Experienced birders probably know all about the Merlin app, but if you are an amateur (the ranks are growing) and don’t, it can change your (birding) life. It’s a free bird-identificaton app, downloadable on your phone, that was created and is maintained by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
You can get photo IDs, but it’s been the Sound Id function that has saved me. I’ve always had bad eyes and age is not helping. Besides, lots of birds are really small and flit constantly. With Sound ID, you point your phone at the bird sound (birds usually helpfully repeat their songs) and presto, Merlin tells you which bird you are hearing (and in my case, usually not seeing). And the recording of the sound and the ID are saved on your phone so if you are really a bird nerd you can go back and test yourself! How much fun is that?
This morning on my walk in the woods, Merlin and I identified an Indigo Bunting, Magnolia Warbler, Purple Finch, Black Throated Green Warbler, Bay Breasted Warbler, Black Throated Blue Warbler, Ovenbird, Red Eyed Vireo, Hermit Thrush, Wood Thrush, and Chickadee. (Okay, I needed no help with the purple finch and the chickadee. I’m not a rank amateur). I cannot think of a better way to start a morning. After coffee, of course.
Carin Pratt is one of the remarkably knowledgeable crew at the Norwich Bookstore—and an ardent recommender of books. Before she landed in these parts, she spent 27 years at CBS News, including two decades as the executive producer of Face the Nation.