In the swinging sixties, Nancy’s Cafe in East Anglia’s Cley was the place to be. However, the tiny cafe in a picturesque part of the British countryside wasn’t part of the singing, dancing free-love revolution, but rather a bustling hang-out for twitchers. Bird-spotters used to flood the phone-lines with news of rare spottings or congregate over coffee to pass on helpful hints to other enthusiasts. Fifty years later and technology has finally taken over and the must have gadget for all birdwatchers is the humble pager.

Pagers might not be the most modern of electronic gadgets, but it seems they have their place in ornithology. While the bulky mobile phone might lose signal, quickly run out of battery or disturb a nesting warbler, the pager is small, discreet and can be switched to vibrate. Worn on a belt-clip or simply carried in your knapsack, for ornithologists, the pager can serve as a network of UK birdlife and provide up-to-date information on all the rarest finds. Before pagers took over, birders had to phone a pre-recorded phone number for their information and, for many, that involved the inconvenience of having to find a local phone box whilst out and about in the countryside.

Most companies that provide pagers have a built in subscription service for birders and one particular company boasts that last year it sent subscribers around 800,000 messages. However, all ornithologists are different so before you sign up you can choose what sort of birds you’re interested in. You may be a die-hard birder or perhaps you are just someone that likes to dabble in a bit of ornithology now and then; whatever your level of activity is, the frequency of your updates will be governed by this.

In Dorset, pagers are also being used to track badgers. Because of their nocturnal habits badgers are the most difficult animals in the UK to spot; however, fortunately for badger watchers, the animals have terrible eyesight, so as long as you can keep quiet your chances of spotting them are pretty good. This means mobile phones are out and discreet pagers are definitely in. Badger watchers regularly send other enthusiasts information on possible setts and births via pagers, proving that the device is still popular among wildlife lovers.

With many species of bat set to become endangered in the UK, bat detectors are using their pagers to send updates and grid references to other bat-lovers and bat conservation groups. The idea is that this will enable them to create a nationwide database of all the areas in the United Kingdom that are abundant in bats, giving them some indication of which species need saving and which are more common in the great British countryside.

When it comes to nature it seems that newer technology isn’t always better technology. While mobile phones may come with flashy apps and unlimited internet access, when you’re looking for a trusty method of communication that doesn’t run out of signal or lose its battery power when you need it most, then pagers beat mobiles hands-down.

Author Bio: Jenny Kettlewell is the Marketing Manager for Multitone Systems, a tele communications strategies company that has provided pagers and paging systems for organisations in the public and private sector for many years.

Category: Business Management
Keywords: pagers