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."

[legrandefromage]

"'""The Swifts were flying really low"" That just has to be some secret spy-based codeword. ""The Little Owl is perched on the barn"""

[Nurse Ratched]

"?üòä Saw two ant nests opened up this morning, with frantic activity from the 'workers'. They might just be opening up extra ventilation holes to cool the nests in this weather, but often this is a precursor to FLYING ANT DAY. Swifts were flying really low, too."

[zebthecat]

Thanks for the tip on Merlin Nurse. The thing it is really good at is identifying birds singing simultaneously. Bird Up was the one I used and it was good for individual birds but terrible when they are all going at once at sunset. All it could tell me was Robin and I knew that already as he/she sits in the apple tree closest to me and yells away. The sparrows have had a really successful breed this year as there are bloody loads of them now and they love perching on the house guttters for a chat. Loving the Dunnocks as well who are still about and too brave for their own seeing as I have a cat. It is weird that they seem hard wired that humans are tolerable but they scarpa when the cat appears. The only unwelcome present I have had so far is a rat.

[plankton]

"I did the next best thing for you, Nurse. Downloaded the west European ""pack"" and then played the app ten minutes of local birdsong from a YouTube video. It identified about 50% of the birds (pretty much all the ones i would have got) but then missed some notable songs by stuff that I would really thought it would identify. Perhaps it is not as good as it promised to be. Sigh. However, the results were definitely better than Smart Bird ID, which failed to identify a single species from the same video, including chiffchaff and reed bunting, That one really is useless!"

[Nurse Ratched]

"Haha! Yeah, I'm buying a kilo of live mealworms a week, too."

[Nurse Ratched]

"Haha! Yeah, I'm buying a kilo of live mealworms a week, too."

[Aalborg Hammer]

"Afternoon all..usually ,I have two feeders out - One is supposedly starling proof working on a weighted feeding hatch but the little bastards still empty a feeder in 4 hours. I have resorted to a tupperware bowl in a cage which I fill with live mealworms -I manage to get through a kilo a week (mealworms not blow) I thought I'd pad their portion out by doing half dried mealworms and half live. Now, they go in pick up a mealworm and if it's a dried one they drop it on the ground for a starling and go back for a live one - I despair!"

[Nurse Ratched]

"It would be interesting if we could persuade some WHOers in different regions of the world to download the app and let it record 5 or so minutes in their back garden, then tell us what it picked up. Manuel? Coffee? Sydney? Capitol Man?"

[plankton]

"Great find, Nurse, thank you. It does seem to be a whole lot better than the others, agree totally."

[Nurse Ratched]

"Enjoy, Pickle!"

[Hammer and Pickle]

Installing now Nurse - thanks a lot.

[Nurse Ratched]

"You're welcome, Turk It's lightyears ahead of similar apps. I can't stop using it ?üòÅ"

[Turk1]

Nursey

[Turk1]

Loving that new app Nursery. Picking out multiple species at the same time whereas previous apps I've used have just focused on the noisiest. Thanks for sharing

[Nurse Ratched]

"Meanwhile, I have a new bird ID app (for birdsong, photos, etc) It's called Merlin. It's MUCH better than its predecessors. It's even free! After you've downloaded it, it gives you the option of downloading a 'pack' of data according to your region in the world. This is really useful, so you don't get told you have a red cardinal in your garden in Chertsey."

[Nurse Ratched]

"Brilliant clip, geep."

[gph]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L9mrTdYhOHg Animal tool-use for pleasure (at least on the surface of it)

[Nurse Ratched]

I get loads of greenfinches (sorry). Beautiful singers.

[JAC]

"Not seen greenfinches this year on the feeders, just the usual suspects ,great tits ,blue tits,long tailed and a nuthatch last week.Always a few robins about and the odd wren. Wood pigeons en masse so I shall be taking a few out shortly with my air rifle.Not many magpies which is unusual, managed to whack half a dozen last year but only one so far.I don't like shooting them but they are a menace to young fledglings/nests etc."

[Tomshardware]

"Like it Aalborg, not seen one for a long time sadly. Service stations are often weirdly good for birdspotting."

[Aalborg Hammer]

I was in the queue for drive thru coffee at Rownhams services near Southampton and was delighted to see (at least) half a dozen greenfinches in the bushes not having seen them for years (due to a virus I believe)

[Nurse Ratched]

"It very rarely happens. And when it does...well they're tiny creatures. If rhinos had wings, I certainly wouldn't invite them. But this way, I get to see the beautiful little buggers up close, and I can ensure their nestlings have plenty of food to go round."

[Hammer and Pickle]

Guess birdshit on the teapot is this season’s blue tit Instagram hit.

[Nurse Ratched]

"Oh, and this is the first spring that the bluetits have plucked up the courage to join the robins and great tits to feed inside my sitting room."

[Nurse Ratched]

"Good few days spotting: housemartins, chiffchaff, pied wagtails, swifts and...a RED KITE! First one I have ever seen and it was at the end of my road in urban north London. Surreal experience."