For the most part I embrace technology. I'm typing this now on a beautiful G4 Powermac, listening to music on it, over a wireless network. I've games and other electronic toys. When it comes to books however I have to admit I'm a Luddite. I enjoy reading blogs on line, but give me a book any day. It's not as though I haven't tried electronic books, I just can't get into them. The same goes with audio books, put me to sleep (well truth be told so do "real" books, but I don't try and read them when I'm driving).
And just what does all this have to do with birds? Well, I guess I have to come down firmly on the side of paper when it comes to "data bases" for the identification of birds. Mike, at 10,000 birds has written an excellent review of a product, called WhatBird, a web based data base for the identification of North American bird life, but unfortunately it is a product that holds very little appeal to me.
My Grandpa gave me my first field guide, a hardcover Peterson's Guide to Eastern Birds. It was a gift that encouraged an already burgeoning love of the natural world. I devoured it, and remember flipping through page after page of birds, longing to see birds that in some cases seemed wildly exotic to this Prairie boy. I still own it, can turn it over in my hands, see my Grandpa's inscription in it, and still make use of its well thumbed pages. It requires no connection to a network or outside world to work, opening it's pages creates it's own connection, to a natural world filled with wonder. It's technology hasn't changed since 1937 because it works (and one can argue that it's "technology" goes back even farther to the invention of the printed word). We may have made some minor refinements in the wheel, but we don't change it's basic design simply because it's history goes far back in time.
I've bought other field guides, and "updated" my Peterson to a more current edition. I especially enjoy my Identification Guide Series for seabirds and for shorebirds, but for day to day use I'm pretty partial to Peterson's. I know there are others with other strengths but I love it's familiarity and thus it's ease of use for me, it is very much like an old friend. And like an old friend I stay loyal to it, despite it's foibles. I know that water and weather can damage it, but I don't mind taking it out in the middle of rain if I need it. I know that it will weather the weather better than my PDA will, and I'm sure better than a cell phone would, even it there was one that worked here, and I was inclined to own one.
One of my favourite moments in travel, comes long before the actual trip (Ah trips, I remember what it was like to travel, I think). There is nothing to compare with the arrival of a new field guide for a new country. How I've imagined, while flipping through the pages, and studying the birds, what adventures I'll have. I study the birds I hope to see, those that I'll have a chance to, and revel in the anticipation. The book in my hand makes these revelries tangible. And even now, when most of the birds have left me, following the sun and the warmth, I can pick up those guides, and follow them south if only in my mind.
So, those of you who are so inclined, can use your computer as your field guide, the world is a big place and there are room for both of us. As for me, I'll keep using the touchstones that helped send me away along this journey. Give me the strength of bound paper, and the memories and hopes that they hold within them.
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