The trees filled out way too early this year. It's already to the point where most of my birding is done by ear. Silver lining is that there's insects to look down at now while listening.
True! There was a time my father would get home from work and just listen to bird songs CDs. Just seeing his joy and enjoying hearing nature myself made me consider field recording too
I like birding by Merlin, go for a walk, have Merlin on in your pocket, concentrate on the looking and spotting as you walk, then when you finish you get a surprise long eared owl notification.
I'd wager 90% of birding identification activity consists of seeing/hearing the same common birds for the umpteenth time from distances too far to easily photograph. That farmer in the meme would call it "honest work." And he's probably looking at crows, too.
Definitely. I was so happy to hear a red-winged blackbird earlier this week. Couldn't get a good photo of it, but I still got home feeling happy about it somehow. As he would phrase it, "it ain't much, but it's honest work".