DISCOVER LIFE: AN EXCELLENT NATURAL WORLD ONLINE RESOURCE

I have just come across the website DISCOVER LIFE which could be very helpful with identifying or finding information on particular species. It covers land and sea, animals, birds and plants worldwide, and it looks as though it is constantly updated and expanded. I haven’t done more than scratched the surface, but already I feel that it could be a very useful resource. See what you think… 

AUDUBON FISHES OF THE CARIBBEAN & GULF OF MEXICO APP

iphone, ipad (172mb)    £0.69 / $0.99 offer until 31 Jan, then reverts to $9.99          rollingharbour rating *****

This is app is so good, and such an utter bargain until 31 Jan 2012, that I have awarded it the rh logo position at the top of the page. Praise indeed. Audubon guides are legendary, of course. The excellent Audubon bird app has already been reviewed and also given a rare 5*- see BIRD APP on the BOOKS ETC drop-down menu. Now here are the Caribbean Fishes, in all their glory. First, a clip shot of the download page – click on it to enlarge and avoid eye-strain

This is a very well designed app, a comprehensive search and identification tool with a myriad of features. It’s fine for an iPhone, but I guess it would really come into its own on an iPad. Whatever that is. Here’s a brief overview of the contents

SEARCH OPTIONS  by shape (dividing size into 5 categories, from giant to tiny); family (alphabetical list of species); name (alphabetical list with useful thumbnails to assist – and cleverly, the ability to search by first name ‘Sergeant’ or last name ‘Major’), or advanced search (size / shape; habitat; regions; colour)

REFERENCE sections on biology; fish-watching tips; marine habitats; biogeography; conservation; fish taxonomy; dangerous fishes; large glossary

OTHER FEATURES include the facility for having a (free) account, enabling a ‘My Content’ facility; Journal; and GPS

Crits? Very few at first glance. The odd typo. My inital search for bonefish by size (over-optimistic, of course) led me to the larger ladyfish, but a search by name took me straight to it. The most significant confusions may arise from the present ‘single image’ ID format. For example, if you look for the uncomely  greeny-blue adult male stoplight parrotfish, you may be surprised to find the prettier black, white & red female pictured. Similarly, you won’t find juveniles, such as the small blue-with-yellow-spots yellowtail damselfish. But these are small points in an app with such a large scope. Anyway, who knows what upgrades will follow?

Overall for £0.69 / $0.99 a complete steal for New Year

ChronGlobal Tidal Chronoscope® APP                                 

App for iPhone, iPad and Android £1.49 / $1.99                     rh rating  ***  

[Jan 2012 Rating revised down a star after further playtime. I still like it. It looks good. But I am not convinced how useful it would actually be in real life. If anyone has got it, I'd be keen to hear your comments... NB It doesn't seem to have Marsh Harbour as a 'station' - but you can set it for Little Harbour, Elbow Cay, Green Turtle Cay, and Sandy Point (I think it's the right one)]

AHOY THERE! Time & Tide…wait… oh! someone else has used that one… Anyway, this looks good, and for less than a tube of Pringles™. Below is a précis of the blurb so you can check if its for you

 Click to make this legible

SUMMARY: ”GPS Tide predictions as easily as Time instantly and at your very location.  USA & Worldwide tides, with sun and moon positions. 9400 worldwide locations using NOAA and UKHO data feeds” 

PRODUCT PUFF: ”Designed to create an incredibly easy way to give you instant tide information at the touch of a screen, with lunar and solar positions. Using the GPS / location features of your device, the Tidal Chronoscope®  offers a virtual wristwatch that gives you the current state of the tides wherever you are, for over 9400 worldwide tide locations.  Automatically updates your location as you travel.  Compatible with iPhone/iPad/iTouch and Android devices. And it’s no exaggeration (rh note – may we be the judge of this?) to say that it’s going to change the lives of anyone with an interest in water-oriented activity. Not just yachtsman, fishermen, boaters, sailors, kayakers or mariners, but divers, surfers and even shell collectors” (rh note – or for completely non-water-oriented people who simply love fiddling about with apps)

 

The Bahamas: Islands of Song                      Various Artists SFW40405

This is a CD of Bahamas traditional / folk music containing 23 tracks. It’s a pricey £13.50 on Amazon, but the good news is that it is available to download for only £6.99. You can sample each track to check out if it’s the sort of thing to put you in a mellow Abaco mood. It’s an eclectic mixture of musical styles, so it’s very much a question of “taste and try before you buy” (©Savoy Brown) Here is the record label’s blurb to give you an idea…

 ”This compilation of music from the Bahamas includes goombay rake-and-scrape dance bands (goombay refers to both the skin drum and the ensemble as a whole), spirituals, and fingerpicking guitar music. All the performers on this recording participated in the 1994 Festival of American Folklife, an annual event presented on the Mall in Washington, D.C., by the Smithsonian Institute’s Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage. 
INSTRUMENTS Accordion; Banjo; Drum; Goat Skin drum; Goombay rake and scrape band; Goombay; Guitar; Musical saw; Saw, Vocals
RECORD LABEL Smithsonian Folkways Recordings 1997
SOURCE ARCHIVE Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage”       To sample the 23 tracks  CLICK LOGO ===>>> 

iTUNES U:  ’REEF MONITOR’ PODCAST SERIES

Free                                                                                         rh rating – not yet road-tested

I have no idea how fascinating (or otherwise) these podcasts are, and I haven’t checked how annoying the presentation is (a problem with some podcasts). However they look as though they might be of interest to those who want to know more about coral reefs, their ecology, and the problems they face. The podcasts are based on lectures given in Marsh Harbour, so they relate specifically to research undertaken on Abaco. There are two sets of podcasts, both aimed at a High-school audience rather than professionals. The videos include footage of field research on Abaco reefs. The ‘cover fish’ is a Stoplight Parrotfish.

When (if) I get round to dipping in, I’ll add some comments. If anyone tries these, please leave a comment as to whether they are useful or not.                              CLICK IMAGES TO MAKE THEM LEGIBLE!

AT LAST… A truly CRAP APP

At the foot of the page is my pledge to review (i.e warn you off) the bad as well as commend the good. Well, here goes, at last, with both barrels…

Fidesreef Bahamas (latest version)

Either Free or 0.59p: whichever, I can’t be bothered to check          rh rating 1/2 *

This is a hopeless App. I downloaded the original version, which was near-useless. I thought the revised version might add all the missing parts, but no – they’ve changed the name and coloured it green. Cool

For: A very small amount of general information and a bit of history about the Bahamas, all available elsewhere and far better presented

Against: Basically covers only New Providence and Grand Bahama, with a nod to 2 or 3 out-islands, NOT including Abaco. No additional out-islands in the update. The barest of information. Annoying presentation. Seems dated. Feeble waste of an opportunity – indeed apportunity – to provide something useful

Only one person has gathered the strength to review the thing, saying “Very minimalist and basic”, awarding the coveted accolade of the wooden one-star

ADVICE: If it’s free, save your time & mb-space. If it’s .59p, save your money too! 

FLORENT’S REEF LIFE IDENTIFICATION GUIDE 

rollingharbour rating ****

This marine life ID resource is so useful that in addition to its appearance in the blogroll as a direct link, it merits a special mention here. The site is divided into 2 main parts: Caribbean, Florida and Bahamas; and Tropical Pacific. Selecting the first, you’ll find a comprehensive guide that is prolifically illustrated with bright colour photos, with many species having click-throughs to a wide variety of different views and growth stages of that particular species. 

But it doesn’t stop at reef fish, although that coverage is impressive enough – 12 separate categories of fish, divided into sub-categories, from the largest ray and shark to the smallest goby and blenny. Pretty much all marine reef life is here: crustaceans, worms, molluscs, cnidarians (jellyfish, anenomes), echinoderms (stars, sea urchins), sponges, corals, algae – and finally dolphins and turtles.

I’m fond of the Reef Fish App reviewed below – it’s easily portable on an iphone, for a start. However Florent’s Guide is the biz, and helps a great deal with ID , especially for anyone starting completely from scratch, as I have – not knowing a grunt from a wrasse.

CLICK HERE OR TITLE ABOVE FOR DIRECT LINK TO THE BAHAMAS PAGES

Bahamas News Our Way

Free         iPhone, iPad                        rollingharbour rating *** 

This little app is quite fun, and useful within its limitations. It is the gateway to:

1. Four bahamian radio stations: various combinations of local music – invariably cheering – and more general rocky / poppy stuff. Rolling Stones (Sympathy with the Devil) followed by the Monkees (Last Train to Clarksville) this morning when I checked- now THAT’s a concert I’d have loved to be at, with the Stones as warm up to the Main Act… oh, time to wake up 

2. Weather: daily details with maps and 5-day forecasts for each island, from the Bahamas Meteorological Department.

3. News: click-through to 8 bahamian journals, including the Abaconian (though that link wasn’t working today).

4. Search: direct links to bahamas-based searches on the usual suspects – Youtube, Google, Wiki, Twitter, Facebook etc. You never know quite what you will come up with.

For the direct link to this app on iTunes to download CLICK LOGO 

GOOD APPS GUIDE

I will gradually post details of some Apps that may be of interest, not all of them avian-related. Apologies that they are iPhone-centric,  I don’t do Android etc, but I expect you can get them that way too.

Audubon Birds Florida 

£2.99          iPhone and iPad       rollingharbour rating *****

400+ birds, 1200 photos, 1000 songs / bird calls. An excellent and good value App that covers much of the birdlife you will find on Abaco (and more widely than that). It’s a very good resource to supplement bird books, and it has the advantage of giving you some of the actual songs/ calls as opposed to those maddening book descriptions… “song is a prolonged phew phew twiddly-dee; call is a sharp staccato pip twit…” You can browse birds by Shape, Name or Family. There are silhouettes and very good photos, and you can store lists of your own sightings. You can even toggle straight to the camera on your iPhone to take a quick snap (though frankly Apple haven’t quite cracked the camera side of things yet). There’s a well thought-out reference section including birding and ID advice, notes on plumage etc, and lists of classifications, endangered species and so on. A truly amazing package for the price.

[Note: also worth considering is the full and majestic Audubon App 'Field Guide to Birds of North America' at £8.99... oh, and there's even rather a good App for the Birds of Central Park NYC, and it's FREE]

 CHIRP! USA

£1.79              iPhone and iPad        rollingharbour rating ***

A simple and cheerful little App that is primarily for identifying birdsong, or birds through songs. It covers the whole USA, but one can select a particular area. Choose Florida for example and you get about 130 birds and their songs, many of them also found on Abaco. This isn’t for sophisticated birders (who might not be entertained by the ‘Challenge’ game of matching song to bird), but it’s quite handy. I like it, anyway.

[Note: there is a free taster version that you can update to the full one if you like it. There are also other versions - a Chirp! Europe one for example]

 Reef Fish – Florida and Caribbean

£2.99               iPhone and iPad        rollingharbour rating *****

A truly excellent resource for identifying shallow water fish, such as you might find snorkelling off the club beach, or on a reef snorkelling trip (about which, a post is in contemplation). The full version features, amazingly, nearly 450 fish photos (with notes on each) divided into 63 families; quite a number of videos; a slideshow; and the ability to ‘favourite’ individual fish, perhaps for blogging about later. Another App that is outstanding value, although nb it will take up a bit of space (about 50 mbs) on your phone.

Again, there is a free ‘Lite’ version, with only 32 fish in 7 families, and 7 videos. So if you aren’t sure about getting the full App, it costs nothing to see how it looks.

[By the way, I'm not being paid for all this enthusiastic endorsement - and if I come across a relevant App that is a complete waste of space, you will hear about it too...]