By Jerry Berrier | From BayLines Express, March, 2021
I am an Access Technology Director at the Perkins School for the Blind. I have been an ACB member since 1982.
I have been learning, and often re-learning bird sounds since I was 19 years old. I have used professionally recorded training guides, lists of mnemonics and other memory aids, and sighted birder friends to help me learn new birds, but that was never quite enough. For years I have wished there was some sort of program that would test my knowledge of bird sounds and help me sharpen my skills. A few months ago, I stumbled upon exactly what I have been dreaming of. It is an iPhone app called Larkwire.
My passion for birding by ear started in 1972 when my Biology professor at Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP) suggested that I learn bird sounds while my sighted classmates were studying frog anatomy. He let me borrow a record album containing Cornell University recordings of birds of the northeastern United States, and he promised to go for a walk in the woods with me at the end of the semester. My grade for the lab portion of the Biology class would be based on how well I could identify some local bird sounds during a pleasant spring stroll.
After listening to the recordings a time or two, I remember thinking all of the birds sounded similar. How would I ever learn to differentiate one from another? By mid-semester, I was hooked. Every time I opened a window or stepped outside, I would hear birds and wonder what species they were. I learned to love listening to them, and a whole new world seemed to have opened for me. My professor scheduled our spring walk, and I got an A in the course. Shortly after that, I acquired my first cassette machine and started recording bird sounds at every opportunity. I was having a blast.
Later I created a website at www.birdblind.org and put some of my amateur recordings on it for the world to enjoy. My twin brother is an amateur photographer, and he has given me some pictures to match with the bird sounds.
Almost 50 years have gone by since my college days, and I am still an avid birder. I have microphones mounted outside on the front and back of my house, with cables leading to an audio mixer in my downstairs home office, so I can listen to birds even in the coldest weather. I have feeders outside to attract the birds, and I get plenty of them, even though I live in a relatively urban area near Boston. My wife, Lee, enjoys watching the birds through the window and telling me what they are up to.
Birding by ear has heightened my awareness of the seasons and environmental issues. It has given me common ground with many other birders I have met along the way, and it continues to bring me much joy.
Last summer, I told Lee what a wonderful gift my professor had given me by introducing me to birding, and she encouraged me to try to contact him. She did some research and found a retired IUP Biology professor named Ray who told me my teacher had died a few years ago. Ray introduced me to a blind birder friend of his named Joe, and the three of us have become remote birding pals. We meet monthly on Zoom for some lively conversation, much of which is about birds and our appreciation of nature. I recently introduced them to Larkwire, an iOS app which I use on my iPhone to increase my knowledge of bird sounds, and they seem to like it very much.
Larkwire can be purchased from the iOS app store, and it is also available as a web-based program from www.larkwire.com. I do not recommend the Web version for screen reader users. It is not very accessible, and the author recently told me he lacks the resources to make improvements to it at this time. However, the iOS app works extremely well with Voiceover. I use the various games on the app to test my knowledge. It is designed for beginners as well as more experienced birders. The app often reminds me that I have a lot to learn. One of my favorite games plays a sound. I then must double-tap on Know, if I think I know the bird, or Not sure. If I tap Know, it names the bird, and if I was mistaken, I must then tap on Wrong. If I was correct, I tap Okay, and it plays a new bird for me to identify.
By changing a few settings, I can tell the app what kinds of birds I want to be quizzed on. I often select warblers, because that is the grouping I have the most trouble with. I can select land birds, water birds, or a specific grouping such as sparrows. It is feature-rich but relatively easy to learn and use. I even configured it to work with Voice Control on my iPhone so I could use it while on my exercise bike, but because of the noise from the bike, I had to speak quite loudly to give commands, and one day Lee asked me why I was downstairs yelling commands like Know, Okay, Next, Wrong, and Not Sure. I soon went back to using swipes and taps. I have already learned dozens of new bird sounds with Larkwire.
For me, it really is a dream come true! You can reach me at Jerry.berrier@gmail.com.