Birder PapaRrazi
An Amateur Birdwatcher's tally
It can be hard to birdwatch in the summer if you don’t like heat. June is early summer, but a heat wave has taken over the Pacific Northwest at the end of this month and I don’t feel like going outside unless I can get in the car with air conditioning. Considering the price of gas, that has to be limited. Birds don’t feel like doing much in the heat, either. Still, I saw quite a few this month while out and about, and at home. Here is my bird list for June.
While at home one afternoon I saw a family of scrub jays. Two at first, then 3, and then 5 all total, hanging out around the bird feeder. I enjoyed snapping their pictures as they played and dined. According to What is a group of jays called? | SIMILAR BUT DIFFERENT IN THE ANIMAL KINGDOM (similarbutdifferentanimals.com) a group of jays is called a party or a scold, and either would be appropriate for these loud, cute, rambunctious birds! Even as I write this article, I hear a jay outside my window, out of sight but very audible! That sums up my regular report of birds in the PNW. But I promised two articles this month, and I’m delivering those as promised. The Eagle story is on my birder gallery page. It will be updated over time. Below is my article on bird sound applications! A review of bird sound applications
I have been working with 2 bird sound ap on my cell phone and this report describes them. Both aps were created through Cornell. Here’s my story so far. Finding Birdnet It started last year when I got a new smartphone. It’s not necessarily the fanciest, most advanced smartphone on the market, but it was an upgrade from the flip phone I had used for emergencies before. I scrolled through the amazing options of software available and naturally hit upon bird watching aps. Birdnet was described as a bird song identifier. I downloaded it and tried it the next time I went birdwatching. When you pull up the application it starts recording. You can see the audio spectrum as noises go up and down. Press a button to stop the recording. There is an option to save and one to analyze. You can do both, but you must save first. Then the program analyzes what it heard and recorded. If birds are recognized in that analysis, a list comes up announcing them. If no birds were heard or the other noises were too overwhelming, it will say “humanoid”. I fell in love. Looking Further Unfortunately, I bird in loud places. My home is near a railroad and a busy street with a lot of construction. When I go birding my dogs usually come along and they bark cheerfully and endlessly – and loudly. A small airport is not 15 miles away from a lot of my birding spots. So Birdnet is limited. It also doesn’t work immediately in most of the state parks and outside of wireless paths. It will save the recording, but not analyze it. While researching for this article, I did find there is an IOS app and a way to upload sound on a computer through the website, which expands its usefulness. When I got an upgraded phone because the first one was broken, I downloaded Birdnet again, but I also found Merlin – which is a full birding program with photo and sound identifiers. I downloaded it as well. Finding Merlin The sound identifier is what I use most. Cell phones don’t get good pictures of little birds at a distance. But the audio is great. Even as the sound is recording (and reflecting in a spectrogram on the screen) it is analyzing. A song sparrow sings – the name pops up. A red wing black bird croaks – its name pops up below the song sparrow. The sparrow is still singing – its name is highlighted. There have been times when 8 or more names came up, and the names lit up multiple times. It could be a game, but it’s much more exciting to me. You can save the audio for later listening as well. I use both programs when I’m birdwatching, though I lean more towards Merlin these days. They are both useful and fun. I recommend both.
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AuthorI love birdwatching. It's relaxing and fun. Even though I've been birding for over 10 years I classify myself as an amateur birder. I plan to write a blog each month about my experiences. Hope you enjoy them! Categories |
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