[Tweeters] Upping my game (sound ID)

[Jim Betz via Tweeters]

Hi again,

So here is the latest update on my adventures into birding by ear ...

I went to a location (The "Upland Trail" at Padilla Bay) that I've been 
going to

this summer. I was seeing and hearing about the same number of birds as

before ... and I was there at approximately the same time. This location has

a lot of times when you are out in the open (grassy fields) and then 
also a lot

of times when you are in the forest/understory - but also a lot of time when

the ability to view/look around is seriously impeded by brush/small trees.

But! Using Merlin it 'found' no less than 38 different species. Of those

5 or 6 were "uncommon". So using Merlin Sound ID to 'discover what might

be around' is definitely good.

A couple of gotchas however ...

1) Many of the birds SoundID found were never seen visually. I even spent

quite a bit of time sitting on one of the many benches and watching the

area and my phone to see if I could find the birds visually. I would say 
that

about half were never seen in the entire 2+ hours.

2) I found it quite disconcerting that SoundId often did not hear bird calls

that I was hearing -very- clearly. I could hear the bird calling/singing

but SoundId never flagged them on my phone. It didn't flag anything at

these times.

3) A lot of the "never seen" birds (see #1) were also flagged ... when I

heard nothing at all. Is my hearing really that bad? I intend to test

this more ... even enlisting the help of others to confirm that they

"heard nothing/something" when I heard nothing and SoundId flagged.

4) I have added several new (to me) bird songs/calls that I had been

hearing all along - but didn't know which bird it was.

So, overall I am finding SoundID to be a very useful tool for learning bird

songs/calls.

- Jim

P.S. I got a very long look at a nestbox occupied by a family of Tree 
Swallows

where the adults were zooming here and there after insects and then

returning to the box to feed the young bird who had its head stuck out of

the hole and was blocking the entire hole. At one point I briefly thought I

saw a probable second young behind and above its head.
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