For WHO's birders

[Nurse Ratched]

"I thought you might like this video.



It's a compilation of different birds singing. Beautiful photography. If you expand the 'title' under the video it gives a list of species and the times they pop up in the video. Most of the species are familiar to us in the UK, but there are some 'exotics' (the cranes - wow, what a noise!) It was filmed in Belarus. The guy has a channel you can subscribe to. Anyway, I hope you enjoy it and maybe it'll take your mind off you-know-what for a few blessed minutes."

[Fo the Communist]

"Morning Crass. Admire your fortitude and ingenuity, mate What my fuckers are doing though is not shaking the branch but the hopper itself. They just fly up and hover long enough to either grab it for a second or just kick it. Enough seed comes out for them to fly down, grab a few mouthfuls and then do the same again. I might try fixing the hoppers to either a trunk or a think branch so they can't move it. The trials of life. eh? At least you can get back to the fishing now."

[Crassus]

"Fo, morning sire I've had issues with the mags, and a bloody great crow, having my fat balls away I have resolved the issue, I think, by wiring the lids on and then suspending the feeders on 2 ft of wire, from slim branches too, works on the nut and seed feeders The buggers can't get close enough to do their work and because the wire is of reasonable gauge, they can't pull them up and can't sustain a hover First morning after fixing there was a right old racket as the mags got the hump, branches not taking their weight and the feeders visible but out of range - I swear they were having a moan up"

[Fo the Communist]

"Any non-lethal tips for preventing magpies from rocking feeders to spill seed all over the ground? There were six of the buggers tearing around the garden vandalising the place, scaring the shit out of tits and finches and hogging the birdbath like corvid Germans this morning. Same last night. I am currently getting through four hoppers a day. Avian madness."

[Crassus]

"Bill First time I saw them was way back and I was on a lake near Thame, since then their spread has been wide I'm interested to know what sort of individual range these birds would have from their roost I have seen them throughout Oxfordshire, the Cotswolds, Nhnts, Bucks and parts of Beds and Herts, clearly colonising elsewhere and we get plenty up here, but they seem to come in waves, so commuters"

[only1billybonds]

"Cras. I go through Wycombe quite often on the way to my see my grandson. On a good day the skies are awash with Kites just gliding about,a magnificent sight."

[Crassus]

"Hermit, I agree with Billy upon that When they were initially reintroduced it was in the Chilterns, by the chalk cutting west of Wycombe, From there they have spread along ridge and through the Aylesbury Vale and beyond We get lots floating about around here, lovely birds but not popular with crows"

[Billy Go Wings]

"Sounds like a Red Kite, the Buzzard is a lot darker and sparrowhawk much smaller. Kites are also identified by their forked tail."

[zebthecat]

"Yes, I do tune into birdsong Nurse although it can be difficult in the day to pick them out over the very noisy sparrow flock. I love the sparrows though, it is fun to watch them hurtling about."

[Hermit Road]

Went out for a drive into the country today. A bloody long drive too and ended up seeing what looked like a large hawk of some kind. It appeared to have a reddish tone on its breast which I thought was surprising because it made it stand out from below so that made me question whether it was a predator or not as the camouflage didn’t seem too clever. Beautiful looking thing though.

[Nurse Ratched]

"You're welcome, zeb. Though if, like me, you are already used to tuning into birdsong and are pretty good at ID-ing birds via their songs and calls, that you will frequently be a bit frustrated by its inability to pick up on and accurately/confidently ID a familiar song. I don't think the app tech is anywhere near as good as the human ear yet. As I said, in a few years it might be fantastic."

[zebthecat]

Nurse Ratched 10:49 Wed May 13 Just wow!

[zebthecat]

"Thanks Nurse will give the app a go. There is one bird I have heard in the garden and I don't reconognise the song at all. There is a starling at my office that does brilliant impressions. I was watching it singing and it did a quick wren song, tawny owls and truck reverse warning (there is a Scania repair shop nearby)."

[Nurse Ratched]

Lyrebirds take the crown for mimicry https://youtu.be/mSB71jNq-yQ https://youtu.be/C0ZffIh0-NA

[gph]

"Starlings and thrushes have been known to imitate phone ringtones, so this could get confusing..."

[Nurse Ratched]

Ha! Good luck!

[Crassus]

"Thank you Will give it a spin And rest assured, I have had my fill of exotic birds, those roosting in the house are giving me enough grief I'll let you know how I get on"

[Nurse Ratched]

"Basically it gives you 2 'readings' expressed as percentages. The first reading tells you what percentage of the signal (birdsong) it is analysing comes from a particular species. For example, at that time, a robin and a blue tit might both be singing, but 70% of the noise might be coming from the robin, and 30% from the bluetit (I am simplifying it here). The second reading tells you what percentage of a song closely matches a reference sample of that particular species song. So, it might display a robin, and record that 70% of the signal is coming from the robin, and the sing you are recording matches a reference/typical robin song by (e.g.) 80% or whatever. Obviously a match of, say, 14% to a reference song for any given species is dubious compared to 90%, for argument's sake. Which is why sometimes you have to take it with a large pinch of salt. It's still a lot of fun, though. Just don't get carried away if it tells you you've got something exotic in your area. Look at the percentages! At the moment I would guess the biggest barrier is a lack of reference data, considering even intraspecies birdsong has so many variants."

[only1billybonds]

Woke up to see a rather splendid looking Eurasian Jay (had to look it up) sitting on our fence this morning. It was a bit quiet but looked spectacular with its deep blue wings set against the rest of its brown colouring.

[Far Cough]

"Morpheus, are you sure they're not the Three Stooges?"

[Far Cough]

"Morpheus, are you sure they're not the Three Stooges?"

[Nurse Ratched]

"I'm on Android, but assume the situation is similar for Apple, if that's your thing. There are lots of apps on the Playstore for identifying birdsong. HOWEVER... 1) You need to make sure the one you're considering is for UK birds (many of them are for Yankees, and that's no good for us) 2) Most of them are not the type you record onto. I assume the type you want is where you point your phone's microphone in the vague direction of a singing bird and it tells you the species. You want a sort of 'Shazzam' for birdsong there aren't many of those. The only two I've found are called 'Warblr' (utterly useless. Wouldn't work) and 'Bird Up'. Bird Up is by no means perfect, but at least it tries, unlike Warblr. I think the tech is in its infancy, so in a few years time these apps may be fantastic, but at the moment it's a bit hit and miss."

[Morpheus]

"We have some unidentified birds that sound like the Laurel and Hardy theme, anyone know what they might be?"

[Crassus]

"Nurse What's this app Hun, I would love to get hold of that, would help my identification process enormously"

[Nurse Ratched]

"My birdsong ID app told me there was a bullfinch nearby this morning, but I'm taking that with a pinch of salt. I did hear a mistle thrush singing at 4:30am, though, and the app picked up on that. Weirdly, the app never seems to 'hear' or recognise wood pigeon song, even though I can hear them close by."

[Nurse Ratched]

"""...when my visitors arrive they are departing directionally, with purpose"" Indeed."