Anyone using a handheld for birding? (1 Viewer)

Hi all,

I've been using a Pocket PC in the field for the last few years with great success and was wondering if there are others out there using handhelds. I'm curious of other's setup (Palm or Pocket PC, what software you're using, etc.).

Anyone?......Anyone?.....Beuller?

Hi Papasula,

Welcome to Birdforum!

Not really sure what the value of a pocket PC is in birding? And how well does it stand up on a wet & windy day with salt spray on the beach? Or a San Fransisco fog?

Otherwise, I'm well satisfied with my hand-held binoculars :-O

Michael

Papasula, great idea!

However i dont have one, i always store the list of birds i saw in my head. Then, at home i write down what i saw.

Hello Papasula,

Ive recently got a Ipaq and am using it to put all my records down in Pocket Excel which when I get home I can import directly into Mapmate.
Next month I am going to get the compact flash jacket so I can view my digiscoping pictures on a bigger screen while I am still out and about.
I also have a few mp3s on there to help me recognize wierd bird calls when I am in plantations and the like.
Oh yeah and I have a map of the Isle of man on my Ipaq.
(Very handy when I get lost on my walks )

It would be handy if there were an Ebook of the Collins bird guide

Does pocket bird recorder allow exports into any other formats rather than bird recorder?
(bird recorder and mapmate dont mix)

Michael
I think the pocket pcs might be just as useful as a notepad when its chucking it down! (ie Rubbish

Regards
Pete.

Hi papasula,

We take Palm m105s with us when we go birding in Kenya. We have a complete checklist and we use a small database to record the date and time of our sightings (along with any other significant info). They've got a great battery life so we use them as our holiday bookshelf as well as for bird lists (I like to travel with the complete works of Jane Austen and a PG Wodehouse or 2). The big advantage is that we can simply download our triplist on return to the UK.

M105s are small, lightweight and very tough - we find them far more useful than hand-written notes ot ticklists.

helenh

I have a Handspring Treo but never thought of using it in the field. Write into a small note book with a biro. Add to mapmate when I think about it, which is infrequently!

I use a Compaq (now Hewlett Packard) iPAQ handheld with extra Memory Cards and a vehicle cigarette lighter battery re-charging unit.

When birding, I use a software program called "TweetChirp" to listen to bird sounds, broadcast bird sounds, and keep notes, lists and journals that I can upload to my desktop computer when I get home. I can also add more bird sounds into the Directory if I choose to.

The first time I used "TweetChirp" on my iPAQ handheld, I was in a cemetary, bordering Lake Erie, looking for Eastern Bluebirds on a sunny, late February day .. this was in western NY State in the US, so there was still snow on the ground, but I decided to try calling in some Bluebirds anyways.

I played the Eastern Bluebird .wav file sound on full volume and just sat in my car while holding the iPAQ out the open driver's window and towards some trees on the opposite side of a field. I was scanning the trees with my binoculars for a couple of minutes and when I didn't see a thing moving, I put the binoculars down and decided to move to a new location. When I looked out my car windshield, some color caught my eye and when I looked to my right out the car's passenger side window, there sat a male Eastern Bluebird, perched in a very small ornamental tree not more than 4 feet from my car and very determinedly looking inside my car! I have often wondered since.. if the passenger window had been open, would he have flown right inside my car?! VERY effective first tryout of the product!

You can see 'TweetChirp" software for yourselves at...
http://www.tweetchirp.com

I also use my iPAQ Handheld in the field to store digital photographs. I can use as many Memory Cards (which are very small) as I need and just keep uploading the photos from my digital cameras and camcorders onto them, thereby freeing up my cameras' memory card for more photos.

I also use iPAQ to store maps of the areas I am going to and emergency phone numbers and info for the areas. Also my personal phone book and address book.

I also use "QuickClip" hardware (a small IR receiver that clips onto any pad of paper) together with "Ink Notes Manager" software with my iPAQ, which allows me to make notes, sketches, maps, diagrams, etc, in the field, using the QuickClip IR ballpoint pen on any type of paper .. what I put on the paper is automatically sent & saved to my iPAQ handheld .. then when I get home, I can upload it from my iPAQ to my desktop computer.

I have a waterproof, Neoprene, expandable belt case to carry my iPAQ Handheld and Memory Cards .. and it also easily fits in a jacket pocket, cargo pants pocket, or backpack outer pocket. In the rain or snow, I have used it outdoors by sealing it inside a transparent ZipLock sandwich bag with all the air pressed out (or sucked out using a soda straw) and just pressing the buttons and tapping the screen right thru the bag.

A main use of my iPAQ Handheld is to download news, newspapers and magazines using the Avantgo service. In the morning when answering e-Mail and other daily chores at the computer, I download all the various news products I have previously chosen, when customizing Avantgo, to my iPAQ and then at some point in the day when I want a break, I relax with a coffee and read the news. Same deal with e-Books and E-Book Readers I have downloaded to my iPAQ .. I can store as many books as I choose by using additional Memory Cards, as needed.

My iPAQ also runs MS Pocket Excel and MS Pocket Word, should I want a spreadsheet or word processor.

I can also write notes directly onto the iPAQ screen with a stylus and edit & save them. The handwriting recognition that comes with iPAQ is quite good.

There are also GPS units and downloadable maps available as an attachment or built into newer iPAQ handhelds. Although, I don't use these since I use a Garmin Street Pilot III GPS unit.

Birdwatcher

Geoff Brown said:

I have a Handspring Treo but never thought of using it in the field. Write into a small note book with a biro. Add to mapmate when I think about it, which is infrequently!

Click to expand...

Me too, 'cept for the mapmate bit (must find out more about that - EDIT: A quick Google would suggest mapmate is a Brit or Euro thing, c'est la vie.).

Funnily enough, despite having the PDA and three computers at home in a small network, I actually like scribbling in my little birding journal. Although I do transfer some of the info to Excel when I get home.

Neil

hey all,

I just wrote a bunch of stuff out and lost it when I went to retreive this link. UGGhhh! Anyway...here is a link to the demo page of Pocket Bird Recorder showing both Pocket PC and Palm versions.

http://www.wildlife-computing.com

Essentially, I reiterated a lot of what BirdWatcher has posted. It's good to see that I'm not the only "techno-Bird-Nerd" out there (no offense meant...just a term I use for myself!)! The internal sound player in Pocket Bird Recorder (PBR) suits all my needs although TweetChirp looks like a great little application and concept.

peteee23 - I, too, felt that an ebook of the Sibley Guide here in N.A. would be of great assistance. However, I bet the artists would cringe at the wide range of color reproduction on these little screens (i.e. the Toshiba screens are milky and washed out compared to the iPAQs). It could be done with a fair amount of high quality scanning (anyone up for that task?).

I've created some MS Reader ebooks of ID papers found on the web (I'd be happy to explain how if anyone is interested).

With the Avantgo service (free!) you can create custom channels to automatically download the latest posts from your favorite birding listserv or RBA.

I would love to convert a Calidris sandpiper VHS video to .mpeg for use in the field. These things can play video, too! Up to 36 frames per second if encoded correctly.

They are a great tool to have in the field!

I'd love to have more of this kind of discussion...keep it coming...It's the first time anyone has come back with any sort of constructive responses! Thanks to you all!

Papasula

Oh yeah, I almost forgot...I use it to get email (or email sightings) in the field. It uses Bluetooth (a wireless technology that uses radio waves to connect to a Bluetooth enabled cell phone) which is similar to infrared but doesn't need to be in line-of-sight to work. The cell phone becomes an ad-hoc modem for receiving email, browsing the web, etc. I have emailed sightings within minutes of seeing a bird to a birding listserv from the field! Talk about instant reporting!

I love these things!

papasula,
if you convert that sandpiper video
convert it to divx format, much better quality/size than mpeg.
Pocket music and video player will play divx format.

Thanks for the info on avantgo I saw that program and didnt know what it was for )

Cheers
Pete.

peteee23,

I forgot to mention that, yes, there is an export feature (though I've never used it) to MS Excel, Word, and others. I believe that is through the desktop program (Bird Recorder32) though.

I wish I had the equipment to convert stuff from VHS but I don't. :-C

The only prog for PPC that I know of that plays DivX is PocketMVP which has had a few problems with the new OS (Windows Mobile 2003).

Is that enough acronyms for you?

I forgot...you can also use these little wonders for field sketches! I did these a few years back on an Aero 1530 (compaq):

and...

Funny you should mention sketching papasula,
I am just in the middle of making and sending bird outlines to my ipaq
so when im in the field I can quickly jot down colours and marks and things.
cracking sketches btw!!

Ok, I'm lost by the technical stuff but what a fascinating idea. To have a checklist & bird diagram outlines in the one place like that would be fantastic. Bird call recordings, maps, photos as well. So handy.


I guess I'd probably only lose it though

Papasula, on behalf of admin and all the moderators, welcome to Bird Forum.

I can see that you have stirred a lot of interest here and I am sure that using such devices in the field will appeal to some people more than others.

I don't have one myself, but can see the benefit of entering your sightings and then downloading them to the main computer when you get home.

BirdGuides were trialling a pocket version of their identification CD-ROMs at the Bird Fair a couple of years ago, but there wasn't enough interest to make it viable. Maybe if, and when, these pocket devices become more widespread it may be an ideal opportunity for someone to produce such ID software for use in the field.

Hello,

If anyone out there is using a handheld to record their sightings (in excel)
and then uploading to mapmate when they get home.
I have created a list (using a program called listpro)
which lets you flag what birds you saw and then has drop down lists for your other mapmate columns. (eg sites, recorder, method etc.)
You can then save your list to a txt file and so far it has uploaded perfectly to mapmate each time. (I made the list using the taxon list from mapmate so all the names are correct which avoids my normal problem of having the wrong name in my excel recordings).
If anyone wants a copy of the list please message me I will be happy to send it. (you will need listpro to run it)
trial version available here
http://www.iliumsoft.com/site/lp/lp_trial.htm

Regards
Pete.

I'm currently considering buying an hand held. But which one? Palm O.S or Pocket PC. At the moment I'm favouring the latter, mainly because it has Excel and Word with it. But I know that you can get doc's to go for the Palm, which also includes Excel and Word. The main problem I'm having is finding one in my budget (c.£200) which takes compact flash cards. The reason being that I would like to use it to preview my photos, particulary when I'm away for holidays etc. Just how worthwhile is this feature? i.e is there software available that lets you zoom in to photos etc? If not there's not much point worrying about the lack of compact flash slots.
The main reason for getting one is to assist me with wildfowl counts etc. So that I can transfer my notes straight on to my spreadsheets and save me countless hours of note copying. It might also encourage me to take more notes (shame on me). The last thing is that the Palm systems appear cheaper than the Pocket PC, such as the Sony Clie, what is the reason for this and what are the minimum requirements for installing Doc's to go.

Cheers

Mark

EDIT

I've just ordered a Pocket PC off Amazon. A Yakumo Delta PDA. It comes complete with windows 2002 (the older version I know) a usb cradle, infrared, 200mhz processor 64mb ram and uses sd cards. I'd still appreciate anyones thoughts on the above and indeed on this product (I can always send it back if it's cr-p!).

Mark

I have used an old psion... mainly to keep up to date on counts and to facilitate direct entry into my database..

Once or twice used it to record sound files too