Birdwatching

[Nick]

I have always been a keen birdwatcher but not at "Twitcher" levels. I have a great collection of birds that visit my garden and lucky enough to live on the edge of a town in Mid Devon, a fairly rural area.

I have been amazed by the Merlin app that recognises the bird song around you and teaches you which birds are making which tweeting noise. My wife and I are now in serious competition to see who can add the most to their "life list". I am up to 74 birds, most of which have been within a 20 mile radius of where I live, up my sleeve I am planning visits to the Exe estuary and Ham wall rspb  area on the Somerset levels.

Unbelievably it's a free app, get it here and get addicted https://merlin.allaboutbirds.org/. Might also be interesting to share lists and see how geography throws up a few differences.

[The Picnic Wasp]

That's brilliant, Nick. Thanks for that. Downloaded now and looking forward to using it. I heard an unfamiliar birdsong in the garden a couple of days ago and didn't get around to looking for it on YouTube. This will be great.

[Thenop]

I love the Merlin app and use it regularly. When we go and stay elsewhere it is great fun spotting birds I do not usually see over here.
Never created a lost of any sorts though. Might need to start doing that.

[Fishy]

My wife had the merlin app but I thought it was a subscription thing..so she ditched it.. will need to get it again if free😀

[Nickslikk2112]

Downloaded.

First try picked up a House Martin and Goldfinch. I couldn't hear a bloody thing!

I keep meaning to start a list as although I live a mile - as the crow flies - from the centre of a 100,000 population town we have farmland behind us.

In our garden we've had everything from Goldcrest to Buzzard and Wrens to Waxwing, then in the field behind we can see the "proper" non garden birds.

[Nick]

Must admit with my tinnitus some birds like goldcrests I can't hear anymore, but hey that's rock and roll.

[dom]

I have always been a keen birdwatcher but not at "Twitcher" levels. I have a great collection of birds that visit my garden and lucky enough to live on the edge of a town in Mid Devon, a fairly rural area.

I have been amazed by the Merlin app that recognises the bird song around you and teaches you which birds are making which tweeting noise. My wife and I are now in serious competition to see who can add the most to their "life list". I am up to 74 birds, most of which have been within a 20 mile radius of where I live, up my sleeve I am planning visits to the Exe estuary and Ham wall rspb  area on the Somerset levels.

Unbelievably it's a free app, get it here and get addicted https://merlin.allaboutbirds.org/. Might also be interesting to share lists and see how geography throws up a few differences.

Love that app - my wife was listening to the local birdlife a couple of months ago and there was an unusual squawk at the end of the recording.  According to the app it was a Peregrine Falcon - she didn't see it unfortunately

[Slim]

I've seen a lot of gulls in fields while out cycling this last week or so. Herring gulls I think.

[Fishy]

these birds are costing me a fortune in food.. the nuts and other stuff disappear  within a day... blue tits , finches, sparrows, magpies then the pidgeons appear and hovering up the stuff on the grass... stiill lovely to see right enough..

[Slim]

Encountered a cloud of gulls overhead near Orton while I was out on a bike a few days ago. Just enormous quantities of them, wheeling around in the sky. Never seen anything like it.

[Nickslikk2112]

these birds are costing me a fortune in food.. the nuts and other stuff disappear  within a day... blue tits , finches, sparrows, magpies then the pidgeons appear and hovering up the stuff on the grass... stiill lovely to see right enough..

We get through 4kg of Sunflower seeds a week, plus about 20 fat balls. That's all without Squirrels coming for a feed.

Goldfinches absolutely hoover them up and they attract a crowd of Pheasants who come to sweep up all the bits that fall to the ground - we do get one Pheasant which walks along the hedge and tries oh so very hard to reach the feeders itself, thankfully it falls off before doing so.

[Thenop]

We have mostly great & blue tits and the occasional finch. But we have these stick on things for the window, so it's up close and personal 
We had a woodpecker last week, sitting on a cut don fig tree eyeing the food only before a pair of magpies spotted it and chased it off! All excitement all day here!

And we now have a hedgehog that wakes just after it turns dark, and we hear him wander around the yard. The wife bought some food and we fill a bowl a day. I know they are noisy eaters, but this one is particularly loud. Lovely though, he is growing fast.

[Slim]

we do get one Pheasant which walks along the hedge and tries oh so very hard to reach the feeders itself, thankfully it falls off before doing so.

Is it a survivor? Most of them are dead within a year of being released. I think it's sort of gross, releasing huge quantities of birds that aren't evolved to survive in Britain every year.

[Nickslikk2112]

we do get one Pheasant which walks along the hedge and tries oh so very hard to reach the feeders itself, thankfully it falls off before doing so.

Is it a survivor? Most of them are dead within a year of being released. I think it's sort of gross, releasing huge quantities of birds that aren't evolved to survive in Britain every year.

Pheasants were probably introduced to Britain by the Romans and certainly by the Normans, so there has been an established population in the UK for a long time. Whether our local Pheasants are long term survivors or recent hunt escapees I don't know, but we get the same ones in our garden over a period of years. We had one male keep coming over a three year period, he was a big bugger and you can differentiate them with their neck collars - some have, some don't, some are partial, some wide, some narrow.

AFAIK there aren't any Pheasant shoots round here. We get a bloke every now and again who fills up a few Bin Bags with Wood Pigeons. The local scum have also recently shot two Swans on the canal, if I could get hold of them they would suffer

Looking out the window just now I could see a cock Pheasant four hen Pheasants, a Great Spotter Woodpecker, Great Tit, Blue Tit, a couple of Dunnocks and three Goldfinch.

[Nickslikk2112]

For her birthday, the boy bought Mrs S a bird feeder with integrated camera. She keeps sending me videos of "interesting" birds and other things now.

I won't bother with the one where I'm hanging out the washing...