There are more things in heaven and earth

 I downloaded the Merlin app on my phone while I was walking in Bemis a few days ago.  I was hearing a specific bird song that was cutting through all the other bird chatter.  I was excited when I found that it was a Baltimore Oriole.  

The app takes a sonogram of what you're hearing and then begins listing the birds it identifies.  If it identifies a previously identified bird again, it highlights the bird in yellow.  You can relisten to the recording and what it identify the bird again and again.  You can also "research" the recordings of the birds recorded in the past...  So... great learning tool.

Let's call the recording a "soundshot" like a snapshot.  I do two more of them in Bemis, once towards the parking lot closest to I-294 after I hear a ptyreodactyl like sound.  It identifies a large number of birds at once, remarkable number: 10?  warblers and cowbirds and vireos and osprey!  

Since then, it's been my constant companion.  This morning's spring chorus at home was a relatively staid list of robin, red-wing blackbird, and cardinal.

Taking the soundshots is a cool, eye-opening thing, it adds to your sense of what's around you, the sense of richness of your surroundings.  You are not alone!  You are surrounded by 10 different bird species, some of which are marked as semi-rare!

As Hamlet says, "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."