Apps and more

Ion dives into the world of apps and learning about wildlife...

We’ve all been there. You’re out on a walk and you see or hear something you can’t identify.

For many people today, the first reaction is to turn to their phone. Popular apps, such as Merlin, Obsidentify or Google Lens can be used to, hopefully, identify a mystery species of flora and fauna you’ve spotted. And there is absolutely nothing wrong with this; the more people that are out noticing wildlife, the better. We should just be aware that the technology has its pros and cons.

The natural world is extremely varied and many species look or sound so very similar that there is plenty of room for error, especially when using a single blurry photo or a sound recording that’s not backed up by visual confirmation. Merlin, for instance, is not usually wrong in early spring, when birds are in full song, but it can struggle with contact calls at other times of the year as many of these are so similar.

Another popular option is to post a photo onto a social media group where most group members are usually willing to offer up an identification.

I don’t mean to put anyone off using such resources, I use them myself and do find them useful. But allow me to offer a complementary, more traditional, way of learning that goes way beyond simply identifying the one thing that has caught your eye; one that will open a whole new world to you.

The Observer's book of birds is opened on a double page spread and features yellowhammer and corn bunting

When I was learning to identify the birdlife seen during walks across nearby farmland and along country lanes, I relied on published guides to help me (the Observer’s book of birds being my first). Gradually, as my interest increased and my thirst for knowledge grew, more in-depth guides occupied my bookshelves.

I remember pouring over the pages of my books for hours on end, cementing the image of many bird species in my head before I'd seen many of them in the wild. I even bought, and doesn’t this age me, a set of cassette tapes of the songs of garden birds and British warblers, so that I might have some fore knowledge of what I was hearing when out and about.

Even today, with all the apps and social media help available, and their capacity for being updated swiftly, I am still firmly convinced of the important place a collection of field guides has on our bookshelves. They just provide you with a (hopefully correct) identification. In my opinion, taking the time to learn about and compare species by thumbing through pages full of illustrations before hitting the great outdoors is valuable homework that furnishes you with information about habitat, breeding, lifecycle and so much more.

the front cover of 'Britain's Dragonflies' book - a field guide to the damselflies and dragonflies of Great Britain and Ireland by Dave Smallshire and Andy Swash. It features a photo of a red dragonfly with its wings folded forwards

Allow me to finish with an appropriate example. In 2021 I became interested in, or more precisely started noticing, dragonflies. My first inclination was to buy a field guide to British dragonflies so I could study their distinguishing features and when and where I should be able to spot them. Because of this research, and before I’d even seen one in the wild, I knew that when I finally saw a large dragonfly flying about that looks like it has brown wings, I’d be able to identify it as a brown hawker at first sight. And that is exactly what happened one day a couple of years ago in Tiddesley Wood.

Of course, I wanted a closer look, so I waited for it to settle, which, if anyone knows brown hawker, they never do when you want them to, and it was then that I had the opportunity to see in life what I had spent so long looking at in my field guide.

If you're part of a community team who are keen to improve your space for wildlife and then learn what's taking up residence, this can be a great way of learning together. From taking an app's identification to the next level, perhaps you'll each become more knowledgeable about different groups of wildlife and share your newly learnt fun facts with everyone else.