Jim McCoy writes:

>I'm finally getting around to buying a CD of western bird songs, and can't
>decide between the two Peterson CD collections: Western Bird Songs (or
>something like that) and Birding by Ear, western edition. The former
>claimed to have an absurd 522 species on just two CDs (or does the 522
>include the eastern edition?). The latter offers what seems to me to be an
>absurdly low 90 species on three CDs.

Jim, it's the difference between buying a foreign language dictionary and
foreign language teaching book. Birding by Ear focuses on teaching you how
to categorize songs, what to listen for, and how to distinguish common
similar songs. At the same time, it will cover 80-90% of what you hear in
Cascadia. It's weakest on birds with highly variable accents. (It's been a
long time so I can't remember exact species, but I think that either the
Brewer's Sparrow, White-crowned Sparrow, or Song Sparrow songs on the
Birding by Ear tape are completely unlike the Seattle birds.) Birding by
Ear will give allow you to learn most of the birds, and help give you a way
to teach yourself the songs of birds you don't know. Then, you go to the
"dictionary" (the Peterson CD or something like it) for those birds.

So, it depends on where you are in the learning process. I learned a lot
from the Birding by Ear tape, but I never use it for reference.

Kelly Cassidy
Seattle

"This morning, I awoke to the sounds of wind and rain. I prayed for the
strength to get up, get dressed, and jog five miles. Then I rolled over and
went back to sleep. I prayed for strength, but received wisdom." (Author
unknown)