Birders who Tweet, Blog, and Chirp – Oh My!

Yesterday, Mark and I spent a wonderful day birding with fellow Birders who Tweet, Blog, and Chirp (BwTBC)! My friend Christopher and Dawn, who I recently meet via Twitter, organized the BwTBC birding event after Dawn learned about a similar event that took place among Virginia Bloggers. Since Dawn and her husband Jeff were going to be in Massachusetts for a bit before continuing their amazing RV journey across the U.S., she and Christopher decided to organize a BwTBC event to bring New England Twitterers, Bloggers, and Chirp-trackers together. They started planning the event over a month ago and yesterday it all came to fruition.

We met our fellow BwTBC’ers at 8AM at the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge Headquarters and I must say I was so thrilled to meet people who I have Tweeted with on occasion since joining Twitter on April 5th of this year. People like Bev (birdingbev), Dawn (dawnfine), Janet (hammerchick), John, (mainebirder), and Christopher (picusblog) of course – the person who introduced me to Twitter/Blogging and who is responsible for my new found distraction. I was equally thrilled to meet several new Twitterers, Bloggers, and Chirp-trackers.

Once introductions were made, which included not only our real names but also our Twitter usernames (see parenthesis above); Christopher took us to the Refuge for a great morning/afternoon of birding. We went for a late lunch at Courtyard Roast Beef and Sub in Newburyport (their roast beef sandwiches are a must try) and then headed to southern NH to look for a few specialty birds. After a full 12-hour-day of birding, a small group of us drove back to Newburyport to have dinner at Andaman Thai Restaurant where we topped-off the day with good food, drink, and more conversation.

Throughout the day, I found myself thinking how amazing it was that a group of people who only knew each other through series of Tweets, each consisting of a 140 characters or less, could get together and exhibit such warmth and camaraderie. As birders though, we inherently share bonds that could eventually bring us together at some point in time. As Birders who Tweet, Blog, and Chirp, those bonds have been expanded into the Ethernet and we find that our paths now cross with people we would otherwise have never met.

Here are a few photos I took during the BwTBC event. Enjoy!

Our first stop at Parking Lot #1 to scan the ocean and beach.

The BwTBC gang at Hellcat Swamp Trail looking at a Marsh Wren nest.

We all got great photos of this very cooperative Savannah Sparrow singing its heart out!

One our last birds of the day were two juveniles Ravens being fed by an adult. This juv was sitting on top of a dirt pile waiting for another helping.