Date: 6/9/26 4:41 pm From: ncsealord (via carolinabirds Mailing List) <carolinabirds...> Subject: Garganey and the Demise of the Listserve
In the beginning there was a telephone tree. Rare bird information passed from person to person via a “phone tree”. This worked so long as you were a limb, or at least a leaf, on the tree. Intraday or even day to day updates were difficult and uncommon. Remember you had to find a phone, have the coins for the call, and sometimes that was long distance. If you are Gen Z or later DM me and I will explain what “coins” are, why finding a phone was sometimes difficult (and what one looked like), and the concept of a “long-distance call”. We may not make it all the way to collect calls, but you’ll at least get the gist.
Eventually someone created the answering machine. It was a miracle. A pre-recorded message of current rarities was available day or night. The occasional need for coins and the specter of long-distance calls was still a factor.
Then the sun rose over the land. Phones had evolved into things that came in bags and sported aerials the size of a small TV station transmitter, but calls could be made from the field. Instantaneous information was possible. You still had to be the person called to know, but wow, the technology was amazing.
But it got better. A thing called e-mail happened. Now rare bird information could be sent instantly to an unlimited (mostly) number of people. Updates could be sent in more or less timely fashion. Some early adopters of technology (Kent Fiala, I am looking at you) started to send e-mail from the actual location of the bird from their phone. It was a revolution. Birds could be chased and chasers had a reasonable expectation of finding what they were looking for. Updates could be intraday or even more frequent.
Decades went by.
And then e-mail died. Sort of like MySpace. It worked, everyone had it. But it became blasé. And who wants to actually write entire sentences (with punctuation!?) Bro. Way too much work.
Messaging apps came on the scene. It was pretty much the same thing as email, except you thumb type in little phrases. Grammar mavens shuddered. This was (and is) not the place for lengthy discourse or discussion. Just the facts ma’am, and in as few characters as possible, if you please.
GroupMe fought WhatsApp and now rules the bird info exchange word. Or I should say that Microsoft rules, but whatever. And it’s not all bad. With email you got it all. The stuff you wanted and the stuff you didn’t. Someone’s first hummingbird of the year mixed with threads about hunters, outdoor cats, and squirrel-proofing.
With GroupMe superfluous info is quickly crowdsourced to the curb. You can subscribe to local, state, or regional groups, and decide if you want to only look at the discussion, the RBA, or all of it. You can have your phone ding when a rare bird note is posted but stay silent when posts are added to the discussion chats.
The bad thing? You don’t know what you don’t know. Did you know there is an OBX-only GroupMe? One for the mountains too. If I visit Kodiak, Alaska, how many GroupMe are there and how do I join? I don’t know. It’s a bit more work, and you now have to look at multiple places for the same info you got via email before, but it’s all there, just not in a box with a bow. That is the state of the world today. Just Google it and follow the directions.
GroupMe is good. It’s all business. There is not much personality, there is not much discourse or diatribes. It does what it should. Until it too becomes passe and something else comes along.
But back to the Garganey. There is one being seen at Pea Island in Dare County (found by Audrey Whitlock.) It’s an amazing find. This is perhaps the rarest chasable bird to grace North Carolina in a decade. Most “rare birds” aren’t. They are locally rare, slightly late, slightly early, or uncommon. This duck is rare. It is continentally rare. Virtually no one in NC has seen one in NC, and few have seen one in the United States, especially an alternate plumaged drake. It’s a big deal*. And there was nary a word on Carolinabirds. So, I felt it appropriate, if a bit sad to send a note. But also to reflect on the true death of the listserve. Carolinabirds, RIP. We knew you well. You entertained us. You informed us. One could pretend to be at work but really reading email on bird sightings. We looked forward to lengthy discourses from talented submitters. We cringed at lengthy diatribes by known entities. But it was a community, and it was fun.
For details on the duck, refer to GroupMe 😉
Steve Shultz
Still playing with Bronze Age tools in Apex, NC
*Assuming the NC bird records committee accepts the bird as being of wild origin. This is always a thing with waterfowl.
