Avian Ecologist

Reported Great Horned Owl Calling!

Tonight, someone reported a great horned owl calling from a local park, so I figure it’s time to start listening for nocturnal species!

Rare Birds of Wisconsin – January

It’s time to cheer myself up about being in cold weather with the birds I could see this month. Thanks to diligent eBirders and the Wisconsin Society of Ornithology Records Committee, many of the historic sightings from the state checklist are now online and searchable in eBird. If a particular species interests you, search for sightings […]

My Favorite Bird Sightings of 2017

This year “began” when I got back from vacation, to see a curve-billed thrasher on 1/14 with Paul coming to a feeder in MN! Admittedly, much of the rest of the year was a drought, with some crucial misses. Just as the birding demoralization was setting in, though, it came time for our trip out west! […]

Red-throated Loon…with a Red Throat!

We got to my family’s beach house this evening and saw a really close red-throated loon off our dock…and for the first time ever, I saw some red on the throat!

Building Networks for Wetland Connectivity

We’ve been playing with ways to construct networks according to graph theory, ultimately using the R package igraph to investigate wetland connectivity. I can’t reveal too much here because it’s my current research in progress! 🙂 The part of the process I’m currently trying to make more efficient is how to calculate distances for each […]

Thoughts on Birding Without Binoculars

An interesting topic came up about the virtues of birding without binoculars. I have only really done this when I’ve forgotten my binoculars but had some desire/need to go out anyway. One time, it ended up being a fun exercise for someone I was mentoring in their beginning birding journey. First off, it’s humbling: you’re […]

Autonomous Recording Units for Birds

I finally wrote a post that fits all of my blog categories! 🙂 Years ago, Dr. T. Mitchell Aide visited my former lab and I had an opportunity to meet with him. Hearing about his work with automated classification of bird calls first got my mind churning about how we can use ARU’s for gathering […]

Open Source Spectrogram Tools & Programs

This is not an exhaustive list of open source tools and programs to produce spectrograms; if you have a favorite I missed, please add it in the comments! Tools Python: some tutorials and example scripts using the following libraries… NumPy, SciPy and matplotlib Custom functions written with numpy Pylab WarbleR Programs Baudline Sonic Visualizer Friture Music Lab

Comparison of Spectrogram Apps

I took a dive into iPhone apps that produce spectrograms of recorded sound, with an interest in bird song (of course). I got into spectrograms looking at the figures in Handbook of Bird Biology. I’m mainly looking for something that I can match to Field Guide to Bird Sounds, with the thought that this could […]

Resources for Learning to Identify Bird Song

Like anything else, learning bird songs takes practice and close attention. Here are some resources and my experiences that may help guide you. How I Learned Mnemonic/Sound Pattern Recognition: When I took ornithology in undergrad, we used Peterson’s Birding by Ear which groups songs by characteristics and thereby teaches you to listen for broad characteristics, […]