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Beverly Mills Gyllenhaal

The free Merlin app puts the magic into bird identification

by Beverly Mills Gyllenhaal December 9, 2020

For a beginning birder, learning to use the Merlin Bird ID smartphone app is a bit like a child learning to ride a bike.

There’s the fear of falling right before a delicious rush of adrenaline kicks in. You may be wobbling along, but there’s this faith that with practice, with perseverance, a bicycle will give you the feeling that – like birds – you, too, can fly.

Here’s the amazing thing: Merlin Bird ID is not a mere two-wheeler. This free app from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology is more like a revved-up sports car. It has the power to advance your birding prowess from zero to 60 in six seconds flat, as the saying goes. Flying indeed.

Even the app’s name promises wizardry. The best, most basic function of Merlin is that out of more than 6,000 bird species included, the app can help you know in an instant the name of the bird you’re looking at.

“Merlin doesn’t tell you exactly what bird, but it narrows down the possibilities,” said Jenna Curtis, a project manager at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology who works with engagement among eBird users. “Then it’s up to you to decide if it’s the right bird.”

When I first started birding, Merlin taught me most everything I needed to know, (or had the ability to absorb), about each new bird I saw. The sense of immediacy and mastery was intoxicating, propelling me from one bird to the next.

This is the good news. The bad news is that you have to learn to drive this magic machine. Fair warning: If you have the love-hate relationship with technology as I do, sometimes Merlin’s brilliance is mind-boggling. You just want to scream HELLPPPP, or at the very least, slow down!

Samples of Merlin app pages

December 9, 2020 0 comment

How is a warbler like an apple-glazed donut? Both are impossible to resist.

by Beverly Mills Gyllenhaal September 29, 2020

written by Beverly Mills Gyllenhaal

There’s a spot on the boardwalk next to the Town Hall in Duck, N.C., that everyone knows is famous for doughnuts. This morning dozens of customers wait in line for up to half an hour, and the fall menu boasts flavors like Pumpkin Streusel, Pumpkin Roll and Maple Bacon.

A.Chestnut-sided Warbler, one of the many warblers passing through the Duck boardwalk region. Photos by Anders Gyllenhaal.

Only a few yards away there’s another place that should be famous, but very few people have ever heard of it. Here, atop the live oaks and the willows is a different fall menu — the Chestnut-sided, Black-throated Green, Black-and-White, Prairie, Palm, Black-throated Blue and Northern Parula warblers.

Doughnuts are my weakness — oh the lengths I will go and the calories I’m willing to trade. Today at the donut shop there’s a deliciously wicked autumn confection called Caramel Apple Pie (apple glaze with salted caramel drizzle), and my stomach is growing.

These flavors won’t be around for long, but neither will the fall warblers – hands down my favorite birds.

Many of them have flown in from their nesting grounds in Canada and the Northeast, touching down on the Outer Banks only long enough to fatten up for the next leg of a journey to the Gulf of Mexico, then across the waves to their wintering grounds in Latin America. According to eBird, there’s a darn good chance of spotting 15 types of warblers and a “reasonable” chance of seeing 11 others along the boardwalk today between the Methodist Chapel and the Duck Donuts shop. That’s almost a third of all the warblers found in the U.S.

Here’s a video of a Black-throated Green Warbler, frantically collecting fuel for its migration:

September 29, 2020 0 comment

Beverly's Birding Basics Birding Flying Lessons essay How we're birding now Migration

You’ve started down the path to becoming a birder. What next?

by Beverly Mills Gyllenhaal August 25, 2020

written by Beverly Mills Gyllenhaal

Let’s say you started birding in the pandemic, bought binoculars, and now you’re hooked. You can identify the songbirds and woodpeckers in your neighborhood. So what happens next?

A Chestnut-sided Warbler we found in Massachusetts this summer. Photos by Anders Gyllenhaal

I’ve been thinking a lot about that question while hiking through an Audubon sanctuary in western Massachusetts, peering through bushes looking for fist-sized birds that have no interest in being seen.

Time is of the essence. The American Redstarts, Chestnut-sided Warblers, the Black-and-Whites, the Yellow Warblers and all the other varieties that spend the summer here will start migrating south any day.

Not that long ago, I didn’t know a warbler from a sparrow. So exactly what does it take to become a good birder? Once you’ve moved past the cardinals, blue jays and robins, what’s keeping you from finding the Indigo Bunting or a Rose-breasted Grosbeak?

A female Rose-breasted Grosbeak

Becoming a birder is a process, and it could go any number of ways. Some of it depends on your personality, how much time you have and how mobile you are. Do you like to collect things? Do you crave the thrill of the hunt? What’s your frustration tolerance?

Let’s say you’ve spotted a bird you can’t identify. Would you rather use a book to compare diagnostic markings such as eye rings and the color of a bird’s bill and feet? Or would you prefer a phone app designed to help you identify the bird easily and instantly. Perhaps you’d want a fellow human who can guide your way.

August 25, 2020 2 comments

Beverly's Birding Basics Birding Featured

Beverly’s Basics: Four tips for getting the most from your birding binoculars

by Beverly Mills Gyllenhaal August 13, 2020

written by Beverly Mills Gyllenhaal

Heading Title

Last of three parts

So my friend gets interested in birding and tries out some binoculars. Then she comes to a complete standstill. “There’s something wrong with my eyes,” she says. “Binoculars just aren’t for me.”

This scenario is not uncommon, and it makes me want to shout: Don’t give up! There are tricks! Here, let me show you …

The truth of the matter is that learning to use binoculars is not easy. Even experts like Andrew Farnsworth, a research associate at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, agree.

“The idea of them is simple: I can magnify what I’m seeing? Awesome. Sign me up,” Farnsworth said. “But it can be really difficult at first.

“Trying to stay focused on the bird, and then bring the tool up to your eyes is not the easiest thing to learn,” Farnsworth told my husband Anders in a recent interview.

Binoculars can utterly transform what you see, as with this Great Blue Heron’s piercing stare.

The infuriating thing to me is that you buy binoculars, and they don’t come with instructions. Therefore you assume it’s easy and automatic. When it’s not, you think something must be wrong with you.

When I was starting out as a birder — reading guidebooks and casually scouting for resources — nothing I found touched on the basics of using binoculars to see birds. But as I point out in my post I’ll call “Why Binoculars,” they simply transform your birding experience into something glorious.

So, without further digression, here are my four essential tips for learning to bird with binoculars. They work, and it’s worth it. I promise.

1) Get set up

First, adjust the eye cups. If you wear glasses or sunglasses, screw the cups all they way in.

If you don’t wear glasses, screw the eye cups all the way out. Don’t press the eye cups too hard against your eye sockets or it will distort the image.

Everyone’s face is different, and you want your binoculars to fit. Pull the binoculars barrels apart as far as they’ll go, then lift them up to your eyes. Now squeeze the barrels together until you only see one image through both eyes — a perfect circle.

This usually puts the barrels closer together than you might expect.

Once you’re seeing just the one image, find a good spot on your face for the barrels to rest securely. This is usually the top bone of your eye socket (brow ridge). If you’re wearing glasses, you might find you can use the top rim of the frames a “shelf.” For me this helps keep the binoculars steady for longer periods.

This is the last of three posts on binoculars, the central equipment for birders. The first piece was about the why good binoculars will change your life on the trail. The second post addressed how to buy your first pair of binoculars. These and other posts aimed at the new birder can be found on Beverly’s Birding Basic page here.

2) How to focus

There are two wheels to adjust. The one in the middle is the focus wheel. Look at something stationary in the middle distance with both eyes open, and move the wheel to bring it into focus.

The details of Belted Kingfishers, skittish birds you can’t usually get close to, fill your viewfinders with a good pair of binoculars.

It’s important to keep an index finger on the focus wheel and learn to adjust it as you move your eyes from one object to another. Even the smallest movement can put an object out of focus, and twirling the wheel is necessary. Eventually this will feel natural, and you’ll adjust the focus wheel without even thinking about it.

The second wheel is called the diaopter and is usually part of the right-hand eyepiece. It needs adjustment only once. The purpose of the diopter is to compensate for the differences between your eyes. No two eyes are the same, and don’t have the same ability to focus.

To adjust the diaopter, put a lens cap over the right barrel. Keep both eyes open and adjust the focus wheel. Next, put the cap on the left barrel and, keeping both eyes open without squinting, use the diopter adjustment to bring your view into sharp focus.

Click here for an excellent, very detailed tutorial from Birdwatching.com on how do each of these focusing steps and why they’re necessary.

3) How to find the bird

Locating a bird through binoculars isn’t necessarily automatic. There’s a disorientation that comes in the instant your eyes go from a wide, faraway view to such a close-up, magnified view. It tend to scramble your brain.

With practice, you sort of train your brain. Or you get used to the disparity. (If I go for a month or so without birding, my brain has to be trained all over again.)

Mockingbirds are good species to start out with.

It’s best to starting with birds that remain mostly still for long stretches while they’re hunting, feeding or resting. Herons, hawks, woodpeckers and birds at bird feeders are good examples. Also, especially on spring mornings, usually skittish songbirds perch out in the open and sing for long stretches. The Northern Mocking bird is capable of singing on one branch all day long. Some species, like the Eastern Phoebe and Belted Kingfisher, will settle on a specific branch out in the open. Although they’ll fly off to catch prey, they’ll come back to this same branch fairly often.

There are two good ways to locate a bird through binoculars. Here’s method No. 1, which I’m going to call “The Statue”:

First of all, freeze your body, stay still, and keep your eyes on the bird as best you can. Without moving your head or your eyes, pull the binoculars up to your face. Your eyes should land exactly on the bird. This is not as easy as it sounds, so practice on any small object until you get the hang of it.

Here’s a second technique that’s a bit more cumbersome, but it works for me. I call it “The Bull’s-eye Method” because it’s a lot like target practice. For this method, you don’t start learning with an actual bird. Instead, do this:

A) With your naked eye, pick out an ordinary tree branch that’s not too small and not too far away. This is going to be your Bull’s-eye (i.e. the bird). Try to find it with the binoculars. Sometimes you can’t find it. So here’s what you do next:

B) With your naked eye pick out something so distinctive that there’s no question as to what it is when magnified. It must be stationary, not too small and fairly close to your Bull’s-eye. For example, this can be a jagged dead branch or a patch of colorful dead leaves or even the base of the tree.

We’ll call this focal point “Tinkerbell” because she’s going to guide you to the Bull’s-eye.

C) Note whether your Bull’s-eye is to the right or left of Tinkerbell, and also whether it’s above or below her. Now look through the binoculars and focus on Tinkerbell. Remember where she is in relation to the Bull’s-eye? Slowly move the binoculars in that direction — right or left, up or down — until you see the Bull’s-eye. Voila!

The more you try, the better and faster you’ll get. Once you can easily find the Bull’s-eye, repeat steps A, B, & C until you get good at finding the actual bird.

Male Northern Cardinals stand out because they’re plentiful and bright red year round.

Practice with common birds that are around a lot so you don’t get frustrated when they fly off. Robins and many sparrows spend a lot of time on the ground, which makes it vastly easier to spot them. Male cardinals have the added advantage of brilliant red feathers.

With both of these methods, when you land on the bird, it’s important to remember that your brain will require a short moment to adjust to the aforementioned magnification disparity.

So, these are the quick tips that work for me. For a terrific, more detailed tutorial on how to bird with binoculars from Birdwatcher’s Digest, click here.

4) Proper Posture and Finer Points

For most people, using binoculars and looking up for long periods can strain neck and back muscles you don’t normally use in this way. It’s called “Birder’s Neck.” Varying your body posture can help with the fatigue.

The natural tendency is to stand with your elbows fully extended, especially when looking straight up. (Like the photo here.)

However, I find that if I stand with my elbows tucked when looking straight ahead, (like the child pictured here), my muscles don’t tire as fast.

Along these lines, remembering to use proper posture is really important. The natural tendency is to hunch your shoulders. Just don’t! Pull your shoulders down and back, away from your head.

Now align the rest of your body — back straight, ribs lifted, pelvis tucked, abdominal muscles tight. (This has the added benefit of being good exercise for your abdominal muscles, which will support your spine.)

For some of us, standing this way isn’t natural. When my back starts to hurt, I’m reminded to check my posture.

If you’re near a fence or another structure the you can rest your elbows on can also help. (Be sure to check that fence for ticks or spiders.)

Last but not least, keep those lenses clean! Do not be tempted to breathe on your binoculars and wipe them with your shirt. That’s one sure way to ruin them. That said, looking through even slightly smudged or dusty glass matters. Some binoculars come with a cleaning kit and instructions. But if not, here’s how:

Before putting your binoculars away, use a soft brush to sweep away any grit from the body and lenses. A cheap, medium-size makeup brush does the trick. Next comes a rub with a pre-moistened lens towelette that’s approved for optics or electronics — i.e. one that’s alcohol- and ammonia-free. Or use a Q-tip moistened with lens cleaning solution. Finally, give a rub with a dust-free lens cloth, such as the cloth you’d use for cleaning eyeglasses.

This is supposed to be fun!

My parting advice for learning to use your new binoculars is this: Refuse to be intimidated, and try not to get frustrated. Binoculars magnify all of Mother Nature’s majesty, be it dead branches, abandoned nests or turtles in a pond. But there is something singular and spectacular about coming eye to eye with a tiny little bird. It really doesn’t take long to get the hang of it, so just keep practicing.

Plural v. Singular

Fun fact: Technically we’re not discussing “a pair of binoculars.” By definition, there are two barrels on one binocular, thus the “bi.” If you hear birders say “a binocular,” they’re probably experts. Go stand nearby. Stay quiet, and point your binocular in the same direction they’re aiming. You’re likely to learn something and/or see something otherwise missed!

Because “binocular” sounds so odd and is rarely used, I’m going with the more common plural form.

August 13, 2020 3 comments

Beverly's Birding Basics Birding

Beverly’s Birding Basics: How to buy your first binoculars

by Beverly Mills Gyllenhaal July 22, 2020

written by Beverly Mills Gyllenhaal

Second of three parts

Over time, birding binoculars will start to feel like a piece of your anatomy. They’ll be attached to your face for hours at a time for years to come. Whether or not you’re going to enjoy birding – and how skilled you can become – depends a lot on your binoculars.

To complicate matters, the price range is wide – from about $120 for the most basic, entry-level pair to nearly $3,000 for the finest birding binoculars on the market today.

“Birding binoculars” are specific to birding because the requirements are, well, very specific.

A little reading helps

My favorite, most easily understood criteria for what constitutes birding binoculars comes from an article on the Audubon Society’s website, written by Wayne Mones, an avid birder since childhood who writes about binoculars for multiple publications.

“Bird-worthy binoculars must focus quickly enough to “get on” a fast-moving bird,” he says. “They must have a field of view wide enough to locate birds rapidly and follow them in flight.

The cover of Audubon’s binocular package. See link below.

“They must also provide accurate color rendition,” Mones continues, “have no observable distortion in the center of the field, and be bright enough to show subtle features in poor light and sharp enough to resolve fine detail.”

Mones really knows his stuff, and the rest of his excellent article explains the technical basics of binoculars such as magnification, field of view and special considerations if you wear eyeglasses. Again, for the entire article, click here.

Beverly’s Birding Basics, a new feature on Flying Lessons, is meant to help new birders find their way. Last week, the first post in this series addressed why buying a good pair of binoculars is imperative to a fruitful birding experience. The third part will explore how to make the most of your binoculars. For a full library of Birding Basics links, click here.

July 22, 2020 3 comments

Beverly's Birding Basics Birding Featured

Why good binoculars can change your (birding) life

by Beverly Mills Gyllenhaal July 14, 2020

written by Beverly Mills Gyllenhaal

First of three parts: Over three weeks, our posts will focus on the specifics of birding binoculars. Next installment: How to go about buying your first pair, followed by Beverly’s insights on how to use them effectively.

If you’ve never seen a bird through binoculars, you have my envy. Your future holds one of nature’s great wow moments – and one of its greatest ah-ha moments as well.

Remember the first time you saw something under a microscope? Or stars through a telescope? Seeing a bird with binoculars for the first time is just as magical.

Binoculars make even the most muted colors, patterns and textures pop. You can zoom in on facial details and head positions — or what I choose to experience a bird’s personality or even emotions, despite the fact that science doesn’t confirm if birds have them. But the mystery itself gives me goose bumps sometimes.

Binoculars let you see the fabric of a Song Sparrow. Photos by Anders Gyllenhaal

Of course you get some of this with the naked eye, but binoculars intensify the experience. Have you enjoyed Anders’s photos here on Flying Lessons? He’s able to capture these incredible details thanks to the magnification of telephoto lenses – binoculars of a different sort.

And the wisp of red around the Red-bellied Woodpecker’s beak.

Going from the awe of that first glance to a sustained state of bliss takes practice, and a bit of instruction can help.

Why can’t you just pick this thing up and immediately have nature unfold in all its glorious minutia? There’s a disorientation that comes in the instant your eyes go from a wide, faraway view to such a close-up view. It scrambles your brain. The bird has lighted on a branch, but you’re focused on a nearby pine cone. By the time you figure it out, that bird is gone.

A good pair of beginner’s birding binoculars costs between $250 and $300.

You can tune in on the daily chores of birds, such as this Tufted Titmouse scarfing up breakfast.

Are you surprised? Many people are. Before you settle for those dinged-up binoculars your grandpa used in the war or the $50 ones from your kid’s field trip, hear me out.

Birding is not something you do once, like going to a gourmet restaurant for the best meal of your life. For that same $275 dinner, binoculars can serve up an exquisite plateful every single day.

For thousands of people, birding is a sport like golf or swimming. For thousands more, it’s a hobby like photography, playing an instrument or sewing.

This Barred Owl’s whiskers are visible.

You aren’t surprised when an aspiring golfer spends $275 on a first set of clubs. Did you know that a beginner sewing machine costs $275, too? You’d be lucky to find an entry-level violin or decent guitar for $275.

To make matters worse, as skills improve and dedication to the sport / hobby of birding deepens, many seasoned practitioners prioritize their way to buying optics that cost 10 times this much. If you’re merely surprised at the idea of spending $275 on binoculars, you’re likely horrified at $2,750.

Or the fluffed plumage of an Indigo Bunting

I am acquainted with many amateur musicians, cyclists, photographers, gourmet cooks and seamstresses who have gradually upgraded their equipment over the lifespan of a leisure pursuit. And to be fair, the first time I heard a friend spent $3,000 on a bicycle, $2,000 for a digital sewing machine or $5,000 on a guitar, what do you suppose my reaction was? Disbelief and horror, of course.

In defense of a hobby’s economic investment, you could earn money from it. Let’s say you play tunes for tips, win a contest, sell your custom-made clothing or hire yourself out as a birding tour guide. Your equipment could pay for itself.

Or you could help others by donating such income to charity.

The tiny tongue of a Yellow-throated Warbler in mid-song

But you might just need to accept the fact that if you’re lucky enough to have disposable income, the ability and the time to pursue a leisure activity, it’s rarely going to be free of charge. And relatively speaking, $275 isn’t excessive and shouldn’t be shocking.

Okay. Now that we’ve established that binoculars are to birding what cameras are to photography, my hope is that you’ll find your way to fairly decent ones and practice using them.

With patience and a bit of luck, God’s most glorious creatures will appear right before your eyes. You’ll never look back.

Next week: How to buy your first binoculars

Even from a distance, you can see the water droplets around an Osprey’s fishing expedition.

July 14, 2020 0 comment

Birding Birdsongs

Birding by ear takes plenty of work, but the rewards last a lifetime

by Beverly Mills Gyllenhaal June 24, 2020

written by Beverly Mills Gyllenhaal

Second of two parts

After months of hoping to find this outlaw of a bird, finally, we were close. Very close.

A male Hooded Warbler in Pisgah National Forest / Photos by Anders Gyllenhaal

Coming from a dense stand of old-growth trees in the Pisgah National Forest in Western North Carolina, I could hear this miniature Robin Hood galloping along on his horse. Then he’d toss his hat in the air with a triumphant – but very quick — “Woo-hoo.”

That’s how I visualize the Hooded Warbler singing – three gallops followed by a two-beat, joyous crescendo. It’s is my trick to remember the difference between this warbler’s song and any of his 36 tiny wood-warblering cousins.

If you clump them all together, the 37 warblers that are likely to sing, chip and chirp in the eastern half of the country can make more than a hundred sounds. But the cool thing is, every one of those sounds is unique to just one bird.

When they’re camouflaged by dense foliage, which songbirds often are, the only way to tell if a particular bird is close is to hear it. Suddenly your odds for finding – and photographing — the bird increase exponentially. (For a recording of the Hooded Warbler, click here.)

Like learning a language

At the heart of it, birdsong is a foreign language. Every bird speaks its own, minus the mockingbird and a few other mimics. More than 100 species can be nearby at any given time, depending on the season and habitat. The resulting cacophony at dawn in springtime is beautiful, astonishing and overwhelming.

June 24, 2020 3 comments

Bird of the Week Birds stories Migration Photography

A holy rite of spring: A Prothonotary Warbler’s visit like no other

by Beverly Mills Gyllenhaal May 14, 2020

written by Beverly Mills Gyllenhaal

All warblers are wonderful to watch, particularly males in the spring. Nature gives them fresh feathers, all the better to snare a mate. For some warblers, spring markings and colors intensify to the point that they look nothing like their normal selves.

My favorite is the Prothonotary Warbler.

Of the 37 species in the Eastern U.S., the male Prothonotary is the only one that glows. His head is a saturated yellow-orange, earning him the nickname “Golden Swamp Warbler.”

Finding a Prothonotary feels like finding that last, hopelessly hidden Easter egg. You have to see it to fully appreciate it, and every time, he takes my breath away.

Yesterday we got lucky. A male in its full spring splendor shot out from under the bridge where Anders and I were standing and headed straight for a bush not 10 feet away and directly in front of us. In the past four years, we’ve seen this bird four times in four states without the lengthy encounter that this little bird gave us.

The visit was a photographer’s delight – perfect late afternoon light and a bird so hungry he foraged out in the open for a good 15 minutes.

May 14, 2020 1 comment

Birding How we're birding now

Feeling trapped in your yard? This tool puts the magic back in migration.

by Beverly Mills Gyllenhaal April 10, 2020

written by Beverly Mills Gyllenhaal

Part of a series

Birding this spring means we’re stuck in our own back yards. But it doesn’t have to be boring, said Jenna Curtis, a project manager at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology who works with engagement among eBird users.

Jenna is a consistent and persistent birder, a role model whose species sightings can seem to grow at a viral rate. She could also be considered an extreme birder, someone willing to spend a day sick at sea to push her life list past the 1,000 mark. And now, just like us, Spring Migration 2020 finds Jenna mostly at home, watching the same-old, same-old birds.

Jenna Curtis

Jenna and I had a phone chat about this situation yesterday. She’s sheltering in place in Ithaca, home of Cornell Lab and smack in the middle of the most dangerous state on the planet right now.

Before Jenna and I got to the crux of our conversation – how to use eBird to add depth and excitement to birding from home — I could not resist telling her about my Barred Owl that hoots from the nearby woods every afternoon between 4:30 and 5.

“Oh my gosh. You have an owl?” Her voice jumped nearly an octave. As I delivered the details of how I finally spotted the owl and how proud I felt, Jenna, bless her heart, followed along without missing a breathless beat.

Our backyard Barred Owl swivels its head our way.

So far this chat with Jenna was the best birding moment I’d had all week.

One of the great joys of birding is sharing the experience, finding a community of like-minded people who know what it feels like to crave the high-pitched, barely audible sound of itty-bitty warblers decked out in the glorious garb of spring.

I didn’t realize how much I’ve been yearning for my birding tribe in the midst of this godforsaken wilderness – a wilderness that’s not nearly wild enough to find the warblers I still need to add to my own life list.

“It’s hard to make the choice to stay at home right now rather than be with everyone else at your local hotspot for the migration,” Jenna said. “But you’re doing the right thing by following your local health regulations. Everyone needs to be following their local regulations right now.”

Flying Lesson: Almost anywhere you are happen to be — including stuck at home during a pandemic — at least some birds will find you there. In a time of anxiety and uncertainly, a dose of nature is good medicine. Here are some ways you can make the most of wherever you’re birding now.

April 10, 2020 1 comment