2019 Macaulay Library Sound Recording Workshop

When you appreciate birds in the wild you quickly realize the infinite variety of facets they have. Taking notes or photos simply becomes insufficient and, at least for me, it became evident that I should record their songs and calls. So, shyly, I started recording bird sounds with my smartphone, nothing more. Definitely not the best, and thanks to some online tutorials I improved my technique a bit ... it was when I started uploading many of my audios to eBird.  Well, someone was paying attention to this.  By the end of 2018, I received an email from Matthew Medler, who is the Collection Manager Leader of the Macauly Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, inviting me to this year Sound Recording Workshop... I was surprised!

Matt showing us interesting equipment at the museum of the Macaulay Library

YES!  Ready to go!

The complexity of bird sounds is so wide that it certainly surpasses other aspects of their lives.  With the large variety of songs, sub songs, calls, contact calls, flight calls and non-vocal sounds (used in some displays and other situations), now I think it is absurd to annotate "Heard only" in my eBird checklists (in fact, it make more sense to annotate "Seen only" if you see a silent bird).  The Macaulay Library collect and preserve recordings of each species' behavior and natural history, and make it available for research, educational and commercial purposes... so I guess there is no better institution to teach you about how to record natural sounds.

Thanks God the parabolas are way lighter now!

Cornell University and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology hosted the workshop.  One by one, each of the participants arrived at the Robert Purcell Community Center, at the North Campus.  Matt gave us an introductory lecture and assigned the equipment, while we started to know each other.  What a terrific group!  Locals and foreigners (from ten different countries) with different interests and expertise, but all passionate about birds and wildlife in general, under the guidance of world-top, renowned instructors, specialist in their fields and experts birders.  I was happy to meet with old friends (like Roselvy) and finally meet people who had only contacted by email at some point during their birding trips through my country (like Kathi, who was one of the instructors).  Staying at the dorms of the North Campus, attending the lectures and having meals at the community center with your personalized card made us feel the academic environment of one of the most renowned institution in the US.

This is how a 4:20 am breakfast looks like

The workshop was planned in detail.  Everyday we started early with breakfast at 4:20 am in order to be on route to our recording sites no latter than 5:15 am.  We changed sites (and thus habitats and sound recording conditions) every day.  The fieldwork consisted of dividing us into small teams (usually of two or three), each with an instructor who showed us the best sound recording techniques, helped us with the settings of the equipments, bird ID and kept us on schedule ... really a personalized attention.

With Daniel Souza (from Mexico), all geared up! Morgan Rd. marshes.

Then we would go back to the community center for lunch. In the afternoon we attended the talks and spent time editing our recordings; but we also attend the Cornell Lab of Ornithology where we carry out various activities... these visits were certainly a personal highlight of the workshop.   Of course we had plenty of spare time to birdwatch and socialize... even one afternoon was scheduled to twitch local rarities and special birds around the Finger Lakes area!

These birders know how to have fun! With Orlando, Rafael and Daniela

And the results?  Well, more than 800 recordings uploaded to eBird by the participants of the workshop during the week, with notable improvement of its quality throughout the days!  I uploaded 69 recordings and had 17 lifers!  But most important, I got new friends from all over the world that share my passion and that work hard to make this world a better one for birds and, why not, for us too!

Some of our instructors: Andrew Spencer, Matthew Medler and Jay McGowan

And what about the lifers?  Well, I documented 13 of my 17 lifers with sound or photo.  The warblers and wrens offered the best sound recordings experiences, while waterfowls were nice highlights, specially those northern breeders that stayed a little bit more due to different circumstances, like Redhead, Canvasback and Snow Goose.  An all-white goose may be boring... but hey!, ANY bird with "Snow" on its name is a highlight for this sun-lover Panamanian!

Adult male Redhead

Adult male Canvasback

Snow Geese

The avian lifers were not the only ones!  We saw plenty of wild mammals running freely at the campus, like White-tailed Deer, Eastern Gray Squirrel and Eastern Cottontail, plus several new  species for most of the foreign members of the group, like extremely-cute Eastern Chipmunks, Woodchucks, Striped Skunk, Muskrat, American Beaver and even an adult Black Bear at the Arnot Forest that allowed GREAT views (video recorded by Arthur Gomes, one of the participants from Brazil)!

Woodchucks

American Beaver... somewhat reminiscent of our Capybaras

I want to thank all the personnel of the Macaulay Library and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology for the great experience... we felt at home.  And all my companions and instructors at the workshop for the great moments.  The question now is... do I get a shotgun microphone or a parabola?  Whatever I decide, prepare to see me recording birds in every corner of Panama soon!