Things are so much easier than they were in the old days.
When I first started birding, I spent a lot of time in the car listening to bird songs on tapes I made from other tapes, or even from LP records (remember them?) What a pain that was - putting the needle down on the track I wanted, then clicking the record button on the tape deck on and off to capture only the tracks I wanted.
Download bird song CDs to your computer to create custom playlists.
That’s all changed now, of course, with the digital options available through computers and iPods. Since it is extremely easy to load bird song CDs onto digital media and then either create specific playlists or burn CDs, there’s no excuse not to, and it will definitely make learning bird songs easier. Here are some ideas for capitalizing on digital technology:
1. You don’t have to wait through bird songs you already know. Say, for example, you’ve been working on your sparrow songs. You’ve heard white-throated sparrow a million times, and know it inside and out - well, delete it from your playlist or don’t record it on the CD, so you can concentrate on the songs you are weak on. In fact, why not burn a CD only of the songs you don’t know inside and out?
2. You’re planning a trip and want to “get your ear in for it.” I routinely burn CDS specific to new destinations. For example, I’m off to Texas in a couple weeks, and I certainly don’t get to hear things like Olive Sparrows and Clay-colored Robins much in Cape May. So, I’ve burned a CD of the songs I haven’t heard in a while. I find that this has a fringe benefit in that it gets me more focused on what the possibilities of an area are - the process of selecting tracks for the CD forces me to review annotated lists and range maps closely. Once the CD is made, listening to it has me primed for the possibilities when I get there.
3. Certain birds have similar songs - often species that don’t follow each other in the field guide or on a CD that plays in checklist order. No problem - you can select the order in which you hear the tracks, so similar songs follow one behind the other. Have trouble with Black-and-white Warbler vs. Bay-breasted Warbler vs. Cape May Warbler? You should, since all three have high, sibilant songs. String them together on a CD, and listen to them in sequence to sharpen your understanding of the differences in their songs.