Rockin' Robin

Have you ever seen a fallen Robin's egg?

Twice in my life I've seen the beautiful, baby blue colored eggs. Once was this spring, and the egg was clearly broken. The other time was when I was a little girl. The Robin's egg was intact with light-brown speckles. Not wanting any animal to eat the baby Robin egg, I gloved up (with my mother's plastic sandwich bags) to not leave any scent. Once properly concealed, I began to search for the right spot to put the egg, which was the most difficult task yet. Looking all around the yard for a safe location, I noticed a nice clump of grass with an area underneath, which looked like the perfect incubator. Carefully (and with the hands of a six-year-old), I laid the Robin's egg in its new nest. Not wanting to disturb the egg or potentially add more scent, I did not visit the egg for a few weeks. When I returned to the check on the egg, what do you think I found?

Nothing.

I was sick to my stomach, thinking a fox must have eaten the egg.

But, now that I'm an adult, I realize the error in my childish ways. Isn't it obvious? The baby Robin bird hatched and flew away to start Twitter.

So here's to all my baby Rockin' Robins that are part of my personal learning network. This week, I networked (in person) with MSSE birds from Oregon, Texas, New England, Pennsylvania and Washington D.C. as part of my Thermal Biology course. I asked them the old fashion way to be park of my network, and they agreed. (Yeah, I'm not an empty nester!) Although none of them are twittering, I am going to try and connect with them electronically once I have their emails. Virtually, I started following five people on Twitter, and sent out my very first brown-speckled, baby Robin egg tweet.

What I learned was that there are lots of people to network with and learn from in a variety of ways, and that a social network is a communication vehicle that helps develop my personal learning network. I also learned that those I consider part of my current personal learning network are not plugged in, so I'll have to see if I can invite them by email. However, what I have not learned is how to easily search for people. What is the best way to search, seasoned tweeters? If I am @jcpeck, how would you search for me?

Tweet...tweet...tweet...without the willingness to fly, there can be no new discovery.

Bird song and call descriptions copyright 1998 by NatureSound Studio, from the book Common Birds and Their Songs (Lang Elliott, 1998: Houghton Mifflin Company). Copyright 2006 Lang Elliott and Mighty Pods, LLC. All rights reserved. Site sponsored by birdJam and Nature Sound Studio. birdJam: the ultimate way to learn bird songs!