After I started my Zero to Hero Birding Journey (occurring seven years in the past now), my birding mentor Tim Boucher required that I (a) obtain the Merlin birding app, (b) study to be fast with my binoculars, and (c) put time into studying to “hen by ear.”
So I dutifully downloaded the Merlin App, practiced with my binoculars (to the priority of my neighbors), and hung out with the completely different quizzes and tutorials on eBird, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s on-line birding mecca, studying to acknowledge completely different birds by their songs and calls. Spring migration arrived and I used to be so prepared.
After which I hit the woods and realized making an attempt to determine a single hen amidst all of the completely different calls and songs and cries was like standing on the nook of State Avenue in Chicago at rush hour making an attempt to determine the make of a automotive by the sound of its horn amidst all the opposite horns and site visitors noises. In a phrase, for me, hopeless. And so irritating.
After all, that was then, that is now. And now, the Merlin App, which unlocked birding for me all these years in the past with the Hen ID Wizard, is as soon as once more serving to me up my birding recreation with Sound ID. It’s not fairly pretty much as good as having your personal private birding coach, nevertheless it’s the closest factor I’ve discovered to birding with a human knowledgeable.
It truly is just like the Shazam music app for birds. Hear a hen tune or name you don’t acknowledge, hearth up Merlin SoundID and it gives you recommendations. Identical to Shazam helps you determine that 80s tune enjoying in a espresso store, however for cedar wax wings and ovenbirds as a substitute of Heaven 17 or Siouxsie and the Banshees.
Ode to Merlin, Redux
From these birding wizards on the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, the Merlin App and its integrations simply hold getting higher. Obtainable on each the App Retailer and Google Play, I’ve misplaced observe of what number of occasions I’ve advisable Merlin to mates and, properly, just about each stranger with binoculars I meet on the path. In the course of the pandemic, I ended each Zoom name with mates (and okay, strangers) with a advice to obtain Merlin and start a significant and rewarding birding journey (even when we weren’t speaking about birding).