Late this morning I decided to take a walk to try out my newly downloaded Cornell University "Merlin" birding app. It is free! I had heard of it but hadn't tried it before. On Saturday's walk several of my co-walkers were using it and I decided to try it at my earliest convenience. I started the walk at about 11:30 a.m. and kept at it till about 1 p.m. Along the way the Merlin app detected the songs of twenty-five birds. I have never made a real effort at learning bird songs, but maybe this app will help me. The high pitched little squeaks if the Indigo Bunting and the Eastern Towhee's loud and distinctive "TOE!!! we-ee-ee-ee" (some folks say "DRINK - your tea-ee-ee-ee!" may stick with me.
I wish I could have actually SEEN more of them -- especially the Indigo Bunting (pics are from Wikipedia):
..
and the Summer Tanager...
I know the app is not foolproof, but it was correct about the few common birds that I did get a good look at.
Besides those my list today included the usual robins, sparrows, finches, titmice, wrens, chickadees, starlings, grackles, crows, geese but also: Swainson's Warblers, Red Bellied Woodpeckers, Northern Flickers, Easter Wood Pewee, and a few others. 25 in all.
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