The Osprey's Nest BBS

The Osprey's Nest (TON) was a computer bulletin board system, a BBS, run for 10-1/2 years by Norm and Fran Saunders. TON was set up as a place for birders and other amateur naturalists to meet and to chat about their hobbies, their avocations, their passion in life---birds. TON was the first attempt anywhere to provide an electronic resource just for birders. Located in the suburbs of Washington, DC, the bulletin board attracted callers from all 50 States and all of the Canadian Provinces, as well as from a handful of foreign countries. All of this attention notwithstanding, it quickly became apparent that the board was the most useful to those who lived close enough to access it via a local telephone call. Thus was born a small but energetic group of Washington-area residents who were both active, energetic birders and enthusiastic computer users. In addition to an active message section, the sysops took it on themselves to search out and post many files of interest to amateur naturalists. One of their most innovative ideas was to transcribe the weekly Voice of the Naturalist hotline recording of the Audubon Naturalist Society (ANS) and post that recording on-line, often within an hour or less of the recording being released at ANS. Soon other hotlines were transcribed, notably the Philadelphia hotline from Armas Hill and the fledgling Virginia birding hotline. Discussions between Sysop Norm Saunders and a long-distance caller from Arizona, Chuck Williamson, led to Chuck setting up the NBHC, the National Birding Hotline Cooperative, a set of three LISTSERVs covering the Eastern, Central, and Western portions of the USA and Canada. Today virtually all USA hotlines are transcribed and posted on the NBHC lists by active and enthusiastic volunteers across the country. Norm and Fran Saunders are proud of the fact that they played a small but germinal role in that incredible coming-together of birders across the USA. TON started in July 1987 on a heavily modified Kaypro Plus CP/M-based home computer with a 1200-baud modem. Over the years it evolved through 5 different machines, each a bit more powerful than the last, each with a bit more file-holding capacity, and each with a slightly faster modem. In the Fall of 1996 the BBS was transferred to a Pentium machine with a 2 gigabyte hard disk and a 28.8 modem. The software was completely updated to the commercial Wildcat BBS package, and the file directories received a much-needed cleaning out and slimming down. Alas, growing interest in the Internet spelled the end for TON. Callers dropped off precipitously in 1997 and Fran and Norm made the sad decision on November 1, 1997, to close down The Osprey's Nest. Out of that sadness and sense of loss MDOsprey was born!