Morning Awakening

There is one spot on our morning walk that seems to be an amphitheater for bird songs.

When we came across a birder last spring, he said that area is particularly alive because it is one of the first places the sun hits the woods which wakes up the bugs and they begin to fly, and ta-dah, breakfast for the birds.

I have always sort of dismissed bird watchers - the big binoculars, the long-reaching camera lenses - which is kind of funny considering I am a photographer and live my creative life by being visually inspired. But for some reason standing patiently, waiting for birds to land, has always escaped my interest.

But, I think what I want now is not to use my most developed sense, but to nourish one of the weak ones. And since you can’t track a bird by smell, generally, or touch them, or at least not easily, and I definitely don’t want to eat one, listening for their songs and learning to identify those seems the logical choice.

So this morning, I stood in that little patch of morning awakening, and pulled out my phone. A friend recently clued me in to the Merlin Bird ID app, so I opened the app and pressed record for Sound ID. I let it record for about 30 seconds, and birds just kept popping up on the screen, six in total.

Most are common enough to the area, but ones I don’t recognize like the Tennessee Warbler, I will investigate further. Is it less likely to see/hear one of those in my area? Also, what’s the difference between the American Redstart and the Baltimore Oriole? Mourning Dove popped up, I usually see those on the ground, but wasn’t seeing any, and then I listened. Sure enough, there in the background was the mournful sound. I wouldn’t have even noticed that if I hadn’t of set the intention to stop and listen and use the app to help bring awareness.

You probably won’t see me on the trail, or on our morning walk, with a pair of binoculars, but I will absorb the art of bird listening through the power technology and with a curious spirit.