Sometimes I leave my phone behind <GASP!>.
If you have not been scared away by that shocking opening line, let me expound. While you might need you phone and the Merlin Bird ID app to know which birds are singing the songs you hear, they don’t have to be with you when you hear those songs. You can leave your phone behind.
If you have an Apple Watch (and other fancy watches will probably work as well, but I didn’t test them) you can make a simple Voice Memo of the birds around you singing.
Then when you are near your phone again, the recordings should automatically transfer over (internet-connection willing) and allow you to import those chirps very easily into Merlin for identification.
Here’s how it’s done:
By the way, Merlin works on Android phones as well. So this should all be doable with an Android phone and other brands of smart watches.
Happy Birding!