Jim - This is very cool. And perhaps more imptly I think it might be useful to the Merlin project managers.
Keep it up!!
Rob
-;
Rob Faucett
+1(206) 619-5569
robfaucett at mac.com
Seattle, WA 98105
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On Jul 8, 2024, at 1:16 PM, Jim Betz via Tweeters <tweeters at u.washington.edu> wrote:
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Hi again,
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So here is the latest update on my adventures into birding by ear ...
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I went to a location (The "Upland Trail" at Padilla Bay) that I've been going to
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this summer. I was seeing and hearing about the same number of birds as
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before ... and I was there at approximately the same time. This location has
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a lot of times when you are out in the open (grassy fields) and then also a lot
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of times when you are in the forest/understory - but also a lot of time when
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the ability to view/look around is seriously impeded by brush/small trees.
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But! Using Merlin it 'found' no less than 38 different species. Of those
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5 or 6 were "uncommon". So using Merlin Sound ID to 'discover what might
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be around' is definitely good.
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A couple of gotchas however ...
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1) Many of the birds SoundID found were never seen visually. I even spent
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quite a bit of time sitting on one of the many benches and watching the
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area and my phone to see if I could find the birds visually. I would say that
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about half were never seen in the entire 2+ hours.
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2) I found it quite disconcerting that SoundId often did not hear bird calls
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that I was hearing -very- clearly. I could hear the bird calling/singing
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but SoundId never flagged them on my phone. It didn't flag anything at
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these times.
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3) A lot of the "never seen" birds (see #1) were also flagged ... when I
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heard nothing at all. Is my hearing really that bad? I intend to test
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this more ... even enlisting the help of others to confirm that they
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"heard nothing/something" when I heard nothing and SoundId flagged.
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4) I have added several new (to me) bird songs/calls that I had been
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hearing all along - but didn't know which bird it was.
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So, overall I am finding SoundID to be a very useful tool for learning bird
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songs/calls.
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- Jim
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P.S. I got a very long look at a nestbox occupied by a family of Tree Swallows
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where the adults were zooming here and there after insects and then
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returning to the box to feed the young bird who had its head stuck out of
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the hole and was blocking the entire hole. At one point I briefly thought I
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saw a probable second young behind and above its head.
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