Date: 6/13/26 3:11 pm
From: Nathan Pieplow <npieplow...>
Subject: [cobirds] How to record audio in windy conditions
Hi everybody,

In recent days I've seen several examples of a classic Colorado birding
problem: people try to record audio of a bird, but there's simply too much
wind, and the recording ends up being unusable, or nearly so.

If you find yourself in this situation, I recommend that you start up
Merlin and then *put your phone in your pocket.* The fabric then acts as a
makeshift windscreen. It usually doesn't dramatically affect the levels
from the bird sound, but it can greatly cut down on wind noise.

In a few weeks, we will all have the ability to send recordings from Merlin
directly to eBird on our phones. This will also come with the ability to
trim recordings in Merlin. If you do the phone-in-the-pocket trick, it will
be important to trim away the not-in-pocket parts of the recording to
ensure the best levels on the resulting online audio.

While I'm at it, I'll exhort everyone to please *keep your recorder running*
longer than you might be tempted to. I've been asked to identify a bunch of
ten-second and twenty-second recordings of Warbling Vireos recently, and
it's not always possible. *The longer your recordings, the better,*
especially for things like Warbling Vireos or any kind of rarity. Longer
recordings are easier to ID and can be used in a wider variety of
scientific research.

Thanks, and good birding!

Nathan Pieplow
Boulder

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