A Local Bird Project

By Sue Ann Kendall

Since we’re not getting many submissions lately, I’ll go ahead and write up some of my little naturalist projects. Too bad I don’t get volunteer hours for this kind of stuff, but I enjoy it anyway, because it gets me out in nature and my data is useful to someone.

What I’ve been doing involves using my eyes and ears to track the bird species in an area of northern Milam County about a half mile in diameter around my property. It contains pastures, woodlands, ponds, and a creek.

I’m keeping a record of what birds I observe with my eyes (I do try to get photo confirmation on iNaturalist for unfamiliar birds, but I trust myself to identify the two vultures I see as well as crested caracaras. For listening, I use Merlin Bird ID, which is really quite accurate (only twice has it found birds that shouldn’t be here, and who knows, the wind could have brought them in).

I use Merlin for between half an hour and an hour a day, and I have three places I usually listen. Mostly I listen between 8 and 10am, depending on my schedule, though I occasionally listen around dusk so I can get owls (barred and great horned so far).

I have a bird journal that my spouse made for me. I record weather notes as well as how many birds I hear each day. I also note birds I get to observe up close or with my binoculars, and any new arrivals.

Where the research part comes in is that I have started a spreadsheet that lists each species I observe each month. I’m looking forward to spring migration to see what passes through as well as to record when winter residents leave and summer ones arrive. I miss the painted buntings and their friends, though the twelve kinds of sparrows here do keep me on my toes. Yes, twelve.

By the end of the year, I’ll have a good idea of the patterns here in this small area. My hope is to keep observing for a few more years, so I can see how climate or big weather events affect this area.

I’m going to put in another plug for the Merlin Bird ID app on my phone. All the observations go into the eBird database, since it’s from Cornell Ornithology Labs. You can contribute photos as well as record sounds of birds. I say sounds, because it identifies mourning dove wings correctly!

I’ve learned so many bird calls that enrich my life. I drove my spouse crazy yesterday identifying all the birds on the Nature PBS show yesterday. There was one persistent Phoebe. I now know Carolina Chickadees have many more songs and calls than I’d realized and that we’ve had a few Black-capped Chickadees drop by.

The part I find funny about this app is that it refuses to identify chickens, Guinea fowl, and turkeys, at least at the Wildscape. The last one confused me, because they are native. but maybe it “knew” these were at a facility for raising turkeys.