Digital Tools
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Some herons employ tools — like twigs, berries and insects— as bait for fishing.
eBird
One of the tools we used in our bird walks was eBird. This app allowed us to keep track of our findings during our walks. eBird is a science project developed by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology that allows birders to gather data in the form of checklists of birds likely to be seen in the area and then share it to the data base for further scientific research of the institute and its collaborators.
Merlin
When we could not be sure what species of bird we had encountered, we used Merlin. This app, also developed by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, helps birders identify their findings by scanning pictures and sounds. The app also shows information about different species and displays which kind of birds are likely to be seen near the users' location. Merlin sounds ID turns field recordings into spectrograms which visualise the sounds of the bird, helping the birder to distinguish each species calls and songs.
What 3 Words
Google maps was the digital tool we would use the most for setting the meeting point of our bird walks. However, when finding nests to particular species we would use What 3 Words which is much user to share locations that are not easy to find in other location services. During the fieldwork, we spotted and shared the location of nests of a Barn Owl and some Kingfishers with this app.