Bird Songs

A few weeks ago, my sister clued me in on a totally cool app named Merlin from The Cornell Lab of Ornithology at Cornell University.  Among other bird identification techniques, Merlin can record ambient sounds and distinguish bird calls from other noises in the environment.  It then searches the eBird citizen-science database for a match of each bird call as it is extracted from the recording and produces an item for the list of bird calls on the particular recording.
 
This morning as I was sitting on a picnic bench idly watching the St. Lawrence River in is relentless journey to the Atlantic Ocean, I became aware of the music of the bird calls all around me. I knew the red-winged blackbird, the Canada goose, and the osprey but not the many other calls.  Merlin helped me out.  In three minutes, Merlin recorded and identified seven other near-by birds. Who knew I was sitting with a yellow warbler, a warbling vireo, and a yellow-rumped warbler? 
 
I am delighted and thankful for the folks who are able to created apps to help amateur bird watchers like me learn a bit about the wonders of God’s world!
 
Psalm 19
For the director of music. A psalm of David.
1 The heavens declare the glory of God;
    the skies proclaim the work of his hands.
2 Day after day they pour forth speech;
    night after night they reveal knowledge.
3 They have no speech, they use no words;
    no sound is heard from them.
4 Yet their voice[b] goes out into all the earth,
    their words to the ends of the world.
In the heavens God has pitched a tent for the sun.
5     It is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber,
    like a champion rejoicing to run his course.
6 It rises at one end of the heavens
    and makes its circuit to the other;
    nothing is deprived of its warmth.