Interested in birds ?

The feathered kind ?

Then take a look at the “Merlin Bird ID” app for Android or iPhone

It listens for bird song/calls and matches them to its database … I’ve been amazed by what’s around just locally. Often heard but not seen.

Cheers

Rick

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Then track them with birdex.

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Nice! I was looking for a tracker recently. I was out with the bins this evening. Saw two Oystercatchers and a Grey Heron together. A Frigate then appeared speeding across the way so I had a nose at that.

Starlings, Sparrows, Blackbirds and the usual gulls. Great stuff. Loved the Oystercatchers, such bright beaks!

I bought a second pair of Nikon P7’s the other day, the 8x30 ones. Those are great to pack in my radio bag.

Merlin is excellent. I am using it a lot to help me ID birds I am unsure about and want to learn more. My tribe are getting in to it too. :smiling_face:

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…that “Merlin Bird ID” covers the whole world with many partners. I was very supprised that Australia was listed! :grinning_face:

Geoff vk3sq

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I would expect nothing less after Alf Stewart put Australian birds on the map ya flamin’ Galah! :laughing:

I didn’t know there was a Flamin’ Galah beer as well. I need to try it. Maybe with a slab of Coopers and a cheeky VB or six as well.

https://flamingalahbrewingco.com/

Then a slab of Bundy to ease the headache, either their Ginger Beer or the Bitter Lemon. Both are amazing.

You can keep the Root Beer though. Rotten stuff. Tastes like Germolene.

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Dam’ right! Distilled essence of foulness! I’ll try Merlin, it may help sort out some of my local shy singers, I can never get the bins on them.

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I’m a big fan of Merlin! Very often just love standing out in the woods recording whatever’s tweeting and seeing what comes up. I’ve apparently recorded a few moderately rare things without even realising (not that I can remember any examples now of course).

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I don’t think Root Beer is even a root of anything. Whoever invented it probably had the best intentions, creating a wonderful soft drink.

On the day Root Beer was invented they had a bad bout of influenza while also falling off their bike and grazing their knee on the way to work.

The inventor went to the first aid cabinet, fetched a tube of Germolene, stuck a boot on the side of the large vat that was brewing the Root Beer prototype mix and accidentally dropped the tube in to the vat while treating their knee.

A taste test later… “Oh, thats nice!”.

The rest, as they say, is history…

Vile stuff.

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I think Vegemite must have been the invented the same way. Start with delicious Marmite and then add something to make it taste disgusting.

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I’m on the fence with Vegemite. Marmite is legendary but Vegemite does a good job.

Australia does a decent Crunchie wannabe as well, Violet Crumbles. Not quite a Crunchie-killer, but it’s a close call and a cracking effort.

Tim Tams are the Michelin Star though. Especially since Penguins are no longer chocolate.

Orangina is a mystery as well. Why does Orangina bought in France taste a billion times better than the Orangina bought in the UK and Ireland?

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It’s one of my favourite apps. I particularly like the feature where it ‘bolds’ the species name each time that particular bird sings again.

I like Marmite rice cakes.

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The Merlin app revealed just how many species live in my area. Species you rarely see like Tree Creepers and Goldcrests. I’ve been using it for a few years now. :smiley:

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Merlin is great! It helped @K7GUD and I find many new lifers recently while hiking for the W4 campout in western North Carolina, and identified several others we couldn’t see - sneaky warblers mostly.

The recent documentary Listers is interesting

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Roy is right. Merlin is a big help, especially if you’re in an area with lots of new birds. Roy and I were able to spot several “Lifers” on our way to activations. We were able to see them well enough to identify. Also, watch the Listers movie Roy mentions. It’s one of the best movies I’ve seen this year, and it was made by two amateurs. And you don’t have to be a birder to find it extremely entertaining.

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The movie is amazing.

Also - Lifers = ATNO in both meaning and reaction from others :rofl:

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Merlin is, like all these wildlife ‘classifiers’, good in parts. On some of the social media bird groups I’m on, just about every day someone will post a Merlin ID’d ‘sighting’ of some very rare or previously recorded in that country/habitat/biogeographic region.

There’s a great deal of variation, both in vocalisation and appearance of many avian species, which is why the auto id apps are currently so unreliable.

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In a similar vein, if you are into identifying plants try ‘Flora Incognita’. You photograph a flower/plant and it tries to identify it for you. I have been building up quite a database on activations. I use it on Android.

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The fault is not with Merlin but with the birder who reports seeing a bird based only what Merlin hears. I think Merlin is right most of the time, but unless it’s a bird I already know, I verify by seeing it.

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That’s the right way to use the tool :slightly_smiling_face:

The app does make mistakes and can struggle to correctly identify some songs such as blackcap v garden warbler. Both can normally be told apart by ear with practice but Merlin doent always get it right.

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