Absolutely no sponsoring or commercial involved here, but Mom recently introduced me to the free, updated Merlin Bird App from Cornell’s Ornithology Lab, and it’s pretty amazing. I see a lot of birds in my travels, including Sandhill Cranes just recently, but the app takes it to the next level. I went on a couple short hikes in a park last weekend, and I counted a half dozen birds or so. But the app identified over a dozen by their birdsongs alone, including separating several types of sparrows, differentiating three different yellow birds, identifying an uncommon Willow Flycatcher and even recording a rare Indigo Bunting. Mom says that now I need to go back and visit the first 300 parks again, because I probably missed half the birds I heard. That’s not going to happen, but here are some bird photos from my travels for you to enjoy.