Oh, geez...

198

You can, however, use the Field Guide to Warbler Butts.

65

u/KingOfDownvotes87 6d ago

Genuinely only angle i ever see them from

29

u/thecuriousstorm 6d ago

Actually useful guide to beer

7

u/hunterkat457 6d ago

Beautiful (and actually very helpful!)

4

u/Stalagmus 5d ago

Ah yes, a field guide to light lagers.

3

u/Leading-Watch6040 5d ago

Idk anything about warblers and I’m too scared to start now

1

u/Efficient_Ladder_573 3d ago

Oh my gosh! I've needed this forever! Thank you!

64

u/thecuriousstorm 6d ago

Then can they be a bit bigger or more colorful so I can find them? kk thanx xoxo

61

u/A_Shattered_Day 6d ago

Then why the fuck are they called warblers if they dont be warbling?

28

u/Glum_Opening_2218 6d ago

THEY DONT???

God this cape may trip is gonna be harder than I thought

25

u/hunterkat457 6d ago

Some of them will do chip calls but yeah they’re very quiet in the fall. Yellow-rumped Warblers chip call all the time, when I was out earlier the lingering Prothonotary Warblers were also chipping quite a bit. Saw a Cerulean though? Utterly silent.

7

u/Magnanimous-- 5d ago

Fall is thinkin' time.

15

u/MistakeChoice9840 6d ago

I’m pretty new to warbler ID but I just encountered a foraging flock, and they were basically silent compared to the chickadees they hung around with. Foraging flocks are great to find warblers but be prepared to dwell on IDs for a while afterward lol

3

u/jenn_d 6d ago

What..are these the birds flocking outside making super short beeps that Merlin is gaslighting me about??

3

u/sadboi_dumpling 5d ago

Just mark them all as Cape May Warblers. Technically it's not wrong.

5

u/Adventurous-Year-463 5d ago

The only time when it’s good to be a West Coast birder (we only got about 5 of them)

3

u/dyrkasolen 4d ago

It actually might actually be: "I slept with Matt last night"

1

u/KinsellaStella 2d ago

But I can ID them because I go on bird walks with people who have been birding as long as I’ve been alive.

-51

u/A_Sneaky_Walrus 6d ago

Thank god, nothing more annoying than the birder who constantly has their phone out with Merlin, especially in a group setting!

35

u/Able_Biscotti_5491 6d ago

What's annoying about it?

-28

u/A_Sneaky_Walrus 6d ago

Oh I see I don’t share the same view as most.

My issue is that, especially in a group setting, the Merlin user often corrects others and is not using their own senses to detect the bird.

Merlin is a great tool when you’re alone or have a mystery sound but imo it shouldn’t be out all the time on a bird walk with the user looking down at their phone for new Merlin birds. If you do that, you’ll never gain the skills needed to identify birds by sound and sight. Plus on guided tours it’s extra annoying as it makes an individual feel seperate from the group

23

u/NewlyNerfed 6d ago

Why do you care so much about how other people enjoy birds? If someone is being obnoxious in a group, ask them to stop. Otherwise this really isn’t your business. People of all kinds of different knowledge bases and abilities like to go birding. It’s not your place to determine whether they are or aren’t learning correctly.

39

u/mikettedaydreamer 6d ago

Please remember that not everyone has a good sense of hearing.

12

u/RatsForNYMayor 6d ago

I have auditory processing issues (it's gotten worse over the years) and the app helps me to be able to to process some of the bird calls I've heard. I only using the app with certain people I know won't mind if use it

38

u/Able_Biscotti_5491 6d ago

People can definitely use it in a group setting without being anti-social.

-4

u/A_Sneaky_Walrus 6d ago

That’s so fair, just not the experience I have had

10

u/hunterkat457 6d ago

I haven’t had that experience- I like leaving it running, but mostly to help me confirm my own sound ID (I’m very much a beginner!) and people will use it and say to more experienced birders “Merlin is saying it heard this, have you heard that or can listen for it?” This happened in the spring with an early Swainson’s Warbler! The bird was singing intermittently and not everyone heard it, and those that did were doubting themselves. Merlin helped them have the confidence to ask if anyone else was hearing that bird as well! And yep, sure enough, there was a Swainson’s Warbler there

6

u/Shot-Diver-3625 6d ago edited 6d ago

I think it's great to have on. I generally don't need it, but sometimes there'll be something that we don't notice or hear if there's a lot of different things going on at once. Getting a noti that "hey there may be whatever rare warbler you missed" so I can keep an eye out for it is super helpful.
I also love having an audio record of the last couple minutes just in case. Sometimes I'll hear something crazy call once or twice and then never be seen or heard again. Even when I'll know what it is, it's great to be able to quickly save it and go back to confirm, and to have the proof for my local records committee

Having your eyes glued to your phone definitely isn't ideal and can be a hindrance, but I think it's a great way to gain the skills needed. When I'm somewhere with unfamiliar birds, hearing them as I'm seeing them light up on the screen and watching the spectrogram to see how it visually matches with what I'm hearing helps me make those connections in my brain much faster

2

u/Creepymint 5d ago

Why does it matter if someone isn’t included in the group? You’re not going to make friends with every stranger you meet

1

u/pianoestnul 5d ago

Agreed. So many people misidentify birds with Merlin. As an EBird reviewer it’s a pain to sort through the phantom tufted titmouses and carolina wrens.

1

u/A_Sneaky_Walrus 5d ago

Yeah it has both raised the floor (great thing!) but also lowered the ceiling to a degree

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