Sidi Fidi Gold

Has anybody got the Merlin bird app ? What's everybody's opinion/thoughts on it ? I've had it about a month, though I did hear it wasn't 100% reliable. Anyway, here's some of my thoughts/findings. When I first tried it out in the garden it recorded Tree Sparrows as being present, I dismissed this straight away, for years now, I have regularly checked House Sparrows in the garden to make sure they're not Tree Sparrows, without any success. It recorded a Raven in Acton, I dismissed this straight away. It recorded a Stonechat over the fields east of Purston and an Oystercatcher to the south of Purston , while I wouldn't rule these out as possibilities, I still thought these highly unlikely. Another time, I heard a bird of prey calling in some trees, its a sound I've heard a lot of times but never knew what it was, it was identified as a Hobby, which was pretty cool but I couldn't see any bird, so when I got home I looked at some videos of Hobby's, which sounded very similar to what I heard, then I looked at some videos of Goshawks, they sounded similar too, then I tried Sparrowhawk, that too sounded very similar to what I heard. In the end I erred on the side of caution and opted for Sparrowhawk. Another time it identified a Treecreeper in an unlikely place, I would have dismissed this as unlikely if it was not for the fact that I'd seen 2 in this area in spring. The thing is, when I hear a bird singing/calling that I recognise, it always identifies it correctly. Anyway a couple of positive incidents. I had the bird app running and it registered Blue, Great and Long Tailed Ts, which I could hear all around me, then it identified a Coal T, now I get these in the garden during autumn/winter and I see them locally on walks during the same period but I always thought they inhabited coniferous woodland during the breeding season, so I never new what they sounded like, anyway I was able to isolate its call and then locate it visually. Today, I was on a walk down Old Coach Road, Purston, it was very quiet, then I heard a bird calling, it was identified as a Yellow Wagtail, I looked up and saw this bird flying, it didn't seem to have a tail as long as a Wagtail so I had my doubts, anyway, it landed in a field not too far away, I was able to peer over the hedge and there it was, a Yellow Wagtail, we seen plenty of Pied and a few Grey locally but before today, the nearest I've seen a Yellow Wagtail is Fairburn Ings, so it was a nice surprise to see one locally. My conclusion is that the app is a useful tool , it makes you aware to the possibilities of what could be around, just don't jump to any conclusions without any visual evidence. Sorry for the long ramble, I hope some of you find this interesting.

During the 90s and early 2000s, we had a delivery driver who was a volunteer for Emley, he'd deliver once a week and we always end up talking about Emley, even during the off season, he was absolutely gutted when they relocated to Wakefield.

This is what I was talk ing about.

I must admit I like the whole franchise and I'm looking forward to seeing the new film, as for the first movie, it was excellent but it would have been improved greatly if Jeff Goldblum's character had been eaten in the first 5 minutes.

I went for a walk on the old Acton Hall colliery site in Fev this morning, there's always plenty to see, however, it was a bit quiet today, there's this stretch on the path of about 50 yards where there's usually something interesting to see, last week there was a Great Spotted Woodpecker, and had a few sightings of Bullfinches, today I saw 4 Greenfinches, which is not as common as it used to be, then looked up and saw 2 birds perched on a branch about 25 feet up, they looked remarkably like Swallows, then an adult Swallow flew in fed them and then perched on another branch, which was then followed by 2 more juveniles which perched in the tree, while I've seen Swallows perched on telephone wires before, it seemed really strange seeing 5 Swallow perched in a tree. Anyway, there was plenty of Chiffchaffs and Blackcaps, I also saw 3 Jays and heard a lone Yellowhammers.

I can't quite make out what it says. Does it mention keeping tropical fish down your underpants?

Also singing Just like heaven.

Robert Smith from The Cure has just come on stage with Olivia Rodrigo to perform Friday I'm in love. That's Random.

Dog Dribble by Getdown Services is the most infectious song I've heard at Glasto this time.

I can remember them having a single out in the mid 80s " The Great Train Robbery " it was pushed quite a lot by Janice Long on Radio 1 but never did anything.

I think we're getting crossed over with the crossovers

I forgot about Ncuti, in the Glasto thread I mention 2 Doctors, meaning Smith and Capaldi, so Ncuti makes that three.

John, did you see Peter Capaldi, What did you think, that's both of Moffatt's Doctors appearing on stage at Glastonbury.

Since someone on the Glasto thread was a Shed Seven fan, I thought I'd post this.

Since Peter Capaldi appeared at Glastonbury I thought it would be only fitting to post this guitar scene. Capaldi is an accomplished guitar player and for the story " Under the Lake " the Doctor Who intro theme was a guitar solo piece, which was performed by Capaldi.

All this " middle class " nonsense makes me laugh, around 200k people go to Glasto, has anybody ever done a survey on the attendees class, I've never been but know plenty who have, people from Fev, Ponte, Normanton, Knottingley, even Streethouse, not exactly middle class hotbeds.

Wasn't he an international sword fencer? not exactly a working class or middle class sport, he'll be taking up Polo next.

It was a carefully laid trap, someone was supposed to reply " don't you mean Lewis " but it failed miserably

Peter Capaldi was great

Ed's Funky Diner

It does say birds with evidence of breeding and it was comparing the surveys of 1970 and 2011 so birds could have moved in since. It also depends on people reporting and also how many people there are in your area reporting these sightings.

https://data.bto.org/doorstep-birds/ This is an attempt to add the link.

My IT skills are limited too, there's no way I can put a link on here, but go on the BTO website, at the top of the page click on " Explore our data " that brings up a menu, click on " Bird facts species " this brings up a page, scroll down the page( not very far) to the headline " Other ways to explore our data about birds " underneath this headline it says " search for an area by postcode " just below that you'll find " Birds on your doorstep " link. I'll just warn you, I'm registered with this site, whether that gives me access to areas a non-registered person can access, I don't know. If you find it please let us know what you find, I'm not asking you to put full lists up like I did, just post what's new and what's disappeared.