Do you want to see the raptor in action?A week ago, while at a Michigan lake house, I heard a sound that reminded me of a gull but it wasn't. It was a sound I heard when there weren't any gulls around. The Merlin bird identification app could now recognize birds through sound, as I had heard. So I picked up my phone and it immediately told me: merlinIt was a Merlin, which is the first bird I identified using the Merlin app. The sound was actually recorded in the above picture. Is that the dead tree in the middle of the photo? Is that the bird? It's the small falcon merlina. It is a small falcon that I now hear multiple times per day. It was a sound I played for friends who live in the house. They recognized it immediately, but didn't know that there were merlins or what a Merlin is.If you have the right tools, there is a lot out there. The tools to recognize the call from a raptor once upon a time required patience, knowledge, and a few LPs of bird songs. The computer I have in my pocket will teach me many new songs very quickly.Photo by me
