Started by getting an HTC Desire smartphone from Orange and find it very good. As a fully paid-up member of the old fart brigade, its my first contract phone (PAYG previously), first phone I've had switched on all the time (much to my kids' amazement) and thus the first mobile that needs charging every night. The free monthly minutes allow my wife and I to use the mobile to make calls during the day thus saving money on making landline calls outside our Sky Freetime package. Currently it works out at £12-50 a month (half price for 9 months) plus we have saved around a fiver on the Sky bill in the first month (and of course saving PAYG costs).
Joined Birdnet at Birdfair at £20 for the first year, then £40 for renewal. First time I've used anything other than a 'phone grapevine for getting info on birds. And its brill. As much info as you like. I currently monitor Mega, National, Northwest, Northeast, Wales and Midlands. All for the same price. I'm off to Norfolk twice early next year and will switch on East Anglia while I'm there. No extra charge.
Kicking myself at the moment as I was at Penny around 1230, parked in the Plank Lane car park. So around 400 yds from the Wryneck site. Just needed to hang around for a few hours.....
So to wrap it up. Got a smartphone at a reasonable price. Saving money on the landline so overall phone expenditure hasn't gone up that much. Got Birdnet on Twitter so can target birds and destinations. And £40 per year seems a lot less expensive than the other services ( in fact if I hadn't read Ian's review I would still be doing without).
I have used Birdguides for several years now and have found it to be good. It doesn't always give you everything that pagers seem to, but I have never found that it has missed anything decent ( sometimes it's a few minutes behind the pagers). I have the gold service which gives full access to details of sighting on the birdmap on the web, plus the mobile web service (so I can see whats around when i'm on the move). I also have bird text alert which I switch on when I'm away somewhere birding and set it for where I am (this sends you a text for sightings, but costs 10p a time - although you get 100 free texts included in the costs and a creddit for each sighting you notify birdguides about).
The whole package costs arout £60 per year. I like it cos I can see photos of the birds - if they get uploaded, and i enjoy reading the web magazine that is done. Plus you get sent a weekly round-up of sightings which are useful to keep when planning trips to new places (it gives you a good idea of what you are likely to see at different times of the year).
I find this service suits my needs more than a pager would, although I can see advantages with a pager.
I may look into the Twitter service when my Birdguides subscription runs out though.
-- Edited by Paul Wilson on Sunday 12th of September 2010 10:57:50 AM
See my review of Birdnet's pagers on the reviews section of the Manchester Birding website Mark. With Birdnet you get all the information from around the UK included in the price, no need for regions.
Birdnet's Twitter service on mobiles is the way to go though as and when you upgrade your mobile. Works out an awful lot cheaper in the short and long term and affords a much better package which ever way you look at it.
Please can i pick your brains. I ve been birding a few years now and am reaching the stage where to see anything new I been using the bird news alert services. I ve signed up to the internet based deal for RBA where you just log in and check the news online but Im thinking of moving onto the pager system where Id rent a pager for free then pay the annual £35 subscription then go for the bronze 10.99 a month for just the north west news. Id still use the website for other stuff beyond the north west but as I do most of my birding within say an hour or hour and a half drive i think itd be ok for me. I dont know much if anything about birdnet and birdguides seems slightly dodgy from what I have heard on the forum. Please can someone with a little experience in this line advise me as to the best course of action. Also say I went to Norfolk or Scotland would a fixed 1 area pager be useless? Also I dont have a smartphone.
