That’s right it’s finally fall here! Just last week we had a cold front come through and we hit the low 80’s a couple of days. I even put on a long sleeve shirt! Whew, glad that didn’t last long.
This fall is a bit different for us since we found this new hobby. Bird watching has become a bit consuming as of late and especially this time of year. Why? Because in the fall the “Great Arial Migration” happens! Every year thousands of birds head south to escape the cold winter(smart animals). Many pass through Florida on the way to the Caribbean and further south and in the process we get to observe and document many new bird species for us. The species that have caught our interest right now are the many small song birds, warblers, finches and sparrows.
Which brings me to the topic of how we document our trips (of which there are many these last couple of months). The main ways that we identify, count and document species is done through Cornell Labs Merlin and Ebird applications that can run on your phone or computers. Merlin is a fantastic bird identifying application that through sounds (calls and songs) and pictures helps you identify what you are hearing and seeing out in the field. It is amazing at how well it picks out bird sounds that you may (or may not be hearing) in close proximity, even through road noise or people talking. A really great tool to have. The second is Cornell’s sister application called Ebird. This program gives you a way to document your sightings into a list that can be shared, but it also does so much more. Your information including GPS coordinates, counts of each species sighted, likeliness of that species being there and the ability to see what others have seen at that area make it our go to tool to plan our hikes, especially now that we’re looking to catch a glimpse of rare migrators in our area. As an added bonus your information submitted to Cornell gives them tons of key findings that help them quantitate how birds our doing in the wild. I highly recommend that you look into these tools if you’re interested in birding, but if you’re interested in just what’s at you feeder or in your back yard? Merlin will make this a breeze. You can check out our account at Ebird here. And enjoy not only where we have been hiking, but pictures and sounds that we documented. And before I leave this topic, two other things that make birdwatching something you should take up. The first is when you look at our account you’ll see that many of our walks are a fair amount of miles walked and some weeks we will bird 3 or 4 days, so a wonderful way to exercise. The second is an article that I stumbled across the other day on the cognitive benefits of birding which you can find here. So get out there!
Want to see my pictures of our finds so far? Head over to our Cape Coral Life page and have a look at our updated Birding 2026, Wildlife 2026, and the newly created Migration 2026 pages of which I’ll be updating through November and see what we’ve seen.
While you’re looking at seeing what we’ve been up to you can check out our Underwater Travel page and check out the Blue Heron Bridge 2026 to see some cool species that hang out in the ocean near us.
Next up? I have some new projects that I’m working on. Barb’s gardens are transitioning to our winter crop of vegetables and I have a few food ideas for you, so stay tuned!
Would you like to receive notification of new blog entrees? Head over to my “Contact us” page and leave me an email. And in case you haven’t had a chance to see the whole site, you can check that out here. I know that everyone uses a phone to surf the internet, but our site really is better in a larger format. Tim
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