Let’s continue our discussion about Troy’s natural history.
One of the more popular past times is bird watching. A free app called Merlin (https://merlin.allaboutbirds.org/) created by Cornell’s Ornithology Lab actually listens for birds and lists them on the app so you can easily get an inventory of birds in your location.
Cornell says “Merlin is designed to be a birding coach for bird watchers at every level. Merlin asks you the same questions that an expert birder would ask to help solve a mystery bird sighting. Notice that date and location are Merlin’s first and most important questions.
It takes years of experience in the field to know what species are expected at a given location and date. Merlin shares this knowledge with you based on more than 800 million sightings submitted to eBird from birders around the world.
Merlin also asks you to describe the color, size, and behavior of the bird you saw. Because no two people describe birds exactly the same way, Merlin presents a shortlist of possible species based on descriptions from Cornell Lab experts as well as thousands of bird enthusiasts who helped “teach” Merlin by participating in online activities.
They’ve contributed more than 3 million descriptors to help Merlin match your input with the most likely birds. When you identify a species and click “This is My Bird,” Merlin also saves your record to help improve its future performance.
The Photo ID feature in Merlin allows anyone with a camera to snap a photo and get a list of suggestions. Photo ID is yet another method to help you identify the birds you encounter.”
Personally, when I am hiking, I just hit the sound button. As I walk around it identifies which birds are singing. In one area I recorded over a dozen birds.
Cornell also created an app called eBird (https://ebird.org/home). Cornell says, “eBird began with a simple idea — that every birdwatcher has unique knowledge and experience. Our goal is to gather this information in the form of checklists of birds, archive it, and freely share it to power new data-driven approaches to science, conservation and education.
“At the same time, we develop tools that make birding more rewarding. From being able to manage lists, photos and audio recordings, to seeing real-time maps of species distribution, to alerts that let you know when species have been seen, we strive to provide the most current and useful information to the birding community.
“eBird is among the world’s largest biodiversity-related science projects, with more than 100 million bird sightings contributed annually by eBirders around the world and an average participation growth rate of approximately 20% year over year.
“A collaborative enterprise with hundreds of partner organizations, thousands of regional experts, and hundreds of thousands of users, eBird is managed by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.
“eBird data document bird distribution, abundance, habitat use, and trends through checklist data collected within a simple, scientific framework. Birders enter when, where, and how they went birding, and then fill out a checklist of all the birds seen and heard during the outing.
“eBird’s free mobile app allows offline data collection anywhere in the world, and the website provides many ways to explore and summarize your data and other observations from the global eBird community.”
What is cool about eBird is its Rensselaer County Rare Bird Alert. Includes both unreviewed and reviewed/approved observations. It lists the bird, whether it is a confirmed sighting, and who made it along with the date.
iNaturalist https://www.inaturalist.org/
iNaturalist is a social network for sharing biodiversity information. The primary goal is to connect people to nature, and the secondary goal is to generate scientifically valuable biodiversity data from these personal encounters.
It helps you identify plants and animals with visually similar suggestions and verification by dedicated contributors. It’s a community of over a million scientists and naturalists. By recording and sharing your observations, you’ll create research-quality data for scientists working to better understand and protect nature.
One person determined birding hotspots in Rensselaer County which included: Schodack Island, Papscanee Island Nature Preserve, Coopers Pond, Brunswick, Dyken Pond EEC, Tomhannock Reservoir — Otter Creek Inlet, Tomhannock Reservoir, Schodack Town Park, Tomhannock Reservoir–Southern Parking Area, Staats Island Rd., Schodack, Rensselaer Plateau Community Forest
iNaturalist has another app called Seek by iNaturalist (https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/seek_app). Use the app and your camera and recognition technology to identify plants and animals. There is a user guide and this is a great app for younger naturalists. A cool feature is when you boot it up it tells you common species to look for at your location.
Once it identifies what you’re looking at it will give you a great deal of information including range, taxonomy, viewing season, and similar species.
Go explore!
Got History? Don is the author of a dozen books about his hometown. You can reach him at drittner@aol.com
