Noisy neighbors sounds like a negative; note the alliteration. In most cases one is describing an unappreciated scene. My positive nice noisy neighbors are the birds assembled or passing through my backyard. Who are these loud chirpers and tweeters gathering in song, usually in the very early morning or around my dinnertime? I never could identify the different birds, sometimes a solo aria; sometimes like a question and answer choral.
Sitting with friends around my patio table, we were blessed with a concert. Anne, my English friend began identifying the bird sounds. “Anne, you’re so good at that,” I remarked. She admitted it had taken her a long time, using an app called MERLIN on her cell phone. She introduced us to the names of the birds providing all the background music to our early dinner. “ Well, I’ve heard of Merlin, the magician. What is the app MERLIN? “Anne filled in the details, “ The app is free from Cornell University Ornithology Department. It gives the listener a fast and accurate identification of the birds who are vocalizing around you. By just holding the cell phone towards the sound, MERLIN listens with you and uses Artificial Intelligence to identify the species. A visual pattern of each bird’s song is shown on a spectrogram.” So, with the app now on my cell phone, I have learned the tweeters and chirpers in my backyard have included: sparrows, cardinals, blue jays, robins wrens, finch, mockingbirds and peewees. Bless my noisy neighbors!!!
Ethyl Haber
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