Experiencing nature differently - birding with a cochlear implant with Sarah Playforth

Emma Chaplin
, 02 May 2026
Experiencing nature differently - birding with a cochlear implant with Sarah Playforth
Sarah Playforth at Seaford Head in 2023 with Zen her Hearing Dog

Merlin (with a cochlear implant)

Sarah Playforth has a cochlear implant and gave Merlin a go at our suggestion a few years ago, when she had her Hearing Dog, Zen. She was kind enough to tell us what she thought. She's also provided us with a recent update at the end:

2023

"I walk from my home and back to Seaford Head most days. As a child I walked those same paths with my first dog, Sam, and the area is as familiar to me as my own home. I’m profoundly deaf, so my enjoyment of walks is largely through my senses of sight, touch and smell, not hearing, but wearing a cochlear implant I can sometimes hear, but rarely identify, bird song.

Merlin is so easy to use, but at first I waited until I thought I could hear birdsong before switching it on and was not successful. I then tried a different tactic. Instead of waiting until I ‘thought’ I heard birdsong I stopped a few times on my usual walk route, opened Merlin and was rewarded with the sounds of a Linnet, a Magpie and a Chaffinch. I played the recordings back at home so I could actually hear them. 

On holiday near Battle, I got Magpie again and Great Tit. Near my home - unsurprisingly, given my home is near the sea and we have bird feeders outside our window - the app picked up a Yellow-legged Gull and House Sparrow. 

Chiffchaff © Dave Kilbey

My best day was during our usual ‘pit stop’ for ball throwing, a titbit and water. Sitting quietly on ‘our bench’, Merlin, in the space of a minute, rewarded our silence with the sounds of Green Woodpecker, Chiffchaff, Wood Pigeon, Collared Dove, Robin, Great Tit and Jackdaw. I did hear the Woodpecker, but without Merlin, would have thought it was a dog barking. 

It’s a treat to identify more than Crows, Gulls and Pigeons, both of which spend a lot of time in our garden and have cries loud enough for me to hear. Now my walks are not complete without my phone sufficiently charged for a Merlin stop."

April 2026 update

"Merlin is still in use on all my walks, long or short, urban or rural. During our last holiday with Zen in the New Forest, before returned him to Hearing Dogs to support another deaf person, I added Hawfinch, Chiffchaff, Bullfinch, Greenfinch, Woodpecker, Wood Warbler, Brambling and Siskin. 

At Tidemills last week, Sedge Warbler and Skylark were also added to my list of ‘heard birds’. I’m also beginning to identify the sounds of the songs of Robin, Blue Tit, Wren and Blackbird by using Merlin.”

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