Bird Song and Brain Health

Great Blue Heron Hiding in the Reeds at Lake Louise

Learning new things stimulates the brain. New connections between neurons keeps our brains strong and healthy.

I exercise my brain every morning by working a puzzle in the Penny Dell Logic Puzzles that I subscribe to. Puzzle books like crosswords, Sudoku, code breakers, anagrams are also great exercise. The logic puzzles, at one time, were the most difficult puzzles for me so I made that a challenge and now I'm hooked on them. Over time, I got better and better at them. The harder ones are still challenging and I like that. I like that I am continuing to exercise my brain, because that is something necessary for brain health.

If you follow me on Instagram @peggysullivanbooks you will have seen the art that I've been learning how to do. I illustrated my books with digital paintings. But water color, alcohol ink, glass mosaic, and acrylic painting are all new and challenging techniques. I have found that doing art has made me more observant as to shapes and colors in the things I see every day. When I painted a crow from a photo in my water color group, I learned it has feathers of purple and blue as well as the black it is known for.

My newest thing is learning to recognize bird song. I have written about the health benefits of walking. Bird watching has been one aspect I've enjoyed with my walks. I have been able to identify a few birds and add them to my sightings on Audobon's app, but often I only hear the birds. Learning to identify them by sound is one way to find more birds.

My new knowledge of bird song owes its thanks to the talented artist Rachel Rothberg, who does beautiful memorial portraits of deceased birds and, as a tatoo artist, is known for their lifelike bird tatoos. I invited them to Lake Louise to lead a bird watching group and joined the group myself. We often stopped to listen to the songs of birds and for Rachel's input from their considerable knowledge of ornithology. This is where I learned about the Merlin app.

Now I can pause and start a recording on my phone and Merlin will identify the birds. I am beginning to recognize the sounds of several birds and hopefully will learn more. I know now that the birds that sing so beautifully and loudly in the morning are robins. Squawky noises are coming from the little red breasted nuthatches that enjoy my bird feeder. Occasionally I hear the distinctive call of a pileated woodpecker. Juncos trill in a way that is distinctive. That mournful cooing is coming from mourning doves. Around Lake Louise the birds that have a mournful loon like call are the red winged blackbirds. The beautiful songs along the north side are song sparrows. The soprano twittering comes from a chorus of chickadees.

I heard an unusual song while getting into my car parked at Whatcom Falls Park last week and Merlin identified it as an osprey. Sure enough, I looked up and saw the big fishing bird flying overhead.

I photographed this great blue heron this week and brought it up on Merlin and confirmed that it was indeed the beautiful bird that I usually see along the beaches on Bellingham Bay.

So a new thing I have added to my mindfulness activities is to sit on my deck and listen to and identify the birds singing in the forest that surrounds my house in the woods.