Dear Friend,

I’m really not a big technology guy. In fact, I think it pretty much stinks.

I hate my Blackberry and I loathe my lap top, although I am easily found working one or the other most of my day. Technology makes me nervous: I am perennially waiting for an email, a text or a phone call reply to a meaningless question or a silly comment I sent just 10 or 20 or 30 seconds earlier. Then I get nervous. Where is my answer? I simply cannot wait any longer, hurry up and get here! For goodness sake it’s been nearly a minute and I don’t have my damn answer!!!

I literally feel the anxiety spread through the veins in my arms when I’m on my phone or laptop. But, still I do it… pretty much all day long. Then, afterwards, I have to head to the woods for a hike or a jog just to shake the wireless world E-something out of my spinning head.

Along with not being a tech guy I am also not a bird guy; not nearly as knowledgeable about North American birds as I should be given my chosen profession. In fact, I stink at birding.

Now here’s where two of my shortcomings meet in a fiery crash of ineptitude: there is a new Birding App (that’s IPhone-speak for “application”, or on-line program) that helps me identify all the North American bird species right on my phone (it works on IPhones now, coming to Blackberries in a few weeks). Developed from the famed Sibley’s Guides, the new Sibley’s E-Guide to North American Birds is truly a cool tech gig that even a guy like me can get into. Full color images and descriptions are easy to locate with a scroll of the thumb; behaviors, range and Latin names are given. And the speakers even play the calls of each and every species!

Now, thanks to the advent of my old nemesis technology, you don’t have to walk the trails dragging heavy dog-eared bird books. Just keep a small black box in your pocket and, in a flash, you can identify your first non-breeding rose-breasted Grosbeak. Just watch out—eventually that box is going to ring and ruin your day in the woods.

I hope to see you out there!

Ben Bressler
Founder & Director
Natural Habitat Adventures