I never, ever take a notebook out in the field. I started off with the old style handheld Olympus ones, which had a little mini cassette tape in it which was great....until the tape got so worn out with re-use and re-winding that it eventually got all mangled up around the spools! My current one is an even smaller and skinnier Olympus digital one (no tape!) with LCD display and quite frankly is a really great piece of lightweight and versatile kit. It weighs only a few ounces, can fit in a shirt pocket and has files and folders so that all you need to do is speak into it and all your sightings will be recorded into the relevant date folder. These can then be transferred to a notebook when back home. I find it great for speaking into and recording plumage details, shape, behaviour, jizz of scarcer birds and I personally think it gives you more time to spend actually looking at and counting birds when out and about, than regularly taking out and scribbling on what are sometimes soggy pages details of what you have just seen!

The one I use has got an optional VCVA (Variable Controlled Voice Activation) feature which I don't use very often - which basically means that you just switch that feature on - stick it in your shirt pocket and speak and all your records will be logged as the machine switches on and off as and when your voice starts and stops. There is only one downside to this function though!....and that is that all of your vocalisations will be recorded - so when you listen later, your recording will repeat your voice saying "3 Ravens flying east at 10.30 am", which might then be followed by your grovelling mobile phone chat to your partner telling them of your pathetic excuses why you won't be home in time for your tea because you are currently watching some rarity at your local reservoir but that you will pick up a microwaveable chicken tikka masala from Morrisons on your way home!

All vocal records can later be transferred from the voice recorder to a notebook - if you wish - or all sound files on the voice recorder can be downloaded onto your computer using a cable and USB port. It can even be used for recording bird vocalisations. Sure the sound recording quality might not be that brilliant... it certainly will not be as good as that bloke seen on those nature programmes carrying a parabolic dish type thingy the size of Jodrell Bank! But I found it came in handy last year to record the sound of some begging young Siskins....which I am pleased to say that I now have for ever as sound files on my computer.

Notebooks in the field....who needs them?

Thought this thread might also be the place where we could share ideas on useful gadgets etc that might improve our bird watching skills/experience?

Cheers,

Bill.


-- Edited by Bill Myerscough on Tuesday 16th of March 2010 07:02:09 PM