By When lockdown began in March 2020, like so many other people, our family turned to our backyard for entertainment and distraction. After all, one could only watch “Tiger King” so many hours per day. Lifelong animal lovers, we’d always hung a feeder out for the local birds, many of whom were of the small variety and all of whom I’d loosely put in the sloppy mental category of “sparrows,” making no real attempt at proper identification. The longer we stared, though, the more obvious it became that there was an entire ecosystem operating right under our noses that we had failed ever to properly examine.
Since our son had been forced to evacuate his college just months shy of graduation to shelter in place with us, he shared with us his growing interest in the avian world. Poring over the pages of Sibley Birds West, I slowly came to distinguish between a song sparrow, a purple finch, and a pygmy nuthatch. At one point Tim suggested that we try to learn a new bird call each day. While we were not methodical in our approach, the general idea sounded like a good one. Again I turned to Sibley guides to sound out different calls. (“Plidi-tididi-preete-plidi-tititi-preeer. Do you guys think that last part we heard was a preeer or a preeet?”) Meanwhile Tim and Jamie debated which existing apps, websites or tools might aid in the process. Somewhere amidst this discussion, the idea for BirdWeather PUC was born. Why not have all our birding information collected in one place, like a weather station for birders?
It would take over a year before the idea bloomed into a real prototype, what with all of the life struggles that the pandemic threw at us. During that time, I was recovering from several minor injuries, so my role as a couch-based spectator of our local wildlife continued and expanded. We went from having one seed/nut feeder in the backyard to two, to three, plus two hummingbird feeders, plus a suet feeder, and a birdbath. Living in fire country as we do, we always keep a bowl of clean water out for animals displaced by wildfire and smoke. All of these were frequented by a continual parade of birds, squirrels, pocket gophers, foxes, raccoons, skunks, opossums, and more (sometimes to the chagrin of our neighbors).
Along with the entertainment factor this provided, it also gave us all food for thought. Beyond the immediate purpose of learning which bird was currently belting out its song on the back lawn, the very real threats of climate change and habitat destruction gave urgency to our desire to capture as many bird calls as possible from as many species as possible all over the world…because one by one those calls are falling silent, and at some point the recordings might be all we’ll have. I think all three of us try to be optimistic people, but there were sober reminders of this need every time we read the news or turned on the t.v.
And so the great experiment began and is still unfolding. Every time one of our users captures the song of a local bird, they bring us another piece for our ecological puzzle. This is citizen science in action, and it’s a beautiful thing.
In the weeks and months to come, we look forward to hearing some of your birding stories, seeing some of your bird snapshots, and learning where you’ve chosen to place your PUCs for best recording. (To this last end, I can tell you that at times we’ve had so many PUCs placed in different positions around our house that I could barely step out the door without tripping over one!). Whether you are a citizen scientist, a hobbiest birder, or just the neighborhood nuisance like myself, we want your input. Birdweather is all of us, and there’s never been a better time to be heard.
Please send your submissions to jenn@birdweather.com.
