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Posted on Sunday, March 18, 2007 at 10:52 AM - Post Comment

·          Jizz and proportion
Exercises to sensitize your eye to non-color ID characteristics

·          How fresh are those feathers?
What to look for when trying to determine the age and molt stage of a bird

·           Learning lots of bird songs…fast
Tips for preparing for a foreign trip

·          It’s over there, darn it!
Dos and don’ts when helping someone locate the bird everyone else is seeing

·          The most misidentified birds in the US/UK
Based on interviews with some world-renowned bird guides

·          How to prepare for a trip to Central and South America

In addition, I want to explain, expose or expand on existing and new technologies that can be used to enhance the birding experience. (Don’t despair, I’ll back away from all of the alliterations very soon, just holding forth the Tom's Tips style for a second…).

In the old days, the only technology a birder really had to master was the shotgun. During the 1940’s and 50’s, in most places (except possibly Italy...) shotguns were replaced with binoculars and scopes.

Today the old optics have been greatly improved and in addition whole new categories of inexpensive and powerful devices that can aid birders in learning about birds, attracting them in the field, and presenting their findings to others have come onto the market. From instant access audio playback and recording to high quality digiscoping; from sonograms to magical photo-fixing programs; technology is available to birders that can prove to be of great value in and beyond the field.

 Some upcoming topics on technology will be:
                                         

Photoshop
I’m going to present a fairly full tutorial on Photoshop. It’s one of the most mature graphical editing programs in the world and an invaluable asset for anyone taking photos. Most of the articles will also apply to Photoshop Elements and other lower-priced photo-editing programs. I’ll do columns on:

    Photoshop Basics

o        Size, resolution, color
Understanding pixels and how they define your photographs

o        The elements of color
RGB, CMYK and your photo’s color space

o        Don’t stop until you see the whites of your…..photo
White balance: what it is, and how to achieve it

o        Adjustment Layers
Why they are so important and how to create and use them

o        Layer Masks
Powerful ways to apply improvements to portions of your photos

o        Sharpening
How to make your photos look crystal clear

I’ll also include very specific “how-to’s” like

o        Even photos get the blues
Why most of your digiscoped pictures look blue and how to fix them

o        Printing and viewing your photos
Why the colors don’t always match up

o        Recording in the field
The latest in shotgun microphones

o        Recording in the field

The latest in field recorders

o        Transferring cassette tapes to your computer for editing and field playback

o        How to edit audio on a computer

 
Sonograms

What they are and how they can help you learn bird songs

o        Playback in the field
The latest in affordable portable audio playback

o        The iPod
Tutorial and tips

o        Playback in the field
The latest in portable battery-powered speakers

Finally, I want to highlight some of the impact that individuals have had in their community leading groups, raising awareness about birding issues or just finding the rarities that we all enjoy chasing. The human side of birding is often passed over for more technical issues but this part of the birding experience can be inspiring. And let’s face it, most birders are real “social animals”, often motivated in large part by the competition or the camaraderie of the birding experience. I’ll also try and throw in a couple of more humorous articles on the crazier elements of our hobby.

·          Profiles of rarity finders
Who the heck found that incredible bird and why they find a lot of them

·          Birding hotline etiquette

·          Nightmares in the field
How to behave and how NOT to behave in a tour group, with anecdotes from the pros

·          Citizen science
How you can do research that can have an impact

Given the flexibility of this electronic medium, some of the articles will be very short and focused on one ID or technical point. Others may be longer or even broken into a series of articles focused on the broader topics.

I will always try and start from the very beginning of any topic. So even if you are a technophobe, I believe you will find that these articles will make it easy for you to understand and use new technologies that can really enhance your birding experience.

In addition to the main articles, I’ll sometimes include a few other sections.

FORUM BUSTERS

This column will most likely venture into some controversial areas. So occasionally I’ll highlight topics that I think merit further discussion, heated arguments, or maybe just more research from the birding community.

EXCITING STUFF

From time to time I’ll offer up a book, a new piece of technology, or some other birder-related subject. I could include topics that will get covered more completely in a later column, but which I think deserve immediate mention, or maybe just something you send me that sounds interesting.

SEND ME YOUR IDEAS AND SUGGESTIONS

This is a column, not a forum, and unfortunately I’m not going to be able to directly answer most emails. However, if you have specific questions about something that was covered in a column, please do send me a note. If something that I covered was important and I see that it needs further explanation, I’ll try and provide that in a future column.

I will also welcome and consider any suggestions for topics that might be of interest to the general birding community, especially areas of technology that you might like to explore, but feel you may need more information or some “how-tos” to get started.

I’ll do my best to cover as many of these topics as possible.

Send your comments, suggestions and (kind) thoughts to

tomstips@surfbirder.com

 ARCHIVES

Many of the bird ID and technical “how to” topics will relate to or expand upon past columns. To avoid repeating myself, I’ll have links to past articles and keep the archives listed in this section.

 DISCLAIMERS

Everything I say in this column is my opinion.

So if I tick you off, recommend something you hate, or “dis” something you love to use in the field…it’s due to my possibly skewed personal perspective (at least in your view…). Send me a note and maybe I’ll mend my ways, print a retraction or update a review.

But whatever you do, please don’t go screaming at the good folks who run Surfbirds. They’re not to blame!

ABOUT ME

I began birding at the age of 12. I was lucky enough to grow up in Ithaca, NY and spent quite a bit of time birding with Arthur A Allen and Peter Paul Kellogg. One of my earliest memories of birding technology was Dr Kellogg opening up the hood of his car and strapping the power supply of his portable Wollensack tape deck to his car batteries to play back the song of a Rose-breasted Grosbeak. “It’s just like a robin”, he often said, “only sweeter.”

My first claim to birding fame was a Northern Hawk Owl that I discovered on a telephone pole in winter near Ithaca when I was 14. I was written up in the Kingbird, the NY State Ornithological Association’s magazine. That was really exciting, however the article must not have gotten very wide circulation, as I don’t remember having to worry any about the paparazzi.

During spring migration, most mornings before school my brother and I used to bike down to a local park to find the latest migrant arrivals. The Laboratory of Ornithology at Cornell had weekly bird lectures, and prior to the lecture there was a reading of the bird list. If you got the first sighting of a bird for that year, you got your name on the board. After a couple of years, and enough time birding with the Cornell folks so they knew we were really careful, my brother and I started getting 30 or 40% of the first spring sightings. That was a great motivator for us and the anticipation of those meetings was the highlight of our spring seasons.

In subsequent years I have carried on the passion of my younger days by traveling to many birding locations around the world. I have also given a number of lectures and workshops on birding in the NY City and Los Angeles areas including sessions on digiscoping, Photoshop for birders, and trip shows on SE Brazil, Madagascar, Botswana and other locations. I have also written articles for Birding Magazine and other publications, and have had photos published in books and journals.

On the non birding front, I was a musician for many years, touring, recording and doing session work which included a lot of audio editing. My clients included Phil Collins, The Grateful Dead, the Philadelphia Orchestra and the FBI. Currently I’m the Director of Technology for a division of Roland/Edirol Corporation, one of the world’s largest manufacturers of electronic musical instruments and digital recorders. But even though I have a day job, my primary passion is still for the birds.

But enough about me….I’ve got to get started on the first technical topic, coming soon: “Even Photos Get the Blues.”

So come on back and check out the column regularly. And be sure to let me know if there are any topics or issues you’d like to see covered in Tom’s Tips.

Copyright Tom Stephenson 2007