Since around the first of the year I have been using the sound identification feature of my Merlin phone app to identify birds. For years I only used it to identify birds by photograph. I was slow to adapt to the new sound recording ability, always hesitant to add new technology, like the old man that I am! 🙂 But when I did, I was so surprised at how easy it was to punch a button and record singing birds, usually many at at the same time! With it identifying each one and highlighting the ones singing at that moment! While at Carara Park a week or so ago I heard almost 3 times as many as I photographed! But I still prefer photos! 🙂
So while preparing my breakfast the other morning I turned it on and in 10 minutes it recorded 13 different species singing around my house! Including 2 Trogons! (Black-headed & Gartered). So I took my camera with me to the terrace to eat breakfast and hopefully see and photograph some of those 13. I got useable photos of only one! 🙂
It was the Yellow-green Vireo, Vireo flavoviridis (eBird link) shown by eBird to appear from the southern edges of the USA to the northern edges of South America, so in other words, mostly a Central American! 🙂 Here’s 3 shots from my terrace the other morning while drinking coffee after breakfast. And to be fair, I did see 2 others of those 13 recorded, but did not get useable photos of the Clay-colored Thrush or the Blue-gray Tanager (their back sides). And you can see other photos of this one in my Yellow-green Vireo Gallery which I’ve seen only 2 other times here in Atenas and nowhere else. Now here’s 3 shots from the other morning, including one of him/her singing . . .
¡Pura Vida!
8 Spiritual Lessons from a Quaker Birdwatcher
One of the many things I occasionally read online is the Friends Journal and in this month’s issue I quickly noticed the article titled: A Quaker Guide to Birdwatching. Nothing astounding in it, but an interesting approach to finding God is just about everything you do! As she did in her 8 bird photos! 🙂
The bird was beautiful!
What a neat app!
Love the Quaker Lessons!
Thank you!!!
xoxo
Good! They sometimes have some good articles in their newsletter. The town of Monteverde in Costa Rica (up on a mountain) was started as a Quaker settlement and they are known for their cheeses along with their peacefulness and quiet worship. Their are Friends groups also in San Jose and some of the other cities but not in Atenas, I’m sorry to say.
Glad you are using the app. I sometimes leave it running on my morning walk. Had 2 green parrots in our tree this morning. 3 fiery aracaris (spell) and the rest of the “usual suspects”. I do note a sudden decline in birds in our fruit feeder. Perhaps it seasonal?
Yeah, that sound portion of the app is easier to use than I expected and there are definitely a lot more birds around us than we can see! 🙂 I finally added 3 hummingbird feeders to my gardens and only the Rufous-tail is coming except I did see a Canivets Emerald once that will be in my April 9 blog post. I put out two seed feeders but have the wrong kind of seed in it, I think, thus no takers. I think what I got at La Coope is parakeet food, little tiny round seeds and haven’t seen a bird at either feeder. — I talked to the welder about a fruit feeder and he showed me photos of some he has made, all bigger than I want. I’m waiting on that. I’m going to eventually talk with Dan Sheaks who had two made by this welder called Hamie or Hamy or something like that. He recently made me new hanging poles for these seed and hummingbird feeders.