What birds (are you/have you been) watching? What birds have been watching you?

[oddoneout]

Mrs C and I have been thoroughly enjoying using the Cornell Merlin app on our phones. For those unfamiliar with it one of its tools is like a bird Shazam...you point the phone in the direction of the bird sound and up pops the bird. One great bit is if you are listening and hearing four or five or more birds calling, the app lights up the relevant bird from your list so it helps distinguish which bird is calling when. I was lying awake a couple of nights ago and counted the birds that I had heard over the previous week within a mile of the house. The total came to almost forty; from the various finches; tits; corvids; and warblers. In the process I heard birds that I had no knowledge of in the area...goldcrest, whitethroat, blackcap, willow warbler - indeed this morning I saw my first ever goldcrest just 400 yards from the house. We also heard a cuckoo but it was too far away for the app to register it. My favourite app. One of my favourite moments was hearing a call in a tree...the app put up a picture of a long-tailed tit, I looked in the tree and there on the branch was the long-tailed tit staring back at me....

You must have good eyes to see a goldcrest at 400 yds... They were regular, but fleeting, visitors at a previous house. I would hear them first and then would know to watch the yew tree beside the outhouse to see them as well. I don't know if it was the pollen that was the draw or perhaps some insect life that came at the same time, but their appearance coincided with the flowering of the yew in late February/early March. On a still day the bouncing about of the birds could be tracked from the puffs of pollen they disturbed. They didn't seem over bothered by proximity to humans - the outhouse was an extension to the kitchen of our terrace house, so they were never far from us occupants. Sometimes if I walked down the yard quietly they would fall still and silent rather than vacate the tree.

[johncorrigan]

The goldcrest was right in front of me. Oddie. I had stopped for a pee in the wee quarry, and it appeared out of the bramble bushes. Lovely wee thing. I wouldn't have known it was in the vicinity except the app identified its call.

[Pulcinella]

Bee-eaters are back in Norfolk:

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jun/15/exotic-bee-eater-returns-to-uk-for-second-summer-in-a-row

[Dave2002]

Bee-eaters are back in Norfolk:

https://www.theguardian.com/environm...ummer-in-a-row

Amazing looking birds.

There was a feature about these on Today R4 this morning, too.

I don't think we have them in the [currently] not so frozen north. The Merlin app did pick up a noisy blackbird this morning around 3-4am.

[Dave2002]

Is it possible to use the Merlin app with recordings [audio files or links], such as this:

https://soundcloud.com/user-977473438/cuckoo-scotland-v1

[gradus]

A dogfight between a Buzzard and a Crow against a clear blue sky.

[Dave2002]

A dogfight between a Buzzard and a Crow against a clear blue sky.

Which one won?

[Serial_Apologist]

I'm hearing song thrushes in full voice for the first time in several years - something must be going right for them in this area, then!

[gradus]

Which one won?

The crow succeeded in forcing the buzzard away, I suspect it was guarding a nest.

[kernelbogey]

'My' blackbird greets the dawn with full throat now at a few minutes before 0400. I think he may be half of a pair who have been around for 3-4 years, who've nested a couple of years running in the honeysuckle quite close to my back door - but withour progeny; but I haven't seen Mrs Blackbird at all this year. Mr is one of the strongest songsters I've ever heard and his favourite perch for his early song is somewhere on the roof or its launders very near my top floor bedroom window. He'll then fly off and do a stint at another point. I guess this is territorial, and sometimes he appears to be in dialogue with other blackbirds, particularly in the afternoon when he resumes singing. He is a perfect delight.

[Dave2002]

The crow succeeded in forcing the buzzard away, I suspect it was guarding a nest.

Round here we get red kites, and the crows go crazy when they come by. Much further south I'm sure I once saw a whole bunch of fast birds - swifts/swallows/house martins - not sure precisely - running rings round a buzzard or red kite.

One bird it's best not to get involved with [for other birds] is a peregrine falcon. They can take out a heron.

Re the Merlin app working with recordings - yes if a recording is played back from a computer and the phone is placed nearby, the app will recognise some - but not necessarily all - of the birds in the recording.

[agingjb]

I've used the Merlin app with Springwatch, but then Merlin believes my imitation of a tawny owl.

[Dave2002]

I've used the Merlin app with Springwatch, but then Merlin believes my imitation of a tawny owl.

I wonder how it would do with this ...

[johncorrigan]

Out the front door this morning, in five minutes, Merlin picked up Wren, Greater Whitethroat, Skylark, Yellowhammer, Carrion Crow, Blackbird, Great Spotted Woodpecker, Willow Warbler, House Sparrow, Goldfinch, Song Thrush, Jackdaw, Robin, Blue Tit, Common Snipe, Blackcap, White Wagtail, Long-tailed Tit - I only saw about half-a-dozen of them, mind you.

[HighlandDougie]

I've just downloaded the app and launched it on my iPhone. What is impressive is that other noises - the irrigation stream cascading down the side of the garden; strimmer frenzy; barking dogs - seem to be filtered out. Very impressed that it picked up swifts in the midst of the general racket of the army of house sparrows which live in and around the house.