Great tips, all. Thanks for starting the conversation, @dep. Here are a few (free) resources I’ve found useful:
To record and analyze sounds:
- RecForge II Audio Recorder, a recording app for smart phones
- Audacity, for processing sound recordings: https://www.audacityteam.org/
- RavenLite for analyzing sounds (produces waveforms and spectrograms from sound recordings): http://ravensoundsoftware.com/software/
To identify sounds:
- BirdNET (the online version): I’ve found this to work well on Chrome with recordings that are about 30 seconds long: https://birdnet.cornell.edu/
- All About Birds, a great resource for comparison once a bird has been tentatively identified: https://www.allaboutbirds.org/news/
- SINA: an easily searched site for recordings of and info on singing insects of North America: https://sina.orthsoc.org/index.htm
- California Herps, for recordings of California frogs and toads: http://californiaherps.com/frogs/frogscalls.html
Other tips: I’ve begun using a small external mic with my smartphone–this helps produce recordings with more clarity and higher volume.
In addition to producing BirdNET, Raven and All About Birds, the Cornell Lab also has sound recording tutorials: https://www.birds.cornell.edu/ccb/virtual-lab-sound-analysis-principles/
Enjoy!