by Seth Benz
As the name suggests, “birdwatching” is heavily slanted toward the visual; less so, toward the auditory.
We want to change that.
We envision a future that gives visitors the opportunity to learn more about Acadia National Park’s bird life through “earbirding.” In fact, a handful of volunteer researchers have already been contributing to such a future. The idea to build a bird vocalization library for Acadia National Park started as a conversation with Laura Sebastianelli, a professional wildlife tracker and trained sound recordist. For the last three years, she has spent the month of June at Schoodic verifying breeding birds such as the Common Nighthawk and Northern Saw-whet Owl. Her recording work, along with work by several other recordists, have given this project a solid beginning. To learn more about this ongoing effort, visit Laura’s “Schoodic Notes” website as an invitation to follow (and engage in) this new and exciting exploration.