Trail Tech Hacks: Birding with Merlin

We are starting a new segment to the podcast, called Trail Tech Hacks - apps and/or tech that we use on the trail to make the journey a little easier or more enjoyable. 

We are starting with one of our favorite trail apps - the Merlin birding app from Cornell Labs. How many times have you been on a trail and heard a bird sound, and wondered... what the hell is that?! The last thing you want to carry on the hike is a birding manual. Luckily, the Merlin app makes identifying, and saving, bird sounds and sightings very easy. 

My guest on this episode is Kayla, and she is going to guide us through the use of the Merlin app and give us a hack on how to use the app when you are on the trail and have no cell service. 

To hear some of the birds mentioned in this episode - jump on over to The Long Ways Podcast's hiking blog.

For more from our hiking trio, follow us on Facebook , Instagram and coming soon - videos on our YouTube channel. Or subscribe to our Substack channel (The Long Ways) or newsletter on our website for the stories behind the trail.

Coming soon - an AMA feature where you can ask us almost anything about our hiking adventures. Watch for an announcement on our social channels.

Have a comment or an idea for an upcoming episode - contact us through our website or email us at hikewithus@thelongwayspodcast.com.

Transcript

…Hey everyone. This is Michael from the Longways podcast and we are here for a fun afternoon talking a little bit about trail technology TrailTech. And we're calling this little new segment of ours the TrailTech hacks and how to use technology to enhance your experience on the trails And I'm here today with my daughter Kayla, also a biologist so you have two biologists on today And we're gonna talk a little bit today about an app that we have been using on the trail…to talk about birds or learn more about birds And so, first of all Hey Kayla How you doing? Hi I'm doing great I'm happy to be here I'm happy to uh be a bird nerd today. We are gonna be both be bird nerds So if if you don't remember from following our podcast Kayla was on our talk about her her trek up to Machu Picchu So Kayla has been on some really fun hikes.
Uh she in her own little long ways on things up to about fourteen thousand feet. And so she's an experienced hiker now even though she may not agree with that completely. Uh
I think that it we're gonna have some fun today So first of all Kayla, birds…
birds Yeah I mean birds…
Yeah So neither one of us are uh experienced uh I would say professional birders. Um but we are having a lot of fun doing some uh amateur birding. While hiking and, uh using this app that we're going to talk about today to help out with that. Yeah And so I gotta I gotta mention that you know the idea of trail tech hacks may be something that most people are Like oh I don't wanna use technology on the trail I wanna experience the trail And I gotta say that I'm kind of the same person I'm the type of person who gets on the trail and I do like turning almost everything off. But often, on my hikes I'm experiencing really interesting areas of the world And I wanna learn more about them And you know I'm walking through a forest in Portugal or Scotland or something And I'm hearing all these birds And I don't have the time to carry a book with me to figure these things out So we're gonna introduce an app today that we Kayla and I have both kind of stumbled upon.
Neither one of us can figure out who found it first And that's fine Okay And the app is called Merlin. So Kayla why don't you tell me just a little bit about Merlin before we dive into how we used it? Yeah Uh
so Merlin is an app that is uh one hundred percent for birding and it lets you identify what birds that you see or hear uh in a couple different ways You can identify them, uh by taking the photograph You can identify them by uh kind of going through a step by step process that I'm sure we'll talk about in a second. Uh and the really interesting thing is that you can actually identify them by sound recording. So if you're hearing a bird singing um or if you're hearing several different bird singing you can actually just open up the app and uh hit the sound record button and it can actually uh identify the bird calls for you and tell you what's kind of hanging out around you So um, I use this quite a bit not not just for hiking. But even just you know having having a cup of coffee out on the balcony you know um just kinda walking around a little bit uh and you can just turn it on for a couple minutes and just kind of see what's out there. And I've had, I've had a really great time with this I've I've had a really great time you know, just using it very very casually you know uh
kinda like like we said we're not we're not really professionals here you know we're not trying to to uh set any records or anything for for birding or you know check out off any huge lists but…just using this app to just kind of know…what's around you and then to start recognizing the different bird calls or even the different uh sites of the birds that you see around you um it becomes really really interesting and it becomes really…a really good time to just kind of you know take a walk around and be able to to say oh I know what that is Or you know oh I haven't heard that one in a while You know I guess that they're back. Um and I can say that uh as someone who I am, uh coming up on about a year and a half of living uh near this lake trail, uh it's been really interesting to be able to see the uh the migrations of the different birds and see the different kind of groups of birds come in to this lake area near me. And Merlin has been really really helpful with that of being able to…
identify birds that…
I might not otherwise have ever known were were there I mean I didn't know before this what an American Goldfinch sounded like for example and now I hear those little things all the time You know Exactly yep So just so just little things like that It can be a hiking around app um which we're gonna talk about today And it can also just be a um, normal you know just walking around on your normal errands and your normal walks app It's it's very versatile like that. I love this app I and one of the reasons why I like it is because it's a type of thing like when you're do when you are hiking, a short ways hike a long ways hike whatever you're doing, you know you're always stopping and you're you know you're you're sitting there trying to experience everything around you and you hear these birds. Yeah Like I said you don't wanna whip out some sort of you know, you know guide that tells you all these things Instead I just used to hold my phone and just hit the record button and just like be quiet for a few moments and just listen And then here these things see these things come in and you're like oh my gosh I didn't know that that that bird even existed And we'll talk about some of those here in a few moments I'm sure but it is a great uh
companion to uh a hiking And and for those of us who like to hike slower than other people maybe on the long ways podcast, then then it also provides us with the with the ability to stop and take a break and listen to the birds Right Which is a nice way to do things Right So Yes It's a great excuse to um take a break for maybe a minute or two longer than than you would have otherwise you know you stop and take a water break you you pull up the app and and just kinda let it listen for for a couple minutes and um, just just see what you can find Yeah. And it's a super easy app to use It really is It's it's um it's uh we'll we'll we'll post the download instructions for it in the podcast description and also on our website Really easy to use Uh a lot of fun but Kayla one of the things that I really enjoyed for from it was the experience of really finding new things you know that because they have a life list…portion of it right that you can that you can use if you find a new bird from its sound and you and you click and you say that's my bird, then you actually can add that to your life list And it's a way of recording for an amateur birding person you know what birds have you seen before and where have you seen them And all this goes back to um
, you know it goes into a database which helps people identify where birds were seen at different time at different periods of time. I think it's primarily based in the US Um but if you go to other places to hike where uh there's not a whole lot of, uh data yet about these birds you'll actually see something pop up on the app that's asking you to um help them out by recording more bird songs and being able to match those up and uh submit those those bird songs to kind of help the uh the app be able to identify more birds And I'm sure we'll talk about uh the the bird packs and uh and how to use this…app when uh you're outside uh the US or if you're if you don't have internet somewhere or something uh you can still you can still use this app It's still a very nice very nice companion no matter where you are. Let's get right into the hacks then So these are trail hacks So a couple of things that we've learned from playing with the Merlin app especially when we're on a hike which…
inherently you know if you're hiking, you know you're offering trying to leave you know contact with civilization Okay So you may think that you know how am I gonna use this bird app if I'm standing out And there's no you know internet connection where I'm at or you know or wireless connection or any other type of connection you know cellular connection So Kayla so you have actually taught me a lot about this because I usually give up and say well we're in the middle of nowhere No you know if I hear something how am I actually gonna record it? So tell me how will you do that Hack me through this. Right So um I mean again I think this is the third or fourth time Uh we are not experts and I'm sure that there's someone out here who has found easier ways to do this I'm sure that there's also um, some things that this app can do that you know we don't know about and there'll be someone with Please tell us contact us through the rate Yeah Let's let them know. Kayla and I we both love to know how we can make this even better experience go ahead Kayla. Right um
yeah So if if there's something you know you know uh incredibly obvious that you're like I can't believe these people don't know how to do that Um but please let us know Um we are not professionals in any capacity here But um, something that you can do or that that we usually do when we're using this app somewhere where you don't have um internet you don't have great cell reception. Um the first thing that you can do is that uh Merlin has these uh like regional bird packs that you can download. Um that have information about the birds that you're likely to see there And you just download those to your phone, um they take up some space on your on your phone and then you can access those offline. When you're actually hiking, you can use all of the…um you can use all of the identification strategies uh on the app which is you know taking a picture doing a sound recording doing a step by step identification, And so you can do all of that offline and it will actually pull up if it's able to match to a bird It will actually pull up what your bird is. But if you're uh
, not connected to the internet or if you're not connected to cell phone reception it's going to have a really hard time actually saving that. Um so what you can do is that you can you can pull ups that you get. The bird you uh make the identification it'll pop up that says you know this is my bird exclamation point You know it's kind of hard to describe this over a uh, over an audio medium But if you if you're if you use the app if you just pick up the app and play with it a bit you'll you'll see you'll see what we mean pretty fast. And what you can do is that you can take us just a screenshot of that. And then what you can do later is go back into the app and choose your location of where you were You can set like a little pin down of where you were, Usually I do this kind of by trail I like to see like which trails um or which parks or anything that I have these in but you can really name your locations anything that you want.
Um
, and…uh then you can go in afterwards when you do have your Internet connection and go through all your screenshots and say oh this is I had the mountain chickadee here I had the pigment Nut hatch here and just go through and put and put those in…
That's perfect because that's what you taught me how to do is that go ahead and identify run the identification take a screenshot, and then add it back in later for for what you've seen And that's to be honest with you that's our trail hack of the day Okay Because The first time I did it I was like well it's not gonna save it So therefore did it really happen And you can go back and edit back in and just add that little pin drop and name it. That's that is a great, a great trail hack for us for people who I'm just like identify birds and then move on and maybe sitting at the pub that night you know, enter your bird things probably by yourself in the corner whatever It's fine So anyways. So, okay So now we move on to…some of the fun stuff I really wanna spend a few moments today on our trail hack, talking about some of the cool birds you and I have found using this app. And I'm gonna let you go first because you have a lot more experience and I have a couple to add here. And I I've just just keep it to a couple but if Kayla I know you've got a lot to talk about So let's just start with you.
Tell me one bird you found that and where and why this was exciting for you. Yeah So one that I was very excited about um
, is, uh so I live in a landlocked state right now I live in Colorado um, and so I don't see a lot of shorebirds um in my my favorite bird um of all time is uh, sandpipers i love sandpipers. I think that they're adorable, and you just don't get to see them very much in Colorado or you know so I thought um as I kind of mentioned earlier I am living near to a uh a lake trail right now And so this was a few months ago now, um during the summer and I was…uh just walking around this lake trail uh just you know stopped for a few minutes pulled out uh Merlin uh to just see what was around at this kind of wetland area. And I found a spotted sandpiper…
There And uh at first I actually didn't think that that was uh that that was right I mean like I said I don't know anything about birds Uh you know me and my dad are both biologists We did not have degrees in ornithology. Uh no That is not where our uh that is not where our our strengths lie here. I'm sure that there are people who probably know a lot about birds who are like well dug They've gotta of course they're going to find a a sandpiper around the lake They've gotta migrate somewhere Right Uh but I did not know this. And the first time that I that, uh, I was just recording kind of the the bird sounds around me and it pulled up with a sandpiper I thought that it was wrong So that is something that the app the app is not you know one hundred percent accurate. Um sometimes it'll it'll pull up stuff that you're just kind of like…
I'm not really sure about that And usually what what, uh I do and I think that that that does too is that uh, if you're not sure about something just like close out of it and see if it pulls it up again. Yep You know if it pulls it up if if it says that it hears it especially if you can't actually see the bird in front of you Um and all of course all of this depends on how strict you wanna be about this You know it's your lifeless do whatever you want Right If it pulls it up two or three times it's pro it's probably hearing it You know the bird's probably there And you and I have done this thing too where…we if we both have our phones out we hear the same bird we record it Like if our if both apps are saying the same thing. Right Yeah And we look and it's reasonable It's in that area We're like yes We did hear that one And so you're right Sometimes it'll call up something You're like that can't possibly be here Okay Yeah But then usually usually the second time you run a recording it'll never show up again You're right So Right Yeah Um
, but yeah so that's how I found out again as as a uh very very amateur birder That's how I found out that uh I had sandpipers near me in this area and I never would have known to look at for them I have since actually seen them around here and that's that's very exciting too But I would never have known to actually look for them and I would never have known that they were so close to me and that I was walking past them probably several times before before I thought to um pull out this app and actually actually see what was there So that was really exciting for me And I think that Merlin is a very um it's a very good app for…
that. Of just something like you know again just…
going out to have your morning coffee and just turning on the the app for five or ten minutes and saying oh I've I've heard this sound so much and I never knew that that was what this was. You know Like I or I always thought that this was something else And now I found out that I've been having these like this bird fly past me every day and I and I would have never known. I've had similar experiences Uh when I was hiking in Scotland alone the…
Greg Glen Way we are along Woknese and there was this little yellow bird that was like, flittering through the trees You know how I was you know you're trying to identify it And you're like you know people say what is it I'm like it's a little yellow bird It's a little yellow bird Okay And I and I just really couldn't identify it I I didn't you know have the time to but I just sat there one point and held my phone up and recorded its song okay and come to find out it was a Eurasian Syskin which I didn't know what that was. Okay But by hearing the the voice showed me the picture and I realized that's exactly what I've been seeing flittering through these trees. Right And it was just it had a had a really beautiful song to it. And so it was kind of the reverse thing I have seen the bird, but I couldn't possibly identify it And so I came back and used the app to identify a song. And by the way the app can identify multiple songs at the same time And it does distinguish between…
even human speech Obviously things are loud like traffic and or human talking or something It disturbs it But you know it it does know the difference between birdsong and other sounds out there And it sure enough came up with it And when I called it up I was like that's exactly what I was looking for. Cable as a biologist though We have got to talk about the Galapagos i'm sorry. I cannot I cannot let this go any longer We have to talk about the Galapagos here today because if you're gonna be an amateur anything biologist? Okay You're in the Galapagos this last year and you found some really cool birds. I did Yeah Uh I was in the Galapagos back in April I had a trip to actually several of the islands It was amazing um I would definitely and if you're interested in nature in any way um it would be a it's a wonderful place…
And as far as the burden goes it was actually kind of interesting because uh kind of like we were saying earlier…
um the app is primarily US based And if you go outside of the US sometimes…There are certain parts of it that don't work the same way just because there isn't as much, um like data actually in the app about it And mostly what that means is that um you can still download all of these packs that have all of these birds uh in them like all the bird that, uh you're likely to see I think that they have a specifically uh galapagos pack uh that's just unique to galapagos. What it means is that the sound identification didn't work very well They just because it didn't really have a lot of data to like compare their recordings to. Um and this was a little disappointing for me at first um but then I kind of realized that it made birding in the Galapagos a little bit more of almost a a…scavenger hunt a little bit uh almost more of like an I spy kind of thing. There's something called a step by step identification which is again a little hard to describe over a podcast, but it basically does exactly what it sounds like It walks you through step by step you know Where did you see your bird How big is your bird What color is your bird What did you see it doing And then it'll pull up actually a list of the closest matches, um
for your bird So you can kind of narrow down what you think that you saw. Um and we were also very lucky in the Galapagos we had a a very good um guide there who uh was able to help a lot with that and help to really point out saying you know Uh this is this bird this is that bird Um, but we were able to see just some some really really interesting birds I personally did not see a lot of finches, which I know is heartbreaking. Um, but uh, we were able to see a lot of other birds And I know that uh uh I can't go through every single one that we saw here Uh but some of the ones that we saw we did get to see the Galapagos penguins um that was very very exciting I was I was really looking forward to that. Um and then we also saw these birds they're called frigate birds. Um and if you've ever seen a frigate bird um you you know what it is right You know what I'm talking about So we never really saw them super up close.
They're these really big uh
dark colored birds um with these like big long tails and uh the males have these red pouches under their throat So you if you've ever you know if you just Google a picture of these you'll immediately know what I'm saying They have these like big big red pouches, um that kind of like inflate back and forth. So we never saw them super close-up but if you see them from a distance, they're really cool because they're they're very large birds and they have this really really distinctive like, silhouette to them. Um, they've got this, I don't really know how to describe it other than like they kind of look like pterodactyls, uh from a distance They look like these very like these very very like, just big like prehistoric birds. Um so those were really cool to see…
We saw um we saw a few different types of boobies That was fun We saw uh some blue footed boobies, um a lot And then we actually saw one of the other species which was the Naska boobies. And a lot of different shorebirds um actually a lot of different birds um that as well that you can find in the United States Um so we act I actually saw my very first barn owl. In the Galapagos um American Barnowell. And I was really excited about that I had not seen that And I also had not known Um again this is this shows my lack of expertise in in uh birding. But I had not known that they uh were that far south or that they were that far out into the ocean So that was also really interesting to learn that oh yeah We…they're the species cover so much range You know um of course you know of course birds migrate you know and birds migrate great distances.
But I think that it's also, uh it's one thing to kind of know that and then it's another thing to be in a completely different part of the world and see species that you recognize there and just kind of have that light bulb moment of like oh these…
these are here too Right I mean? We the these are here too These got all the way over here too. But uh I'll I'll close off there because uh I know we don't really have time to go through every single bird that I saw in Galapagos um, but I will say I was very…I was very jealous because I did not see this bird but my brother saw an albatross uh while we were there um going between the islands and I will forever be, incredibly, uh jealous of that So you'll have to get him to talk about that when he's back on. Yes And also we have to go back again and get even more birds Oh of course Yes I I I did not get all of the birds in Galapagos and I must I don't think you did Yeah. You know the whole purpose of our of our or podcast today was just to throw out to you you know some ideas we had about you know how users have to have fun on your trail and your hiking And I think that We've really enjoyed it It's it's added a new dimension to our hiking experiences both you know in the Boulder Colorado region here in North Carolina but also as hikers as we go you know experience these natural settings in these beautiful environments all over the world, and you hear something in the background and you wanna know You wanna understand what it is and that's a lot of fun So The whole idea behind the trail uh
hacks episode today was to reintroduce you to Kayla and we're gonna hear a lot more from Kayla I'm sure. And also to talk with you a little bit about you know some of the things we've learned. But you know if you have any questions please let us know Uh we're about to launch a new season of the long ways podcast which contains and ask me anything aspect So you can go to our website You can sign up for our newsletter um as part of the ask me anything campaign. But if also if you have a better hack than we do for the Maryland app or if you have a great trail app that you love to use that involves experiencing the natural world around this, I please contact us We'd love to talk to you or maybe get you on a few future episodes so Kayla, thank you so much for joining us tonight Okay And it was a lot of fun and I cannot wait to go birding again with you. Yeah Of course Thanks for having me and thanks for uh letting me just ramble about birds for a few minutes It's my favorite thing.
I do love it too Cool thank you everyone.