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P&B Bird Watch


RedRob72

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On 11/07/2020 at 11:38, Hillonearth said:

There are a few birds like that where the original meaning of their name has been corrupted....a yellowhammer was originally a yellow ammer, which is a Germanic name for bunting, so nothing whatsoever to do with hammering, and the name redstart is from the old English "read steort" which just means "red tail".

Speaking of the Scots canary, here's one from near Rafford last week.

678124971_118A7927(2).thumb.JPG.3f83b5a320b78b746cf3c7105c0bc448.JPG

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43 minutes ago, MixuFruit said:

A pal put me onto this app:

https://birdnet.cornell.edu/

which records bird song and helps to identify things. Other than things like yellowhammers and sparrows I'm terrible at remembering songs when I hear them. Tried it out on a chiffchaff alarm call yesterday and it worked very well.

Been using that since my younger son messaged our family group about it a couple of months ago. I feel sure that most of the processing will be frequency-domain, and the scrolling real-time sampling sort of reinforces that. Really excellent when it gets enough of a burst and enough volume; but when it provides a best guess, it can sometime be exactly that!

Last week we got (for the same call, over several bursts) wood warbler, wood warbler, chaffinch, wood warbler, osprey.

On the way home on the same walk, it correctly and consistently(!) identified a goldcrest from a far from clear sample. I'd like to say I then got a great picture, but all I got was lots of goldcrest watching. That's an OK second prize.

I happened to speak to my wife when she was using the app, and it identified, "Human (almost certain)". Not sure how I feel about that.

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  • 1 month later...

Saw a group of moorhens for the first time earlier this week on the edge of Aberdeen and initially thought they were some exotic import because of their funky beaks.

Enjoyed watching their chicks swimming around banging their heads back and forward as if they thought they were at an outdoor rave.

Uhnz uhnz uhnz uhnz...

Edited by Hedgecutter
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Having trouble with an identification despite looking through various guides.  Bird I saw beside a pond this evening had the size, shape and elegance of a wagtail (it liked bouncing its tail around) and was almost entirely dark brown in colour from the exception of a white tip at the end of its tail, very discrete paler and blacker colours towards the end of its wing panels and a discrete reddish-orange tint under its arse.  Might have had a dark cap on its head.

Any thoughts?

Edited by Hedgecutter
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1 hour ago, Hedgecutter said:

Having trouble with an identification despite looking through various guides.  Bird I saw beside a pond this evening had the size, shape and elegance of a wagtail (it liked bouncing its tail around) and was almost entirely dark brown in colour from the exception of a white tip at the end of its tail, very discrete paler and blacker colours towards the end of its wing panels and a discrete reddish-orange tint under its arse.  Might have had a dark cap on its head.

Any thoughts?

Have to admit I am stumped. Bouncing tail is interesting though, very few birds do that- wagtails, dipper and sandpipers are the only ones I can think of.

I would guess a juvenile of some sort although not sure of what with the description

 

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1 hour ago, Wile E Coyote said:

Have to admit I am stumped. Bouncing tail is interesting though, very few birds do that- wagtails, dipper and sandpipers are the only ones I can think of.

I would guess a juvenile of some sort although not sure of what with the description

 

I initially thought it was a wagtail, it was just the odd dark brown colour and general classiness that made me want a closer look.  My other half confirmed the overall dark brown colour and white tip, although all the juvenile wagtail photos I can find are significantly lighter.

If you said that somebody had spliced a wagtail with a female Blackbird and it escaped then I might believe you.  The completely dark head seems to argue against conventional wagtail images so perhaps it was a pied wagtail that had been rolling about in the mud and shat its tail.

ETA: I see that grey wagtails can have a yellow arse so wonder if it could that developing through in the one I saw, albeit orangey.  In no way could I describe it as grey coloured though.  Considered various types of pipit, but there was definitely no speckling/mottling on it.

Edited by Hedgecutter
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46 minutes ago, Hedgecutter said:

I initially thought it was a wagtail, it was just the odd dark brown colour and general classiness that made me want a closer look.  My other half confirmed the overall dark brown colour and white tip, although all the juvenile wagtail photos I can find are significantly lighter.

If you said that somebody had spliced a wagtail with a female Blackbird and it escaped then I might believe you.  The tail tip remains a mystery though and the completely dark head seems to argue against conventional wagtail images.  Perhaps it was a pied wagtail that had been rolling about in the mud and shat itself.

ETA: I see that grey wagtails can have a yellow arse so wonder if it could that developing through in the one I saw, albeit orangey.  In no way could I describe it as grey coloured though.  Considered various types of pipit, but there was definitely no speckling/mottling on it.

If you are sure of the orange underparts I am going to go for Redstart.  They will be on migration at this time of year so can appear anywhere

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13 minutes ago, Wile E Coyote said:

If you are sure of the orange underparts I am going to go for Redstart.  They will be on migration at this time of year so can appear anywhere

That’s not a terrible shout actually as the image below (female black redstart) is by far the closest match I’ve found, cheers.

image.jpeg.8cc127209eea66be7cf21e07a8e5c94a.jpeg

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