Rockin' Robin

Hobbies. It seems like I have thousands of them. One of them I've tried to focus on is Ornithology, or the study of birds. Audubon pioneered the study and identification of birds, but, as much as I like to identify them by sight, I try to take it to the next level by identifying them by sound alone. I just have trouble remembering the songs, as I am often out on walks with my dog when I hear them. When that situation presents itself, I try to associate the song with a noise, sound or even words, so I can remember the notes of the sweet song that bird made. Often, this "listening" hobby of mine comes in handy when I can't see those little birds (approxamately 2-3 in) up in the trees. I have a birding program on my computer, that features 949 birds that reside in the U.S. and that program has filters wherein I can search for the bird I'm looking for. The really neat thing about this software, is that when you get to a certain bird's profile, among the other options,it has a program that can sing the bird's song, which is a real help to me. The filters only take away so many birds though, usually, I have to search anywhere between 60-70 species at a time, though I enjoy it. Repetition is the key for my memory loss. 86 birds is what I have on lifelist at this moment in time, thanks in part, to this program, and God, for granting me my ears.