Those of us on the rarity roundup this weekend used a GroupMe group to
send out text alerts of good birds found on the roundup. This worked
well and I am now starting another group for rare birds seen anywhere
in Virginia. Those of you who bird in other states may have heard of
these before, Maryland, Delaware and NewJersey all have at least one
text alert system already. This is not meant to replace the listserv
in any way but is a great way to get the word out quickly when a rare
bird is found. We will be using GroupMe so downloading the GroupMe
app for our smartphone is ideal but is not required, any phone without
the app can send and receive text messages to the group the same as
any other number.
This group is ONLY for reporting rare birds, a good guideline for what
is appropriate would be the VARCOM review list
http://www.virginiabirds.net/varcom_reviewlist.html There are probably
a few other birds not on this list that would be fine to post to the
group such as winter finches and major warbler fallouts but these are
the exception not the rule. Any discussion of these sightings, etc
should remain on the listserv and/or the Facebook pages, we don't want
people getting a bunch of unnecessary texts.
If you would like to join the group or have any additional questions,
email your phone number to me at jmsfox11@xxxxxxxxx and I will add you
to the group. At least at first I will allow people who have joined
to share a link to join the group with anyone else they know who is
interested. Once you have been added to the group, alerts can be
turned off by sending a text message with #mute and can be turned back
on by sending #unmute.
James Fox
Front Royal, VA
