The Core Team was among the 50 million souls inconvenienced by the (caps added by the news media) GREAT BLACKOUT OF 2003. This regrettable event brought to mind a virtue of bird watching I hadn’t previously considered. Birding is extremely low-tech.

All you really need to go bird watching are eyes and birds. If you want to get fancy, even the best scopes don’t need to be plugged in. A good field guide is also free of electricity demands. Blackout or not, you can bird to your heart’s content.

Of course, bird watching is more fun with a camera and a bit of gas in the car. I’d also love to try out some sophisticated birding software on a Pocket PC. Regardless, the point remains…maintaining a birding blog is high tech, but spotting the birds is not.

Written by Mike
Mike is a leading authority in the field of standardized test preparation, but he's also a traveler who fully expects to see every bird in the world. Besides founding 10,000 Birds in 2003, Mike has also created a number of other entertaining but now extirpated nature blog resources, particularly the Nature Blog Network and I and the Bird.