Welcome to Expert Village. My name is Wayne Petersen and I direct the Massachusetts
Audubon Society's Important Bird Areas Program for Massachusetts. Today, we're here at the
Daniel Webster Wildlife Sanctuary in Marshfield, Massachusetts. And, we're going to be talking
about the equipment needed to get one started in birding. Now, one of the things that's really
important as a starting birder and also increasingly as your birding career progresses, is to keep track
of what you see, to keep records, to keep good notes. And, there is various ways to do that and there
is various systems that different birders use. But, sort of fundamental to the process is a small
notebook, a field notebook, something that you can carry into the field, preferably pocket sized that
will allow you to make your notes while you're on the spot. Make sure that you use a pen that is
waterproof, so that if your notes get wet, there are wet notebooks that actually allow you to write on
paper that won't bleed if the paper or ink gets wet. But, the subject of what goes into these
notebooks is obviously going to be something that we'll talk about in more detail. But, what many
birders do, is to take their field notebook and they transfer their in the field observations into
something that is more of a, an ongoing register. I like something like this. It's a standard diary. It's
the kind of thing that has pages that will allow you to enter information on a daily basis if you'd like.
And, again, the subject of, of these expanded observations is something that we'll talk about in more
detail. Finally, I would add, in place of hard copy notes, many people increasing are using the
computer and their various software packages that allow you to maintain your bird notes, your bird
lists, your bird records. Many of these things are databases that can be interactive, and can be, you
can move information around. Certainly, keeping track of what you see is very important and where
you go and how many individuals of each species, these are things that are very critical to a birding
career.
More Photos
