Spring Skills of a Naturalist: Birding By Ear

Thursday, April 14th from 9:30-11:30am. Cost is $10 per participant.

Spring is almost here and with the lengthening days, birds (including migrant birds) are singing their hearts out.  We birders focus primarily on identifying birds by plumage, colors and field markings during our outdoor explorations.  However, tuning your ear to bird’s songs and vocalizations is a next-level way to land your id, even when visibility for birds is poor.  The trouble is, it can be tricky to learn as birds make a lot of vocalizations and many are similar to each other.  That’s why we’re so glad to welcome IslandWood naturalist and docent, Mark Salvadalena, who will teach you how to listen for key features in bird chatter and song to arrive at a proper ID – even without seeing the bird.

In this class we will cover:

• How to identify common birds by the various sounds they make, and which birds have recently migrated to our area
• How to use apps such as Merlin Bird ID, and community-science databases such as ebird.org, and tips on the best educational websites to continue your ornithological study
• As always, we will explore the ways people approach deep nature study, reflection and have lots of time for questions and practice in the field