Using Your Cell Phone to View BirdWeather Stations

Year 13

I have always taken the position that one should only use a PC (laptop or workstation) to view and listen to Bird Song ID’s Results displayed via App.BirdWeather.Com. When using a computer while the website loads, one just navigates to the desired station and clicks upon items with a mouse … no fuss, very little delay, no account necessary.

I was personally always frustrated that the use of a mobile device / cell phone did not seem to work for viewing BirdWeather stations … including all of the BirdNET-Pi stations which I have built and deployed. This frustration bubbled over once more with my work for the new Hawk Ridge BirdNET-Pi station (see my post). With a gentle nudge from the Hawk Ridge Research Director (thanks Emily!), I tried again to solve the “cell phone viewing problem”. Jackpot! The process is convoluted but it works. Review these annotated screenshots which demonstrate how to view the birdsong ID results (and if desired … listen) using your phone.

While one may use the entire map of the world via App.BirdWeather.Com to find a specific station, here are my favorite Northeast Minnesota BirdNET-Pi birdsong listening stations. Assuming you are on a phone, press on any station link (perhaps bookmark the station), and then follow the documented process.

Northeast Minnesota BirdNET-Pi Listening Stations (screenshots immediately follow)

  • Amity Creek & Gardens – 800 yards upstream from Lake Superior … Boreal Forest at the edge of an urban area … one mile below Hawk Ridge (Private Land)
  • Boulder Lake Environmental Learning Center – Boreal Forest lakefront habitat with nearby ponds and wetlands within listening range of the device (a bit north of Duluth). Web Site.
  • Chik-Wauk Nature Center – Boreal Forest lakefront habitat with nearby ponds and wetlands within listening range of the device (at the end of Gunflint Trail extremely near to the Canadian border … inland from Grand Marais, Minnesota). Web Site.
  • French River Lutheran Church – French River is located on Ryan Road just inland from the big lake and about one mile up the shore and Scenic 61 from McQuade Harbor. The church’s property abuts French River (hiking trails from parking lot to river. The habitat is Boreal pine and cedar forest. The church even maintains public bird feeders every winter … just watch out for pre-school children!
  • Hawk Ridge Research Station – Running off the grid … still in test mode. Hawk Ridge stands almost 700 feet above Lake Superior at the Duluth end of the lake. Birds while migrating south run smack dab into the largest freshwater lake in the world. Birds then decide they do not wish to fly out over such a large body of water, and thus fly down the shoreline to either Whitefish Point at the eastern end or Hawk Ridge at the western end of Lake Superior. (restricted access … bird at the viewing area)
  • Mouth of the Sucker River – Boreal Forest at the mouth of the Sucker River about 1/2 way between Duluth and Two Harbors (Private Land)
  • Northstar Lake – Boreal Forest on a deep spring-filled lake 30 miles north of Grand Rapids. The lake is the most southern lake of the Hudson Bay Watershed (Private Land)
  • Sax-Zim Bog on Kelsey Whiteface Road – Boreal Forest very near the Whiteface River about 1 mile south of Arkola Road and in a few hundred yards from Highway 7 and Kelsey-Whiteface Roads (Private Land)
  • Sax-Zim Bog on Owl Avenue (Welcome Center) – The Friends of Sax-Zim Bog Welcome Center is located on Boreal forest bog habitat. Web Site.

Now that you have the direct link to my favorite birdsong listening stations, here are the screenshots … annotated with explanations.

  1. Browse to your desired birdsong station. This example uses the Hawk Ridge BirdNET-Pi.
  2. You will know you have reached your desired station if similar information loads in the indicated box (lower left red rectangle)
  3. Press once upon the “layered cube icon” in the “upper right red rectangle“
  4. Please note for ALL of these screenshots, the information in RED are my annotations. You will NOT see this information on your own screen.

  1. Assuming you pressed once as indicated above, this screen will load.
  2. Press once on the icon shown in the “red rectangle”

  1. A screen similar to the one shown here should load.
  2. Bird information will vary as each station ID’s different birds per time period
  3. Press once anywhere EXCEPT within the “red rectangle”, but in the region including the list of birds. This will remove the information box and allow you to view & scroll ONLY the bird list.

  1. Here is the resulting bird list WITHOUT the informational box. If you do NOT want to listen to actual birdsong calls recorded by the station in question, just scroll up and down … review the bird list and number of occurrences. You are done at this point.
  2. However, if you want to listen to birdcalls, press firmly ONCE and ONLY ONCE on any given bird species.
  3. For this example, I pressed upon the American Goldfinch

  1. This is the screen where I am pressing upon the “American Goldfinch”. Have patience. This is a large database and it may take a while for specific birdcall information to load.

  1. A new screen loads with information that pertains ONLY to the American Goldfinch and is specific to the Hawk Ridge Research Station BirdNET-Pi.  You have three options.
    • The screen defaults to the 24 hour distribution of American Goldfinch
    • The second option allows you to access the unique birdcalls
    • The third and final option links to information about the bird via Wikipedia

  1. For my final part of this demonstration, I selected (pressed firmly once and have patience) the birdcall options.
  2. Use the “Play” button to listen to a unique call. Use the “forward” and backward” arrows to access more Goldfinch calls from this 24 hour period. The number of calls will equal the number of birdcall ID’s. The service can be slow to load each instance. I find reviewing information in the very early morning (6:00 am Central Time) to be much faster.  The database / service can slow down as more of the United States wakes up.

End of Post. Remember, you may use this method via a phone for any BirdWeather station located throughout the world!

Greenwood Forest Fire Region Birding Bonanza! Crossbills!

Year 13

The Greenwood Forest Fire burned a large area in northern Minnesota, including some of the Nature Conservancy’s Sand Lake / 7 Beavers Wilderness Preserve. While the fires are tragic, they also help rejuvenate the forest. The first started almost exactly five years ago (read story from MPR) However the land  and wildlife recovers. Two of the last three mornings I have been privileged to hang out with hundreds and hundreds of Red Crossbills. This rarely seen Boreal Forest bird was gorging themselves on the seeds of burned out pines. Pine Siskins were getting sloppy seconds (they are not able to break the cones open like the crossbills).

See all the Red Crossbills was extra special for me. As a youngster growing up in Duluth Red Crossbills would visit our bird feeders in droves each winter. Now 60 years later I don’t often get to see these birds.

I hope you enjoy my time with the Red Crossbills! (plus Pine Siskins). Observe their unique hooked beak which allows them to break open pines cones. The location was the Sand River wayside (a small gravel pullout) on Lake County #2 / Forest Road #15.

Gritting Up

Logging Truck!

Gritting Up Once More!

Crossbills the Movie (video link for email subscribers)

Hawk Ridge Bird Song Listening Station (BirdNET-Pi Off the Grid)

Year 13,

Hawk Ridge is one of the best Autumn bird migration spots in North America. The ridge stands almost 700 feet above Lake Superior at the Duluth end of the lake. Boreal Forest, Tundra and Arctic birds while migrating south run smack dab into the largest freshwater lake in the world. Birds decide they do not wish to fly out over such a large body of water, and thus they work their way down the shoreline to either Whitefish Point at the eastern end or Hawk Ridge at the western end of Lake Superior. Lake Superior has over 1,800 miles of shoreline not including islands.

This preamble points out that in the fall (and spring), we see a lot of cool birds at the Head of the Lakes. However, even with great counters working at Hawk Ridge, one can only see and count so many birds. Thus, I thought … Hawk Ridge would be a FANTASTIC location for a Birdnet-Pi birdsong listening station. There were big problems preventing the installation of a BirdNET-Pi station at Hawk Ridge … no power or internet, and extreme weather and an access road which is closed through the winter.

I contacted Hawk Ridge and told them I would be willing to both donate the funds required for such a station, and use my knowledge in an attempt to build a BirdNET-Pi which would live off the grid … year round. Remember, the road to Hawk Ridge is closed with many feet of unplowed snow every winter. Hiking in frequently during the winter to service a Birdnet-Pi is a bad idea.

Over the past six weeks I have been working upon a Birdnet-Pi station located at my house but running off the grid. This allowed me test various modes and equipment, but still have easy access. Anyhow, a BirdNET-Pi is now running at the Hawk Ridge Research Station. While the Pi is still being optimized on location, and may experience outages, you may browse via BirdWeather and learn what birds are singing on the ridge! In the near future the Hawk Ridge organization will announce the station being officially live, but via 365DaysOfBirds you get early access. Like many technical endeavors, it is always nice to have early users!

Now the technical side of building a BirdNET-Pi which runs off the grid. I welcome questions either via the comments or privately in terms of building a system which runs off the grid. As always none of the Amazon links are sponsored, and I do NOT earn anything should you use the Amazon referrals.

BirdNET-Pi (learn how to build a Pi birdsong station)

  • Bookworm
  • Real Time Chip
  • Wifi turned off (saves power)
  • Bluetooth turned off (saves power)
  • Set operation time via Raspberry Pi Crontab schedule
  • Connect via ethernet
  • Running Raspberry Pi Connect (remote access software)

Anker Solix C1000 Power Station (Amazon Link)

  • Anker Solix PS 200 watt solar panels
    • Purchased in combination with power station
    • Got deal on Amazon Prime Day
    • Cost was about $660 (power station plus solar arrays)

Teltonika RUT241 Industrial Router / Cellular Modem (Amazon Link)

  • Sim Data Card and Plan
      • Purchased via EIOTCLUB
      • One needs to purchase a “data only” plan for a WiFi hotspot
      • Still learning how much data is needed
        • Expectation … more in the spring nesting season
        • Less at other times of the year
        • Data purchased affects cost
        • Initial purchase was 15GB for one month
        • Usage for first month appears will be 5 GB (July)
  • Optimized for -40F
  • Wfi turned off (saves power)
  • Connect to Pi via ethernet
  • Cost was about $180

One learning which significantly helped me was the use of Google Gemini. It was very worthwhile to ask many questions of Gemini even if I thought I knew the answer. Often I would be presented with information which was extremely helpful, and I had not considered. For instance, even though I had found a good low power router / cellular modem, Google asked me if I had considered my winter operational conditions including temperatures down to minus 40F (not unheard of in northern Minnesota). My answer was “nope” and Gemini directed me to some routers that were of industrial strength, could handle our cold, but still had low power footprints. Thus, assume that even when you think you understand everything, there is still always more to learn.

Learnings which occurred while this post was in the “edit/design” mode”

Expect the unexpected, or in this case learn to swear at mice! My first installation had microphone cord running along the ground which our local rodents felt was worth a good chew. It took some time before I figured out the problem (remember the station is remote from my house). The microphone cable break was well hidden. I even disconnected the Pi unit and brought it home for testing where the birdsong station worked perfectly … with a microphone already at my house.

I then took the time to set up my phone as a WiFi Hotspot, which allows me now to run full tests while at the Hawk Ridge Research Station. This is how I discovered the Pi was not working at Hawk Ridge, and I figured it had to be the microphone. Thankfully, I had brough a new microphone which brought the Pi back online. I then conducted a painstaking review of the microphone cable lead and found the break deep in the grass next to the bird blind. Uff Dah!

Hawk Ridge Research Station Images … Pi Testing in Process

Pi Guy Rich!

Cellular Modem – Router / BirdNET-Pi / Power Station

Solar Arrays (optimizing as we learn shade footprints)

New Mouse Proof Microphone Cable!

In closing … see what birds are singing at Hawk Ridge