Have you ever wanted to join a local grapevine, but couldn’t because the organisers won’t let new people join?  Or perhaps you’ve been a member of a grapevine, but found you weren’t hearing about good birds in time?  Or perhaps you’ve tried to phone bird news out to people on a local grapevine and found you had to make tens of calls trying to reach them?

North East Scotland Rare Bird Text Alert (a.k.a. ABZ-Text) is a local bird grapevine that anyone who lives in the area can join. It uses automatic text messaging to reach all its members, so doesn’t rely on the whims of human chains.  In its first year, its subscribers were among the first to hear about every national rarity in the region, most of the sub-rarities, and in some cases for rarities not given out to commercial systems (because of site sensitivity).  Highlights were Great Shearwater, Pallid Swift, Lesser Grey Shrike and Bonaparte’s Gull; all of these were twitchable, because the news could be passed to all ABZ-Text members quickly.

ABZ-Text is a low-cost system for informing birders quickly about rare and scarce birds in North East Scotland (Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire). Messages are sent to members mainly by SMS text message using Vodafone’s Message Distribution Service (MDS). So one message reaches everyone, usually instantly.

It operates as a not-for-profit collective; all subscribers (including the organiser) pay the same amount (depending on the service they sign up for) and all subscribers are able to post news about rare birds.

Each subscriber pays an annual fee, consisting of a joining fee, subscription fee and a small administration fee.  The person’s mobile phone is then subscribed to the service by the organiser.

Messages can be sent by the finder or by any member who hears about about a rare or scarce bird in the region by sending a SMS text message from their mobile phone, by email, via Vodafone’s paging service or by phoning Vodafone’s message bureau.  The message is then forwarded automatically to every subscriber’s mobile phone, usually in less than 10 seconds.  Messages can also be sent to a subscriber’s email address or to a pager.

The cost for Vodafone users is a little under £1 per month (Pay as You Go or contract).  In addition, you will be charged by Vodafone for each message you receive at 10.2 pence per message this amount appears on your monthly bill or is taken from your phone’s credit.  I anticipate that we will receive around 150 - 300 messages per annum depending on how good a year it is.  The average over the last two years has been an additional £20 per year.

The cost for non-Vodafone customers (O2, Virgin, Orange, T-mobile, pager or email) is just under £2 per month.  Non-Vodafone customers pay their normal rate to receive text messages. Usually this is free, so the only payment will be the annual charge to ABZ-Text.

Want to know more about this service?  Click here or on any of the navigation buttons on the side.  You can even look at a blog containing the messages that are going out on the system by clicking on this link ABZ-Text Blog

If you want to go ahead and subscribe to this service, please fill out the online application form below or if you prefer, print out a form in Microsoft Word format, or in Adobe Acrobat format (PDF file).  You can get Adobe Acrobat Reader free by clicking on this link

Fill out an online application form: 

Please send a cheque, payable to A WEBB for £11.00 if you subscribe to a Vodafone mobile phone, or £22.00 if you are subscribing either a non-Vodafone mobile or a pager or email address.  This will give you a 12 month subscription.  Please remember, if you have opted for a multiple subscription (e.g. mobile phone + email) you need to pay for each additional subscription.

Please send your cheque (payable to A WEBB) to:

Andy Webb
1 Old Coast Road
Portlethen
ABERDEEN  AB12 4NT

For more information, please contact me either via email by clicking on the Contact Me button on this page or at NESRBTA@andywebb.org.uk. You may also call me at 01224 782326 or 07770 440772.