Just gave Merlin a whirl - brilliant! It found sparrow, wren, great tit, gold crest, chaffinch, collared dove, thrush, blackbird and wood pigeon all of which seem plausible.
Ah, I already have Merlin, but v glad to have it appraised/approved by an expert. My only small gripe is that it doesn’t seem to recognise my local jackdaws. It would seem Merlin is not very good with corvids if it can’t ID your carrion crows either.
It’s also nonplussed by a neighbours chickens but I guess that’s fair enough.
It has a slight problem with corvids, I think. And it flat out refused even to acknowledge the parakeet that was doing its ‘under-the-breath burbling’ (a much softer, more sympathetic sound than the usual sharp shrieks) in our garden the other day.
I keep trying to covert my friends from TikTok to Merlin. I'm failing. It's the same dopamine hit though! One second you have a boring grackle and the next second who knows!
Glad/relieved to hear Merlin gets the seal of approval. And thanks for “I inhaled Alice” 😂 and this morning’s journey into space. I’m off to spend the rest of the day at Neal.fun ...
I have quickly become a Merlin fan and it is helping me learn to hear and identify birds. I often found it hard to hear beyond the shouty great tits and chiffchaffs but Merlin points out what else is going on in the background and makes it easier to pick out. I think it is sometimes a tad fanciful though - this morning it told us we had an oystercatcher in the garden. While not actually impossible according to the RSPB distribution map, it does seem a little optimistic. But who knows?
I discovered Merlin last summer and it’s helped me discover new birds, like the Mistle Thrush of Norwood Grove, who spreads her song far and wide. But I’m still helped (and cheered) by yours and others’ descriptions, eg. tiny shouter, zuzzing snore etc.
Inevitably, having bemoaned the absence of song thrushes and blackcaps in West Norwood cem the other morning, I heard both on my next visit (at an altogether more civilised time...)
Used Merlin for the first time having read your rave about it. Near Fort William it identified everything I heard myself correctly. It recorded Goldcrest several times and I bet it was correct because the habitat was right but my ears failed to hear it. Interesting as I thought my hearing aids now enabled me to pick them out!
I just had to try Merlin as my faithful Retriever is so called,
Well whilst walking my many dogs including dear Merlin we managed a total of 15 different birds in fact two trips resulted in a different set so a total of 18 fascinating at my age to finally realise I can distinguish the difference in the calls, just loved being outside most of my life sharing the space with nature. I said to my wife well that’s it I am never leaving the house without Merlin to which she answered “ well he follows you everywhere anyway” I give up.
Greetings from deepest Zummerzet. My take on Merlin is that it is great for someone with a hearing loss, e.g. me. You may remember that we live opposite the NT property, Lytes Cary Manor. For the last eight years this has been part of my patch. I now find that Merlin will pick up bird calls that I’ve missed, as they are too faint. A good example is skylark. This is an important bird for this site, as for many others, and one I don’t want to miss. I’ve now identified it in one large field, where we haven’t had it previously. I can now inform the NT Ranger and he, in turn, will tell the tenant farmer and a degree of caution will now be used when spraying, etc.
Yes, Merlin has difficulties, suddenly telling me that a distant green woodpecker was possibly (red dot) an osprey. It makes sense if you think about it.
Enjoying five things, so keep it going and I wish you every success with the new book.
Thank you for recommending Merlin. It resolves a mass of noises into different voices for me, so I’m learning to distinguish them myself. Because I’m a visual thinker, I find it really useful to have the visual representation to attach to the sounds - shapes are so much easier for me to remember.
You are the perfect person with whom to share a Merlin experience I had earlier this year.
I was sitting in my living room in Forest, Virginia when a bird began to sing outside my window. I could see it only from the rear, and I didn’t recognize its back.
I turned on Merlin, and in close succession these names popped up on my screen: American Robin, then Eastern Jay. I was puzzled because my bird was definitely not one of these. Then another name appeared: Eastern Mockingbird. I laughed out loud and silently congratulated Merlin.
I think Merlin is miraculous. If I sit on my front porch which has 2 or 3 bird feeders nearby, in about 10 minutes Merlin will have identified around 15 different birds, never the same 15. Some of them I have never actually seen.
Just gave Merlin a whirl - brilliant! It found sparrow, wren, great tit, gold crest, chaffinch, collared dove, thrush, blackbird and wood pigeon all of which seem plausible.
Ah, I already have Merlin, but v glad to have it appraised/approved by an expert. My only small gripe is that it doesn’t seem to recognise my local jackdaws. It would seem Merlin is not very good with corvids if it can’t ID your carrion crows either.
It’s also nonplussed by a neighbours chickens but I guess that’s fair enough.
It has a slight problem with corvids, I think. And it flat out refused even to acknowledge the parakeet that was doing its ‘under-the-breath burbling’ (a much softer, more sympathetic sound than the usual sharp shrieks) in our garden the other day.
Loved the Space Elevator, thank you for including that. Stopped on the trip and watched the Northern Lights for a bit....
Really fun, isn’t it?
I keep trying to covert my friends from TikTok to Merlin. I'm failing. It's the same dopamine hit though! One second you have a boring grackle and the next second who knows!
Glad/relieved to hear Merlin gets the seal of approval. And thanks for “I inhaled Alice” 😂 and this morning’s journey into space. I’m off to spend the rest of the day at Neal.fun ...
I have quickly become a Merlin fan and it is helping me learn to hear and identify birds. I often found it hard to hear beyond the shouty great tits and chiffchaffs but Merlin points out what else is going on in the background and makes it easier to pick out. I think it is sometimes a tad fanciful though - this morning it told us we had an oystercatcher in the garden. While not actually impossible according to the RSPB distribution map, it does seem a little optimistic. But who knows?
I discovered Merlin last summer and it’s helped me discover new birds, like the Mistle Thrush of Norwood Grove, who spreads her song far and wide. But I’m still helped (and cheered) by yours and others’ descriptions, eg. tiny shouter, zuzzing snore etc.
Inevitably, having bemoaned the absence of song thrushes and blackcaps in West Norwood cem the other morning, I heard both on my next visit (at an altogether more civilised time...)
My mum told me about Merlin just recently... I suppose I’ll have to try it now!
The sculpture video is NUTS. He paints with an eyelash?! I just can’t get my head around it.
Used Merlin for the first time having read your rave about it. Near Fort William it identified everything I heard myself correctly. It recorded Goldcrest several times and I bet it was correct because the habitat was right but my ears failed to hear it. Interesting as I thought my hearing aids now enabled me to pick them out!
I’ve found some goldcrests more piercing than others recently. Perhaps that’s my ears going on the selective blink, too...
The space elevator is SO COOL.
I just had to try Merlin as my faithful Retriever is so called,
Well whilst walking my many dogs including dear Merlin we managed a total of 15 different birds in fact two trips resulted in a different set so a total of 18 fascinating at my age to finally realise I can distinguish the difference in the calls, just loved being outside most of my life sharing the space with nature. I said to my wife well that’s it I am never leaving the house without Merlin to which she answered “ well he follows you everywhere anyway” I give up.
Greetings from deepest Zummerzet. My take on Merlin is that it is great for someone with a hearing loss, e.g. me. You may remember that we live opposite the NT property, Lytes Cary Manor. For the last eight years this has been part of my patch. I now find that Merlin will pick up bird calls that I’ve missed, as they are too faint. A good example is skylark. This is an important bird for this site, as for many others, and one I don’t want to miss. I’ve now identified it in one large field, where we haven’t had it previously. I can now inform the NT Ranger and he, in turn, will tell the tenant farmer and a degree of caution will now be used when spraying, etc.
Yes, Merlin has difficulties, suddenly telling me that a distant green woodpecker was possibly (red dot) an osprey. It makes sense if you think about it.
Enjoying five things, so keep it going and I wish you every success with the new book.
This is really good to know, and another application for Merlin that I hadn’t altogether appreciated.
Thank you for recommending Merlin. It resolves a mass of noises into different voices for me, so I’m learning to distinguish them myself. Because I’m a visual thinker, I find it really useful to have the visual representation to attach to the sounds - shapes are so much easier for me to remember.
The Uncomfortable is so awesome. Me and my wife had a really good laugh about it.
Fun, isn’t it?
You are the perfect person with whom to share a Merlin experience I had earlier this year.
I was sitting in my living room in Forest, Virginia when a bird began to sing outside my window. I could see it only from the rear, and I didn’t recognize its back.
I turned on Merlin, and in close succession these names popped up on my screen: American Robin, then Eastern Jay. I was puzzled because my bird was definitely not one of these. Then another name appeared: Eastern Mockingbird. I laughed out loud and silently congratulated Merlin.
I think Merlin is miraculous. If I sit on my front porch which has 2 or 3 bird feeders nearby, in about 10 minutes Merlin will have identified around 15 different birds, never the same 15. Some of them I have never actually seen.