Years of experience...going to waste.

[otterhere]

Yes, it can, but again everyone's engaging with phones and technology instead of each other. Staring down instead of up. It's a subtle distinction that may be entirely lost on younger people who, as we've said, have never lived any other way.

[Mightyqueen801]

Originally Posted by otterhere

Believe it or not, one of my groups contains actual older people who actually learned and remember bird songs and can identify them all by sound, without consulting an app, so there's no need to pull out a phone on our hikes. Knowledge *used* to be passed down from one generation to the next. Sadly, it looks like the last one of their kind is dying out.

Yup, my partner knows a lot of them by sound because he spent so much of his life outdoors. If I record one, I bring it back and play it for him.

My father knew a lot about birds and trees and identified them for me when I was little. When I met the bf, I said, "This might sound weird, but you and my father could have hung out in the woods together for hours, without speaking, just observing, and had a great time."

I am trying to make up for all the time I missed between childhood and now. 37 years of working in Manhattan exposed me mostly to pigeons. That app is helpful.

[mshultz]

Originally Posted by otterhere

Believe it or not, one of my groups contains actual older people who actually learned and remember bird songs and can identify them all by sound, without consulting an app, so there's no need to pull out a phone on our hikes. Knowledge *used* to be passed down from one generation to the next. Sadly, it looks like the last one of their kind is dying out.

Speaking of bird songs, some years ago, bird song experts realized that there were bird songs at the Augusta golf tournament from birds that were not native to the area. Turns out they were using recorded bird songs to cover up background noises.


I want to be the guy in charge of the recording. I would start out with local bird calls, then gradually add the European cuckoo, tropical birds, the howler monkey, African animals, and ending with a Tarzan yell.