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.

Greenfinch numbers crashed due to a disease in the last 2 decades, but they’ve started to recover - I started getting them back in the last year or two and now get them fairly often. Though according to this graph I’ve just found on the BTO they’re still way down - I guess there’s local variation.

https://data.bto.org/trends_explorer/?species=Greenfinch

I've got all my recordings too, but my phone recently told me that Merlin is taking up a lot of memory.

i have to keep deleting as there is not much room on my phone for anything else!

Hm. I have plenty of storage on my phone and haven't knowingly deleted any recordings. It's just got the last six weeks. I went down a google rabbit hole (bird hole?) and found some very serious birders on Reddit complaining about "too many non birders" using Merlin😂

Those “serious birders” clearly need to get over themselves @OurMavis!

Merlin is such a fantastic way to get people interested in the world around them and it’s brilliant that the entry point is so low. That’s how nature should be (in my opinion) - accessible to all and appreciated everywhere, not just in special nature reserves with specialist & expensive tools.

i have been using merlin for over a year so perhaps that is why my phone is so full

I delete the recordings etc after I've noted things down in my nature journal.

I got a pied flycatcher today. I didn't see it but I heard the call a few times and every time Merlin reacted so I'm pretty sure it's correct. I'm right at the edge of an area where they are summer visitors according to the RSPB. So excited.

i got a spotted flycatcher and a long tailed tit

on my app.
again, same as the other week, i absolutely saw and heard the ravens but annoying the app didnt pick it up!
i am going to have to walk closer to them next time

Very quiet here this afternoon

After a stressful day yesterday I took ages to get to sleep but on the plus side I heard a tawny owl and a barn owl.

Not so many birds around me today, but was woken up by a wren singing away, and just sat out now listening to a goldfinch on crack! Beautiful.

I just heard a song thrush!
Thrushes used to visit our garden all the time. I used to watch them bashing snails but I haven't seen one for years. I didn't recognise the sound but it was very loud.

I had my first nuthatch today since downloading the app three weeks ago. I could tell which tree it must be in but I couldn't see it. Just so pleased to know it's there.
dd is in Italy and is hoping for a hoopoe.

what a lovely thread! Me and my 11 year old DD are very into Merlin and our bird walks, DD is obsessed with birds to put it mildly and we spend most evenings and weekends birding. Tonight’s highlights were a long tailed tit, a Jay and a tree creeper

Greenfinch, dunnock and two blackcaps apparently interacting. Plus the usual incredibly loud wren!

First nuthatch today for us too

Apologies if I am repeating a message but can I please urge you to put shallow bowls of water in your gardens (unless you have cats) for the poor birds and hedgehogs suffering in this miserable heat.
I have all sorts coming to drink including spotted and green woodpeckers. Even our resident swallows are using a tray of water on the drive near their nests in our eaves because the stream has dried up. Thank you.

i do put water out at home but am considering doing it at my office where there is a sparrow's nest

I put some water out yesterday when I realised that the pond a few hundred yards away had completely dried up.

I love the Merlin app as it has let me learn how to recognise a whole lot more bird species from their song than I ever could before. We have a wren in our garden who seems to devote its life to telling off everyone else....

My garden is eerily quiet this afternoon - apart from some jackdaws, who always seem to have enough energy to make a lot of noise.

Hopefully the smaller birds are just sheltering from the worst of the sun 🤞

On the plus side, there are loads of butterflies around today, so at least something is benefiting from all this hot weather.

@TheHorticulturalHussy thanks for the reminder about water in this weather. I usually keep a shallow tray with pebbles in it but it seems to dry up twice a day in this heat!

I went for a walk early before the heat of the day and there was only one stretch of it where I heard many birds at all - although it did catch a treecreeper (I didn't see it though).

I expect they’re in nice shady bushes and trees. Though they do get quieter towards high summer after the peak of courtship, territorial warnings, breeding etc of spring and early summer. And some species will be grounded while in moult.

We have so many swifts circling above us here in Yorkshire. I love to see them, and the noise they make. We were saying up thread that there weren't many about, but they're definitely here, now.

I have Radio 3 playing in the background and they are playing Rautavaara's Cantus Arcticus which includes his own recording of migrating birds in the North of Finland and Merlin is not identifying any of them. I don't know if it can tell it's a recording or if I'd need to download a special arctic birds pack first.
Got my first swift yesterday. I see them all the time, I can watch them flying about from my first floor office window really well but Merlin hadn't picked up their call so far.