Merlin App Appreciation plus General Birding Chat

[DiggoryVenn]

A thread for all lovers of the Merlin app (app that allows you to identify birds by their sound). A place to share what you have spotted, ask questions and any other bird chat.

Caveat: I am pretty much a novice birdwatcher myself.

Mine for today: not sure about the Cetti's warbler but I could positively identify the rest.

Lol.

It's been a noisy afternoon here:

No pop stars here this evening, but my lovely cuckoo has been back while I was watering my pots which made me very happy. Missing Springwatch already.

On holiday in the Yorkshire Dales and curlews are surrounding our really remote accommodation. Really lovely to hear.

DS14 introduced me to Merlin, use it every day now. I had this yesterday but I'm dubious.

What time was it? I have a long eared owl here, but I notice yours said (American) this is what mine shows up like, and it's usually after dusk along with his friend the barn owl.

Rainbow yes, it was after dusk! Ooh, maybe it's true, how exciting!

i got up from work filled up the bird feeder with fat balls, sprinkled meal worms, refreshed the water
what a racket, all the sparrows, feeding their babies.
black birds came too,
all birds drinking the water
so rewarding

Eleanor I feel like that. I love watching all the birds feeding. Also, especially when they then go splashing in the birdbath.

So joyful.

Oh I really hope you both did capture long-eared owls. I did once catch a tawny owl but was only alerted because someone else said that's what it was. There were two that were calling to each other.

We have a tawny owl living in the woods opposite us. He’s a noisy thing and sometimes wakes me up.

I have only once seen a Little Owl. Just perched on top of a road sign. That was amazing.

The last two mornings I’ve seen our local heron friend on my dog walk and my son was super excited to spot an oystercatcher and curlew on school run.

My sister - inner city Birmingham - had a Tawney Owl and bats in her garden yesterday evening. I'm jealous.

.

I've only recently discovered this app and am living it. I was in holiday in Majorca last week and was thinking it sounded just like being at home. Used the app to see if I was right, and apparently I was - except the background noise I thought was someone's alarm turned out to be a hoopoe 😁 Wish I could have found it!

I found that too when I went on holiday to the south of Italy a few weeks ago @Seeline. I was expecting the birds to be very different to the ones I get at home. Some definitely were (hello flamingos 🦩), but there were also a lot of familiar faces.

I did notice differences in behaviour. Swifts flying so low they almost hit you in the face and house martins flying even lower, skimming the roads for insects. I kept thinking we were going to hit them, but they’d fly under our car and somehow emerge unscathed.

article today
How to become a birder: 10 easy ways to start this life-changing hobby | Birdwatching | The Guardian

I definitely would have been more excited to see a bull finch than a pop star, maybe that is my time of life 😆. Have heard one a couple of times (on app) but never seen it, though I did finally see a nut hatch go up and down recently which was exciting.

I’ve only seen barn owls I think, and heard a little owl, but would love to see a long eared.

That article is hilarious. Didn’t really occur to me that there would be tiers of ‘birders’ and that some would be snooty. I’ve never really spoken to anyone else, well apart from largely disinterested dog walkers. If I emerge from a bush with twigs in my hair and phone in my hand, I might say ‘ look, a treecreeper’ as some sort of explanation for my appearance, and they may politely ‘look’ but most couldn’t care less haha.

Merlin had a brain fart yesterday. It told me I had a little egret in my willow tree.

they do roost in trees, presumably you’re sure it wasn’t one?
I once saw a moorhen in a neighbours tree. Never seen one in the neighbourhood before or since, and never in a tree.

It was a pigeon, a carrion crow and the neighbours’ builders all making noise at the same time.

It once thought another neighbour’s baby was an Egyptian Goose.

It obstinately refuses to acknowledge the chickens.

I’m pretty sure that if I’d had Merlin when DD was a newborn it would have decided I’d birthed a gull of some sort

I love the Merlin app. I’ve got a jackdaw nest in a tree so lots of squawking and the other day saw a wren right at the top of the next tree along. The wren was so loud considering its size - lovely little thing!

@grapefruitnights I’ve unfortunately seen a fair bit of snooty-ness in the birding world.

I didn’t really notice it until I upgraded to a pair of “aspirational” binoculars a few years ago.
Until that point, serious birders would at best ignore me and at worst give me a “what are YOU doing here” look. I thought they were just being shy/ socially awkward and didn’t think much of it.

But now, with my upgraded binoculars, it’s like I’m dealing with completely different people. They’ll go out of their way to welcome me into the hides. There’s warm smiles while they make space for me and strike up conversations…it’s mad!

It’s as if I bought my way into a club that wouldn’t normally accept me (not a man, not old enough). To be honest, I’m not interested in being part of that club. I much rather talk to beginners who get excited about seeing a blue tit close up, because I still get excited about that too! I hope I’ll never lose that appreciation & enthusiasm for “the everyday” ☺️

Ah I love Merlin, only got it this year! I've been pleased to get swifts across my garden. I went to Skomer island recently and wanted to record puffins, but they were actually really quiet and then I was using my phone for photos! So here's a puffin shot instead...

DH suggested a birding group holiday. No way. It would be full of people like my brother who will travel hundreds of miles spend hours looking for a rare warbler and be dead stuffy about ordinary birds while he sat there getting annoyed and frustrated that the lesser spotted watchamacallit was playing hard to get. I love watching the behaviours of whatever is around and can watch sparrows feeding fledglings for ages.

Lovely thread! I must download the Merlin app. I've had 3 pairs of swallow nest in 3 stables this year. It was so funny watching 5 chicks still trying to squeeze into the nest as they got bigger. Last year the Greater spotted woodpecker bought their young, but I've not seen any fledglings yet.