Beyond Merlin … Using, Building or Buying Birdsong Listening Devices with Rich Hoeg

Year 13,

Beyond Merlin! … Using, Building or Buying Birdsong Listening Devices … Live in person presentation by me, Rich Hoeg, this coming Thursday, Nov. 12th at 7 pm

Details: Monthly meeting of the Northeastern Minnesota Bird Alliance (formerly Duluth Audubon) held at the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Duluth near UMD.

All Welcome. No Cost to Attend.

More details … Link to the Duluth Northeastern Minnesota Bird Alliance

Most folks know Cornell’s birding app, Merlin. While out birding, this app does a good job of identifying birds singing in the immediate vicinity. However, Merlin requires the birder to be present and “push record”. This leads to the question … what if you want to both know and identify what birds are singing at your house, cabin and/or out on the trails 24/7 year round? Enter into the equation, birdsong listening devices.

In his presentation Rich will review the leading consumer and self-built birdsong listening devices. His review will speak to the costs and advantages of the various devices and attempt to answer the question … build or buy a device? What if a person has no desire to build or buy a device? Rich will also cover how anyone may use the global network of birdsong listening stations AT NO CHARGE WITH NO ACCOUNT REQUIRED to learn what birds are singing throughout the world. Thus, a person NEED NOT BUILD OR BUY a birdsong listening station to benefit from the thousands and thousands of global listening devices. Rich will demonstrate how he used BirdWeather.com before and during trips to both Ireland and Costa Rica to focus his birding adventures. Closer to home, Rich will also explain how to use listening stations located across northeastern Minnesota including but not limited to Sax-Zim Bog and Hawk Ridge.

Rich Hoeg grew up and lives in Northeastern Minnesota’s Boreal Forest. As a child the wilderness was his playground. Using his forest knowledge, for 13 years he has volunteered at Sax-Zim Bog. However, Rich also knows Minnesota’s other Bog lands (not just Sax Zim) and maintains bird feeders, trailcams, and birdsong listening stations used for research deep in the wilderness. Over the past few years he has donated birdsong listening devices which he built, programmed and configured that have helped nature centers and private individuals learn “what is singing” at their locations 24×7 year round. During his travels he uses a Sony A6300 to document his sightings and maintains a nature oriented website (365DaysOfBirds.com) which gets hundreds of thousands of pageviews per year. In his prior life, Rich was a software program manager for Honeywell.

Link to Merlin Sound ID Project Overview

Dark Morph Rough-Legged Hawk

Year 13

The sub Arctic birds have arrived. The word is a Northern Hawk Owl has been seen near Thunder Bay. These owls sometimes show themselves just before Thanksgiving, but have not established a winter territory. However, when a NHO did not appear I had a great time with a “dark morph” Rough-Legged Hawk. Normally these hawks spook very easily, but this individual let me watch it hunt from only 40 yards away for almost 15 minutes.

The name “rough-legged” comes from the fact it is one of the few raptors (I think only four) that have feathers all the way down to their talons … a adaptation over generations which allows this hawk to live in colder climates near Hudson Bay. Regardless, a Rough-Legged Hawk hunting … (same bird … two different perches)

Great Gray Owl Hunting Platform … My Head!

Year 13

In what shall go down as one of the most amazing owling experiences of my life, a Great Gray Owl decided my head would be a good platform from which to hunt voles! Uff Dah!

Before I proceed any further, I owl a HUGE debt of gratitude to the northern Minnesota landowner who invited me onto his land. This owl was and is hunting on private land, and the Great Gray is not viewable from any public road or land. Note that in these first two photos I am holding binoculars. LOL! Binoculars not needed.

  • GGO hunting from on top of my head … video link for blog subscribers. Readers of this post on the web will find the video just below these two images.

When I sent some of these images and video to my family, they had a few immediate questions. Here are my answers which will help you understand this amazing event:

  • The owl on my head is NOT A.I. generated
  • The owl is definitely wild. I suspect this bird is a juvenile owl (just hatched this spring) and its parents have stopped feeding it very often. Thus, the Great Gray Owl needs to learn how to better hunt and fend for itself.
  • I was watching the owl from a distance of about 50 yards. When the Great Gray flew directly at me … eye level … I resisted the urge to duck. The owl was amazingly light on my head and I could not feel its talons.
  • Apparently I was already motionless enough that the Great Gray decided I was a great spot from which to hunt voles. I did not move and inch while the owl was perched upon my head (about 30 seconds).

I did take photographs with my Sony A6300. Here are some of those images! Today was a day out in the woods I will remember for the rest of my life.

I took these two photos moments before the Great Gray Owl landed on my head!