Getting Rare Bird News in Isolated Locations (1 Viewer)

[Mark Batten]

Last Sunday myself and two other birders were dipping the Royal Tern on the Pembrokeshire coast. We left the site around lunchtime having wasted yet another day missing a bird which was certainly going to resurface days later - in this case on the Isles of Scilly.

In our crew, various means of of obtaining bird news were being used. As we were heading back towards Cardiff it was noted that the birder relying on pager news had not had a single message all morning. Messages resumed around 40 miles from Cardiff. Had we been reliant on pager news alone and the Tern had been relocated nearby,we would have been none the wiser. Phone signals were fine for the duration.

This is not the first time I have heard of this problem. There does appear to be a similar issue in Northumberland. Are there other rural locations which have the same problems.

 

[Mike Crawley]

This (or something similar) cropped up a few years ago more-or-less as Apps were being introduced and since then I have sporadically checked out the various types of "signal" in birding locations.

Cards on the table, I’ve carried a pager almost since they were introduced and initially it probably was cheaper than ringing birdline incessantly. It certainly isn’t now and I find myself questioning the value for money I receive.

So, on holiday or birding in Cheshire, Lancashire, North Wales, Norfolk, Cornwall, etc. and on Shetland and Scilly I occasionally looked at my phone to check on ordinary "mobile phone" (and text) signal and "mobile internet". I have to say that there are pager black spots and since RBA changed provider I’m guessing that they still exist but may be in different places. Oh the irony of being at Cley and on Scilly to find that parts of the area being a pager (and of course mobile phone) black spot (for we Vodafone users).

However, over the course of a couple of years I note that there are many, many more mobile internet black spots than there are ordinary mobile signal black spots, rendering membership of local WhatsApp groups less than satisfactory and bird news Apps virtually useless.

I’m heading towards the belief that bird news by text message might ultimately be best because as you step into some mobile phone signal, text messages start to arrive from wherever they are stored. This does, of course happen with WhatsApp but text messages require any kind of signal whereas WhatsApp requires mobile internet.
Of course, if you miss a pager message , that’s it - it’s gone.

 

[Frenchy]

I’m heading towards the belief that bird news by text message might ultimately be best because as you step into some mobile phone signal, text messages start to arrive from wherever they are stored. This does, of course happen with WhatsApp but text messages require any kind of signal whereas WhatsApp requires mobile internet.
Of course, if you miss a pager message , that’s it - it’s gone.

Not sure about all phones, but with mine there is no time of sending attached to an SMS. There is a time of sending attached to a Whatsapp though, which makes it much more useful. And Whatsapp only requires tiny amounts of signal, which is almost always available. I certainly get that easier than i do SMS. Not sure why there are no coordinated whatsapp rare bird groups, as many local areas now have them. It would be dead easy for someone to set up a national one, charge a subscription to get added and go from there.

 

[Mike Crawley]

Frenchy,

This might be an iPhone thing but I can see the time against all messages - sent and received.

It was my understanding that WhatsApp messages needed WiFi or mobile internet signal, is that not correct ?
It could be my phone's settings but if I have my data switched to "Off" I don’t get any WhatsApp messages, just like being in an area without mobile internet coverage.

 

[Frenchy]

Whatsapp does require a mobile internet or wifi signal. If you don't have those, then you'll be stuffed.

On the plus side, you may be the first person to tell me a genuine benefit of an iphone!! As soon as i went onto smartphones several years ago, i stopped being able to see the time an SMS was sent, just the time i received it.

 

[LowellMills]

Of course, if you miss a pager message , that’s it - it’s gone.

Never thought of this, being a new-ish generation birder I have never succumbed to the lure of a pager. Maybe the above phenomenon can explain away the conspiracy theory pitched down the phone to a bandana bloke in the opening minutes of this teaser for the BBC film Twitchers (about 1:10):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9GulaoC--E

 

[Britseye]

Last Sunday myself and two other birders were dipping the Royal Tern on the Pembrokeshire coast. We left the site around lunchtime having wasted yet another day missing a bird which was certainly going to resurface days later - in this case on the Isles of Scilly... had we been reliant on pager news alone and the Tern had been relocated nearby,we would have been none the wiser. Phone signals were fine for the duration.

You can have all the phone signal in the World, as I did Wednesday...but if you leave the flippin' thing at home on the kitchen table - as I did Wednesday (sic) - then a Royal Tern could well fly behind your back and you'd never know someone was trying to ring you to tell you! As happened to me while I was watching Desert Wheatear...on Wednesday.

I was more amused than upset when I found out later in the evening. I say 'behind my back'; I estimate it would have passed me about half a mile away - in what we call 'the roads' between Tresco and Annet. I wouldn't have had much of a view, even if I had been switched on.

 

[Mark Batten]

Circulating news of breaking Mega's via WhatsApp appears a fairly common practice, as does local or county news. A significant amount of bird news does come direct via twitter. There are several county based twitter feeds which provide all a county based news a birder would require, the Cleveland birds twitter feed being an excellent example

It does appear that modern pagers do work better when paired with a mobile phone, which presents more as "rail replacement bus service " than "state of the art".

Birding apps and text messages of mega rarities do provide pretty decent coverage for most situations at a fraction of the cost. Most people these days own and can use a smart phone that is compatible with apps.

If you were looking to set up from scratch a way of distributing bird news, I suspect using pagers with limited coverage rural locations would be somewhere down the list of the likely solutions.

 

[Mike Crawley]

Some good points Mark.
Absolutely correct Apps and WhatsApp are brilliant IF you have mobile internet or WiFi
Text messages and pager messages arrive on the most basic coverage.
Certainly on Shetland this year I was getting pager messages when my phone had absolutely no signal.
I don’t pair my phone and pager.