The admonition to "trust but verify" when using either the Merlin app or our own ear-birding skills is as important as ever and even more challenging when a myriad of new bird sounds bombard us during this period of the breeding season. I'll share a few of my own recent experiences to underscore this reminder.
In the past couple of weeks I've been hearing clear, emphatic, perfectly rendered ovenbird songs in my yard. Initially, I was confused because if there were breeders in the yard I would've been hearing them all summer, which I hadn't this year since spring migration. That alone was enough to keep me from reporting it until I could verify the observation. In the ensuing days, amidst the cacophony, I would hear the song on occasion, always out of nowhere, sung once (TEACHer repeated 5-7x), and that was it, so there was no chance of getting a recording. Yesterday, I finally caught an American Goldfinch belting out the song and immediately going into typical Goldfinch song. A Google search on the phenomenon schooled me on the talented mimicry of American Goldfinches and that one of their favorite birds to mimic is the Ovenbird because of the song's simplicity and clarity. The last 2 weeks of July are when the breeding season (and thus the singing) of Ovenbirds is ending but the Goldfinch breeding season (and their singing) is at its peak.
There've been several House Wren pairs nesting around the yard as usual, and one couple nested in a large wiring conduit elbow that goes to the transformer near the deck, making it easy to watch the family's progress. When the nestlings began vocalizing their raspy, ardent begging calls, Merlin always, and I mean always, called them Marsh Wrens. It had done this off and on throughout the summer but I ignored the ID when it was in the yard.
For the past several days, I've been hearing and recording calls that I couldn't place and Merlin absolutely will not ID. Days of sleuthing revealed finally that the calls are coming from the many Rose-breasted Grosbeak fledglings that were being fed in the surrounding trees by the parents, but are now coming to the feeders themselves. The Sibley app lists the calls as "teeyoo calls (immature)" and "turlee calls (immature)". Merlin does not recognize these calls even when I play them right on my phone with Merlin listening.
This morning, Merlin ID'd an American Robin in the yard as a Northern Flicker because the cadence was correct.
I love using Merlin as an aid, especially in alerting me that certain birds may be nearby. I can listen for them myself to verify its findings or I can look for the birds if need be. Knowing that Merlin uses spectrograms to ID bird sounds reminds us that a matching spectrogram, if made by a skilled mimic (or even baby House Wrens), will be matched to a corresponding graph in Merlin's database.
Cheryl Vellenga
Sisseton, SD
