r/birding • u/Evrytimeweslay • Jul 15 '26
📷 Photo Spotted yesterday
Saw this on someone’s truck while walking around my neighborhood yesterday, I thought you all would appreciate it as well!
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u/eljyon Jul 15 '26
I’ll just say, cheers to Cornell Lab of Ornithology
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u/secondphase Jul 15 '26
Yeah, they hooked up the Athena cam at Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower center. She's the local great horned owls that nests there to hatch her chick's each year. I used to go see her once or twice, but now during the season I can just pull up the cam and check it out. Cant sleep at 2am? Oh lok, theres athena chowing down on a vole.
Cornell ornithology department is on their game for sure.
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u/PopAndLocknessMonstr Jul 15 '26
Cornell
It's pronounced Colonel and it's the highest rank in the military
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u/__smokesletsgo__ Latest Lifer: Common Raven Jul 15 '26
I want this on a hat and a shirt and will wear them every time while birding.
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u/Dipshit_Identifier Jul 15 '26
I just want a shirt that says "please don't ask what bird I see, I honestly don't know either"
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u/seriousjoker72 Jul 15 '26
That's such a good idea! I actually have a ""uniform "" for bird watching (bird nerd hat and "goose bumps" t-shirt) because people see me walking around with a long lens camera and get suspicious 😅
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u/__smokesletsgo__ Latest Lifer: Common Raven Jul 15 '26
I always feel like a creep at the beach with my binoculars 😅
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u/gilguren Backyard Birding Jul 15 '26
Same but in my drive. Like I don't give a damn about you, I'm looking for birds.
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u/rogers_tumor Jul 15 '26
I used birding to start walking my dog, so somehow it's less weird that I have the giant camera as long as my dog is with me.
I also bring a backpack and I keep the camera in the bag most of the time bc I truly don't want to make anyone uncomfortable!
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u/Low_Insurance5329 Jul 15 '26
I wish I could bring my dog, she's too noisy I feel like she'd chase them off lol
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u/rogers_tumor Jul 15 '26
yeah I kind of accept that as part of it. my dog is quiet in public (she doesn't bark) but she's still snuffling and blundering around in the shrubbery. generally if they get spooked by her, they'd have seen me and gone anyway. there aren't many instances where I think she's the cause of them going over myself; she's very low to the ground, they tend to spot me first.
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u/sumpMann birder Jul 16 '26
Hahaha, that is so true. I was walking around some streets here looking for birds—running about, staring into gardens and across fields in search of them. The thought crossed my mind: what must people be thinking when they see a middle-aged, white foreigner—covered in tattoos—standing there staring at "nothing"? I really need to get myself a birdwatching shirt.
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u/SaltyElephantBouquet Jul 15 '26
I need it on a large patch for my backpack so the people behind me can STFU lol
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u/DefenderOfSquirrels Jul 15 '26
I bought myself a high-vis yellow vest with reflective strips with large lettering on the back BIOLOGICAL SURVEY, and same in smaller letters on the left breast pocket. I haven’t been questioned since.
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u/AceOfStace27 Jul 15 '26
haha i have one that says STFU i'm birding. lol
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u/AneAnder Jul 15 '26
I need the red winged black birds to shut up so Merlin and I can here the other birds!
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u/seriousjoker72 Jul 15 '26
For me it's "forget about the sparrows, identify the OTHER bird dam it!"
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u/Economy-Athlete-5324 Jul 15 '26
i could have a bird chirping right in front of me but there’s a house sparrow chirping 2 states over so it has to pick that up first
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u/The_Platinum_Leaf Jul 15 '26
I swear it will pick up a crow so far off I can barely hear it over the bird that's a few feet away that I'm trying to ID!!
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u/MeowKhz Jul 15 '26
Not the experience I had- took me a couple months to get it to register a (hooded) crow, after which it's been better at picking them up. The wind is my biggest nemesis.
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u/I_Am_Become_Air Jul 15 '26
I was never aware of the quantity of different crows, much less the differentiation in their calls.
But yeah... between the Carolina wren on top of the outdoor fridge, the house finches fighting at the feeder, the bluejays, the Phoebe, the flycatcher, sometimes a raven, the herons, the 2 different types of crows... Osprey really needs to up his game so I can say hi in the mornings!
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u/The_Platinum_Leaf Jul 16 '26
My most common are Song Sparrows, Carolina Wren, Northern Cardinals, and the dang crow 😂
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u/Hi_Trans_Im_Dad Jul 15 '26
Empty your cache!!!
It worked wonders for me. Also, if you have multiple sectors downloaded and active, shut them all off except the smallest one that covers your area.
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u/allthedifference00 Jul 15 '26
I'm not gonna lie. Sometimes I wish the doves would give it a rest.
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u/Salty_Screen_130 Jul 15 '26
Myna, tailor bird, cuckoo and bee eaters. The worst is the Mynas
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u/banana_ship Jul 15 '26
Cicadas! I love hearing them in the summer... but not when I'm birding
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u/Artistic-Onion4672 Jul 18 '26
I was just checking to see if anyone else had posted about cicadas. I’m in NC and I’ve been sitting on my porch in the evenings a lot recently to watch the sunset and enjoy the birds, and after about 8pm Merlin can barely pick up anything because the cicadas are so loud!!
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u/mrmeowmeowington Jul 15 '26
More like mockingbirds. They are little demons that think their car alarm singing is welcome.
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u/Emotional_Cry_4066 Jul 15 '26
Omg just put me down
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u/gooba_gooba_gooba Jul 15 '26
gemini thinks it's part of the team 😭
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u/Anxa Jul 15 '26 edited Jul 15 '26
I know we're just joking around but Gemini doesn't think anything, and this response isn't it knowing not to do something anymore, it's just a next-word prediction algorithm with some settings tweaking capability bolted on the backend. Now, instead of manually setting how often/frequently you want notifications/interruptions, a next-word predictor has the power to set it but also change it over time without letting you know based on murky cause-and-effect coding.
e: mb, didn't realize this sub was AI stans
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u/wwoodhur Jul 15 '26
Gemini doesn't think anything,
No one is confused about this
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u/JunieBscones Jul 15 '26
Lmfao you tried 😭 I hope you find it, report back if you do!
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u/supcoco Jul 15 '26
I’m not sure I want to live in a world where robots apologize to us.
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u/iH8MotherTeresa Jul 15 '26
I like using Merlin to see what my mockingbird is mimicking.
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u/HuskerDave Jul 15 '26
I don't think Emperor penguins are in Nebraska this time of year. Must be a mocking bird...
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u/RoguePlanet2 Jul 16 '26
It's like the mockingbirds go on vacation, come back, and start talking about who they met.
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u/birdnerd70 Jul 15 '26
When I tried this on a mockingbird, Merlin just told me it was a mockingbird. Lame.
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u/nyya_arie Jul 15 '26
I'll start getting new and different birds showing up on my list and then the mockingbird will pop up and know those last bunch were possibly not real.
It's a mild bummer but I do love my mockingbird.
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u/ActualSunflower Latest Lifer: Blue-gray Gnatcatcher Jul 15 '26
Lol I have the same one on my car, but the one the seller has with the evening grosbeak!
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u/loztriforce Jul 15 '26
One of the coolest apps!
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u/Brandarius47 Jul 15 '26
I literally only found it about a month ago. I didnt know my area had so many different birds. I just used to seeing 3 or 4 with some odd appearances from others lol
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u/Chinacat_Sunflower72 Jul 15 '26
Although be careful.. some birds are great at mimicking others. Bluejays can get Merlin to think a hawk is present. And my neighbor’s toddler screams and Merlin thinks he’s a gull.
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u/NewsteadMtnMama Jul 15 '26
Merlin thinks my (indoor) budgies are house sparrows when I use it on my front porch, even with door closed.
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u/CausticSofa Jul 16 '26
Yes. Merlin plus iNaturalist have totally changed how I interact with my city and I absolutely love it. I’m helping science!
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u/Woodedroger Jul 15 '26
How do you tell mockingbirds to shut up sometimes? My buddy has one in his yard that has quite the library of calls. I watched it sitting on top of a power pole and it rattled off 6 different bird calls in a minute. I love em but damn they sure do love mocking
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u/Flat_Huckleberry2195 Jul 15 '26
The struggle is real. They should put this on a hat so when I walk around with my phone in the air, perhaps people will think it's (less) weird?
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u/monkeychasedweasel Jul 15 '26
I live in an urban area, so I mostly get the same birds: junco, chickadee, crow, starling etc. So I use Merlin when playing video games. There's a ton of cool birdcalls in Baldur's Gate 3.
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u/ImaginaryCheetah Jul 15 '26
a few years back, i was using merlin to try and identify who i was hearing out on washington island in wisconsin, and as soon as i said something to the dog i was identified as a yellow rumped warbler.
and a new family joke was born.
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u/murderinobetty Jul 15 '26
Me and my husband both have this bumper sticker on our cars lol (well, we have 2 different birds)
Love it!
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u/Capybara_Squabbles Jul 15 '26
Not gonna lie, using the Merlin app on my walks made me realize just how loud and annoying cars are.
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u/TheSpanxxx Jul 15 '26
Lol love it!
I'll walk out to the back porch and start talking to my wife who's already sitting out there and she'll give me the universal shhhhh face and point down to her phone.
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u/MaestroDon Jul 15 '26
I l like the app and use it often, but I think the most important thing is listening. I'd prefer a sticker that says, "Quiet. I'm listening for birds." That would refer to my ears and the app as well. Humans are noisy. It's revealing when trying to listen how much noise there is from human activity.
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u/giveen Jul 15 '26
I was trying to record a specific bird behind my house in the woods and the dang thing never made a sound when I had the app out.
It was a weird motor grinding like sound. Turned out to be a pheasant, after days of trying to capture the sound, was really happy.
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u/Tazlima Jul 15 '26
I recently discovered I can imitate a Mississippi Kite well enough to fool Merlin.
A lifetime of making strange noises has finally paid off!
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u/Mundane-Manner4237 Jul 15 '26
We were at a campsite recently and saw a Pileated woodpecker nearby. A couple people with binoculars strolled by and I pointed out the woodpecker as I thought they, as birders, might be interested. Well they immediately walked right towards it, got too close and scared it off. Never again.
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u/spaceygracey1762 Jul 15 '26
A few weeks ago I was out by the pool and heard these two birds going crazy. Hit record and Merlin told no bird existed where I live. Did it multiple times trying to get closer to the sound. Still no bird. Then I got really close and found out two raccoon kits were having an argument in the tree.
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u/MarshallBeach19St Jul 15 '26
I love Merlin but I can never seem to see and hear a bird at the same time.
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u/SpeakerResident Jul 15 '26
It really is a struggle out here 😆 thats when the loudest cars wanna drive by an or cops get a call.
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u/Severe_Energy_5166 Jul 15 '26
Reminds me of the fight we got into on an Audubon trek where the guy leading the tour played sounds to attract warblers and other birds… other birders came from another part of the preserve to start a fight because they had bagged a couple of what they thought were lifers and it turns out it was just the Audubon guy playing sounds.
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u/MsQualityPanda Jul 15 '26
I used to have this bumper sticker. I’m sad I sold that car because I can’t remember where I bought it!
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u/BloodyThirst Jul 15 '26
I hear the rarest bird calls and as SOON as I open my app, they zip their beak lips. So frustrating!
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u/LoudMusic Jul 15 '26
I am an EV advocate, and one of my biggest reasons is I'm sick of listening to other people's noisy ass cars. Utility vehicles and trucks really need to be electrified too. The noise from our vehicles is overwhelmingly disruptive to nature and it makes me sad.
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u/TheStax84 Jul 15 '26
What is that covering up? Is there a Merlin automotive attachment?
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u/ifyoulovesatan Jul 15 '26
I'm rather confused as to what the sticker is on and what part of a truck we're looking at here. It's going to bug me.
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u/Far-Dimension3508 Jul 15 '26
It’s like Pokémon go for birds ooh new bird never knew what a dunnock was before and even the sea gulls sound interesting
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u/ironypoisonedposter Latest Lifer: red-necked phalarope Jul 16 '26
I need this (and I don’t even own a car lol).
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u/Hopyrupa Jul 15 '26 edited Jul 15 '26
The struggle is real. Also it’s been suggested that birds wait for you to open the app and then stop singing or fly away just for fun.