Getting news out promptly
Bird news is freely available to anybody and can be accessed from the website, mobile site, email and RSS, from a PC or a mobile phone. This is great as it means you can get the news in what ever form suits you best. However, this isn't much use if the news isn't submitted in a timely fashion. In this article I'll discuss how to get your news to the people that want it as quickly as possible.
Submitting news from your mobile phone
The quickest way of getting news out is by submitting the news using your mobile phone while in the field. There is a mobile optimised version of this site which allows you to submit news. For the county specific address click the "Alerts" link on the "Bird News" page.
The mobile site is a stripped down version of the website which allows you to view news (limited to scarcer birds only) and submit news. You have to login to submit news (use the same login details as for the PC site). On most mobile phones typing is a fiddly process so to save you the trouble of doing it again I suggest you bookmark the submit page. You can enter the time (defaults to the current time), count (defaults to one), age/sex, species, site, grid reference and notes. Fill in the fields and click "Save". This updates the main database and makes the news immediately available on the website, mobile site and via email and RSS.
What if your phone doesn't have internet access?
The technology used for the mobile site is WAP, first released in 1998 with the last release in 2000. It's old technology and not very sophisticated, but it's widely supported by mobile phone manufacturers. Even if your phone is ten years old you'll probably still be able to access the mobile site.
If for whatever reason you can't, I suggest you contact somebody who can while you're still in the field, as soon as possible after locating the bird. I work a Monday to Friday 9-5 job and I have a Blackberry mobile phone. Local birders in Berkshire know I'll always be able to submit the news immediately so often phone me when they find a good bird. I submit the news and it's immediately available on the website, mobile site and via email and RSS.
What about RBA/Birdnet/Birdguides?
I'm not suggesting don't phone the bird news services as that will get the news out to an even wider audience, especially as they all copy news off each other to some extent. They also monitor most email groups so will probably pick up the news from there sooner or later. If you receive news from one of the news services and it hasn't already been submitted, submit it with a note saying "per pager". Not everybody has one!
We already have a phone/email/sms network?
Great, no need to change. The options I've given above just spread the word. For instance, if I find a good bird in Berkshire I submit the news from my phone and phone my birding mates. I know that submitting the news on my mobile has put the news on the web and emailed 221 people including all the bird news services. I can then phone a limited number of birding contacts with whom I regularly share news but there's no way I can phone or text 200+ people!