Yet even those of us freighted by less cerebral notions probably share in Leeson’s interest in birds. Whether we claim to be actual “birdwatchers”—and the heavy burden of assumptions the title implies—we are many of us quick to notice and attempt to identify our avian friends.
To that end, may I suggest you glance, if you haven’t already, at the Merlin bird ID app, made available to all of us by Cornell University. To those familiar with identifying birds—or at least trying to—with our Sibley or Peterson field guides, there may well be something that feels like cheating in using the Merlin app. Like riding an e-bike. In fact, when I asked my longtime fishing and birding pal Peter Syka, a career scientist, about whether he’d tried the app, his answer was an all but offended No—as though I had just asked if he used a boogie board the last time the surf was good.
But another science buddy, Joe Kelly, a fish biologist, suggested using the app—or at least the “Sound ID” feature. The way it works is that when you hear a bird, or birds, you go to the app, downloaded to a phone, and record the sounds—and the app immediately identifies the bird species you’re listening to. What’s interesting is that very often you haven’t yet seen the bird, but once you know what you’re looking for, you can often spot it, especially if you’ve got your binoculars trained in the approximate vicinity the sound is coming from.
For some of us, of course, the idea of even carrying a phone in the great outdoors contradicts the purpose of heading there in the first place. (Yes, I did just raise my hand.) Nevertheless, learning to listen to, and distinguish between, different bird sounds beats a boom box in camp any day, and if you spend enough time at it, you may even begin to be able to use sound to tell which way the wind blows.
Will listening to birds get you into more fish? All I can say is that if the birds grow quiet, as you approach the water, it seems likely the fish noticed you, too.
Gray’s angling editor sings the praises of goldfinches feeding on seeds of sunflowers growing in his garden. But it’s another story altogether when the house finches go after his lettuce seedlings.
