Trail Notebook: a phone that hears the birds and writes your field notes, with no signal

Description and use

Trail Notebook is an offline mobile app that identifies bird songs and auto‑writes field notes using BirdNET and Gemma 3 1B, enabling trail work without network.

Problem

Field researchers need a way to identify bird species and record observations while offline on trails where network signals are unavailable.

Outcome

After a one‑time 748 MB download, the app identifies bird species in 282 ms, generates a note at 39 tokens/s, and requires no network thereafter, enabling reliable fieldwork in airplane mode.

Workflow

• 1. Enable airplane mode and hold phone near a bird call.
• 2. Tap the Listen button to record 9 seconds of audio.
• 3. BirdNET V2.4 processes the audio and displays the top species with confidence labels.
• 4. Gemma 3 1B generates a two‑line journal entry (NOTE and NEXT).
• 5. Entry is saved locally with timestamp, optional spot name, approximate location, and offline stamp.

Evidence

748 MB downloaded once. 282 ms from end of listening to species. 39 tokens/s from Gemma. Zero network after that.

Source

BirdNET V2.4 (6,522 classes) runs on the phone. You see the top species and up to two alternates, with a confidence word ('very likely', 'likely', 'possible') instead of a raw score.

Source

Gemma writes the same NOTE and NEXT, and the prompt tells it not to name a species you didn't.

Source