A cute meme that floated around Facebook last year had a variation that said once you hit 50, you get sorted into one of four houses: 1. Strength training and protein. 2. Plants or birds. 3. Sourdough. 4. Pickleball.

I saw myself clearly in the first house, with a nice solid lecture on Icelandic skyr, cottage cheese, grilled fish and peanut butter. Um, not together, though. Although I love a good sourdough, it’s too labor intensive and I’m afraid to cook or bake anything I could kill. I didn’t have any particular feelings about the rest of the houses.

Until Merlin.

Merlin is a free bird ID app for your smartphone. It was designed by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and it’s the coolest thing ever. Hear me out. When you launch the app, it gives you a bird of the day. While you’re sitting in your yard or walking or doing anything, you open it up and it listens for bird sounds. It then identifies the bird and tells you a little about it, including showing a picture. You follow up by telling the app where you were when you heard it and save it to your lifetime list if you like. If you find the bird of the day in real life, there’s a big party.

It’s great for research too, because you can click on each bird to hear an example of its song and the regions it covers. It will even tell you which birds you’ve heard that are rare (in my case, Chimney Swift, Eastern Wood-pewee) and uncommon (Black-capped Chickadee).

Last summer, I became obsessed with it. Just in my neighborhood, I identified 22 species of birds and learned the ones I THOUGHT I heard singing (probably Robins) were in fact usually Carolina Chickadees. I took the app on every walk and got perturbed once the cicadas and crickets started to drown out the birds in the evenings. As I write, the spring birds have just returned and I’m excited to start another summer of tracking them, including when we go on vacation in South Carolina.

So yes, I guess I am of two houses.

Now that I have focused my bird brain, it’s a good time to tell you to check out Merle Jantz’s story on how and why Mt. Lebanon is now a Bird Town. What does that mean? Read all about it on page 28, along with a guide to the types of birds you’re likely to see here. Load up Merlin and let me know who YOU find!

By the way, all you folks now solidly in the Pickleball house? The pickleball courts are now open at the Mt. Lebanon Racket Center. You’re welcome!