I bird a lot by ear. It’s challenging and yet highly rewarding. It opens up a new world allowing me to discover the birds of the day, which is especially useful if I don’t have my binoculars with me. I’m still learning so much as there are countless songs, calls, and chip notes to memorize. Even birds that I’m quite familiar with will surprise me with “new” material.

Imagine my delight when eBird and the Macaulay Library released two sound challenges. The April eBird challenge is to submit 20 checklists with a recording and/or photo. Macaulay Library has an even loftier goal of asking birders to submit 90 recordings through the end of October.

Excited, I tried my first recording on my Samsung Galaxy smartphone using Voice Record Pro. I downloaded Audacity to process my recordings. I watched tutorials on how to process and submit recordings according to Macaulay Library standards. There was a bit of a learning curve but I got the hang of it.

As I recorded more, I started to realize how much background noise is picked up. The hum of distant traffic, a bike or car racing by, conversations by hikers, and the ever-present ambulance and police sirens. I began to realize how much I tune out these sound bites constantly. I was frustrated with my noisy recordings. They weren’t clean and clear – why would they want to utilize these?

It dawned on me that this is my birding world. I bird in the buzz of an urban environment. The birds are still here. They are competing with the noise. Capturing my experience for researchers will hopefully contribute to efforts to understand the urban bird experience. So, I will continue to submit my noisy pieces and be more thankful for those rare moments of complete silence surrounding me when the opportunity arises.