There was some discussion earlier this morning on another board about the two text-based (SMS) systems for Manhattan birding, the NYNYBIRD alerts and Twitter-based #birdcp.
You can learn about the former at nynybird.wordpress.com. It is ONLY for rare bird alerts. Jeff Bowen and I introduced the #birdcp system in May 2013. It is free, and if you can send and receive text messages, you can use it. Use it for any observation or comment (even a general one) you believe may be of interest to Manhattan birders*.* It is certainly the right choice for reports of birds not rare enough for NYNYBIRD. But no species are off limits. It is Twitter, after all — you are free to say what you want. The system already has nearly 200 users and it can handle practically unlimited volumes of messages, so do not hesitate to use it when you observe something interesting. Because the system works by using a hashtag-based re-tweeting service, it is essential that you follow these steps below in order to use it: 1) Follow* @BirdCentralPark* from any Twitter account. You will immediately be able to receive any alerts sent by other birders. Sending alerts requires another step. 2) Within a day or so, your Twitter account will be added to the re-tweeting service distribution list and @BirdCentralPark will attempt to follow your account. If your your account is private, you will need to remember to explicitly approve @BirdCentralPark as a follower. Otherwise, there is nothing more for you to do. 3) You can now tweet your own observation by including the hashtag* #birdcp*anywhere in the message. [Note for those unfamiliar with Twitter: you can "tweet" by sending a text message to the Twitter short code 40404. There are also other ways to tweet -- see Twitter support for more about this.] That’s all there is to it. There is usually a delay of roughly of one to three minutes between when you send your tweet and when users of the system receive it. If you tweet before your account is added to the distribution list, your tweet will not be re-broadcast at all. When you no longer want to receive the alerts, simply unfollow @BirdCentralPark. You can refer to the "Bird Alerts on Twitter" page of my website for a copy of the above directions along with example texts. David Barrett www.bigmanhattanyear.com -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
