RBG Arboretum, Hamilton. ON. September 20, 2024. After a mid-September birding drought, things picked up this morning. I started one of our transect walks on a fine day, a little overcast, not warm but warming. Things went quite well for a long while with dozens of shrieking Blue Jays streaming south-westwards.
Tree and shrub growth is full and thick, and much birding is, of necessity, done by ear. I used to be pretty good at it but hearing loss (hereditary) makes it increasingly probable that I miss some. I use an app, Merlin, for back up. Merlin quickly matches and announces an i.d from its vast database of birdsong and what the phone’s microphones pick up . Merlin is a tool, I read off what Merlin has detected and sometimes scratch my head. It may confirm what I already know or suspect, and it often reports species I did not hear. In that case I’ll listen hard, sometimes I hear it and agree, sometimes too late, but other times know that the song or call is too high frequency for me to hear anyway. I never accept Merlin’s sole opinion as confirmation of a species’ presence.
I paused for a while among tall pines in a quiet woodland and got Merlin to listen with me. It quickly reported: Chipping Sparrow (no?), White-throated Sparrow (possible), Blue Jay (agree), Red–bellied Woodpecker (agree), Pine Warbler (agree), Tufted Titmouse (skeptical), Brown Creeper (possible but too high for my ears), and most amazingly “Black-capped Chickadee Your Bird of the Day”. Really?
I had not heard a Black-capped Chickadee then, but it was quite possible, even probable but it definitely was not Bird of the Day, not for me. Not my idea, Merlin evidently thinks Bird of the Day is its new toy. I’m not about to let Merlin, a bundle of algorithms, make that determination. What Merlin didn’t hear, after I had turned it off in a fit of pique, was a Pileated Woodpecker that called loudly from a little farther back in the woodland.
I watched for but didn’t see the Pileated Woodpecker, now My Bird of the Day. I didn’t need to, I heard Downy and Hairy Woodpeckers this morning, and saw a dozen Red–bellied Woodpeckers and three Northern Flickers (woodpeckers) too. All good solid sightings or sounds.
Thank you Peter- Merlin is great for confirming what I think I’ve heard, but it consistently misses distant Yellow Warbler song in my experience. The drumming of a Pileated is not in it’s wheelhouse either. Fun tool, but I don’t depend on it.
Yes, I am like how are you picking my Bird of the Day Merlin? Always a treat to hear and see a Pileated.