My memory is that strictly speaking they are skinks. I don't know what the difference is between skinks and lizards. Whatever they may be, it's great that they seem to be increasing.
My Merlin app picked up 19 different birds in 20 minutes in my back garden this morning. This seems incredible.
I have a fairly small back garden, but my garden backs onto the large garden of a large Victorian house, with mature trees. There's a six-foot fence separating the gardens, so I can't see the birds in it, but the Merlin app can pick them up.
My street is at the edge of the village. To the front of my house there are the houses on the opposite side of the street, and behind them is open farm land, with a burn (stream) going through it, not far from the houses. There's mature woodland half a mile away.
Apart from a single instance of an improbable curlew several weeks ago, none of the birds seem impossible, but I'm surprised by the variety. Some are definitely correct. There are a couple of feisty robins giving it laldy, and wood pigeons, and various corvids; I can identify those by ear myself, and the app agrees.
I hope the app is right; it's delightful to think there may be such a variety of birds around.
I think the app is generally correct; the birds it identifies are probable for the circumstances, whether within my suburban garden or at the local wetland reserve. However, it can be thrown by unusual sounds; yesterday it thought the bass from the music next door but one was a bittern!
My merlin app is accurate on the whole. I'm not at all sure about the long-eared owl it has claimed to be in the area twice but mostly the birds are likely.
My husband bought a trail cam camera this summer. We have a hedgehog!
Merlin has to be handled with care, and it is useful to know what is likely and what is not. On one notorious occasion I was with a group of people in the northern part of Wiltshire. Merlin claimed it could hear a Short-Toed Tree Creeper. As the species is unknown in mainland Britain and as several people present had just seen an ordinary Tree Creeper, this was very unlikely indeed. The nearest Short-Toed one was probably about 200 miles away on the Channel Islands.
Another time one survey party near here came back very excited to say that Merlin had heard a Redstart. That was not impossible. A few do pass through regularly on migration. But it was a bit early for them and would have been unlikely. The wider consensus was that what Merlin had picked up was a Chiffchaff contact call.
I think I've already mentioned the time when I saw a flock of small birds (probably linnets) and Merlin after some thought suggested possibly they were greenshanks. But mostly it's been pretty good. It's identified the local song thrushes who all seem to mimic car alarms.
Comments
My memory is that strictly speaking they are skinks. I don't know what the difference is between skinks and lizards. Whatever they may be, it's great that they seem to be increasing.
I have a fairly small back garden, but my garden backs onto the large garden of a large Victorian house, with mature trees. There's a six-foot fence separating the gardens, so I can't see the birds in it, but the Merlin app can pick them up.
My street is at the edge of the village. To the front of my house there are the houses on the opposite side of the street, and behind them is open farm land, with a burn (stream) going through it, not far from the houses. There's mature woodland half a mile away.
Apart from a single instance of an improbable curlew several weeks ago, none of the birds seem impossible, but I'm surprised by the variety. Some are definitely correct. There are a couple of feisty robins giving it laldy, and wood pigeons, and various corvids; I can identify those by ear myself, and the app agrees.
I hope the app is right; it's delightful to think there may be such a variety of birds around.
My husband bought a trail cam camera this summer. We have a hedgehog!
Another time one survey party near here came back very excited to say that Merlin had heard a Redstart. That was not impossible. A few do pass through regularly on migration. But it was a bit early for them and would have been unlikely. The wider consensus was that what Merlin had picked up was a Chiffchaff contact call.