Brief Blog Hiatus

Between the need to completely rearrange the furniture in my house and a sudden doubling of my class load at work (since I’m covering for a sick colleague this week), not to mention a slight bug that’s got me under the weather, I’m going to have to bow out of the blogging business for the first week of February.  I’ll be back no later than Super Bowl Sunday!  See you then!

The Plunge

Take a moment to think about how many people you know who take bird photographs as a hobby. Now think about how many amateur sound recordists you know. The second number is far smaller than the first, of course. [Read more]

Splitting Scoters

I know, I know — you’re still reeling from the news that Pacific Wren is being split from Winter Wren. The last thing you’re willing to deal with right now is another taxonomic split based on vocal differences, right? [Read more]

The Mysterious American Tree Sparrow

A frequent topic of discussion on this blog is what we don’t know about bird sounds. Another favorite topic is how amateur recordists might help solve mysteries — and advance science — by recording common birds in their own backyards. Now, as most of North America languishes in the middle of a deep, dark winter, I’d like to point out a golden opportunity for citizen science — a chance to answer questions about a bird that many people know, but few really understand. [Read more]

Pacific Wren’s a Done Deal

The grapevine tells me that the AOU checklist committee has voted to split Pacific Wren from Winter Wren. [Read more]

Recordist Profile: Bob Zilly

Bob Zilly of Longmont, Colorado describes himself as a “casual and opportunistic” recordist. I’m excited to profile Bob in this post not only because he’s a terrifically nice guy, but also because I think his recording style and equipment will appeal to many readers who might like to get into audio recording in a relatively quick, easy, and inexpensive way. [Read more]

What We Don’t Know About Bird Sounds

A while back I mentioned my long-standing desire to post a list of things we don’t know about North American bird sounds, with an emphasis on the simple questions that amateur sound recordists could answer. I’ve finally decided to take a crack at it. [Read more]

Murder Most Foul

A true crime story from the bird world. [Read more]

On Spectrogram Settings

Today’s post is the promised follow-up to my post on the history of spectrograms. I want to explain some basic concepts of spectrographic analysis so that I can clear up some common misconceptions and explain why some things may not always look quite the way you expected. [Read more]

How I Listen

David Sibley was gracious enough to reply to my recent post on Buff-collared Nightjar, first in a comment on my blog, then yesterday in a post on his own blog. I respond to him here with some thoughts on how I listen to bird sounds. [Read more]