Found a dead pigeon in our garden. It was fresh, not sure how it died as didn't look like a cat or anything. Anyway, we put it in the middle of the lawn hoping one of the kites would grab it. Looked out the window this morning and saw a sparrow hawk de-feathering it and then feeding on it. Was rather nervous being on the ground but was probably too large for it to lift. It spent about 10 minutes feeding on it. Was a lovely slight, although the feathers and bits of carcass distributed across the lawn less so.
OverClockers Twitchers' Thread
- Thread starter Narj
- Start date
I keep hearing them in the trees nearby but not sighted one yet. And definitely not on our feeder!Nice to have a greater visit.
A female.
Soldato
Nice - yeah that's a leucistic crow. We have a few that live near a lake a few miles from where I live. They seem a lot more common these days.
All of these black dots are crows. Flying around quite high up. Looks like at least 100. There are so many around here.
Might be jackdaws.
Is that standard behaviour for them?
As super keen birdwatchers - we've build ourselves an amazing new bird watching related gadget - a BirdNET PI. It has completely changed my view of the birds that frequent and over-fly our garden. It is based on the BirdNET detection model - but a local version that is run on a Raspberry Pi (4b or later)
Total cost including a decent mic was about £160 although could have gone cheaper if I'd gone for a cheaper case etc. So far - over 3 months of use - it has detected and recorded 51,000 bird recordings ! (50gb worth)
github.com
Fantastic part is that for every detection it saves the audio file and the sonogram so if any you want to manually verify you can listen, edit, copy to PC etc. I'll post up some sample spectrograms and audio recordings. From the software you get daily charts of what birds, number of times detected for each species at what time, and the software will plot trends for various species etc. Some example recordings below:
Tawny Owl Compilation
Oystercatcher - Night-time
These are the bird species it has detected so far with comments from me for each.
Owls are interesting - it has detected Barn Owl 2 nights already, and I've only heard one here once in 4 years. Same with the Tawny Owls - I've heard once in 4 years, it has detected and recorded them at least 5 separate nights so far.
Total cost including a decent mic was about £160 although could have gone cheaper if I'd gone for a cheaper case etc. So far - over 3 months of use - it has detected and recorded 51,000 bird recordings ! (50gb worth)
GitHub - mcguirepr89/BirdNET-Pi: A realtime acoustic bird classification system for the Raspberry Pi 4B, 3B+, and 0W2 built on the TFLite version of BirdNET.
A realtime acoustic bird classification system for the Raspberry Pi 4B, 3B+, and 0W2 built on the TFLite version of BirdNET. - mcguirepr89/BirdNET-Pi
github.com
Fantastic part is that for every detection it saves the audio file and the sonogram so if any you want to manually verify you can listen, edit, copy to PC etc. I'll post up some sample spectrograms and audio recordings. From the software you get daily charts of what birds, number of times detected for each species at what time, and the software will plot trends for various species etc. Some example recordings below:
Tawny Owl Compilation
Oystercatcher - Night-time
These are the bird species it has detected so far with comments from me for each.
Owls are interesting - it has detected Barn Owl 2 nights already, and I've only heard one here once in 4 years. Same with the Tawny Owls - I've heard once in 4 years, it has detected and recorded them at least 5 separate nights so far.
- Avocet Recording checked
- Barn Owl Recording checked
- Black-crowned Night-Heron Detected once or twice in the evening and day over a period of a week in January - not confirmed - no further detections since
- Black-headed Gull Recording checked
- Bohemian Waxwing Not certain - listened to recording and sounded good but can't confirm
- Brambling 3 very quiet detections - seen in garden during this winter so very possible
- Canada Goose Recording checked
- Carrion Crow Recording checked
- Cirl Bunting Very likely miss-identification - can't hear in recordings
- Common Buzzard Recording checked
- Common Chaffinch Recording checked
- Common Chiffchaff Recording checked
- Common Crane 13 Detections overnight - can't confirm bird species from recordings
- Common Firecrest V. unlikely but not impossible
- Common Greenshank Not checked but quite likely
- Common Kingfisher Likely miss-identification
- Common Redpoll Not checked but possible
- Common Redshank Recording checked
- Common Sandpiper Not checked but possible
- Common Snipe Recording checked
- Common Wood-Pigeon Recording checked
- Dunlin Recording checked
- Dunnock Recording checked
- Eurasian Blackbird Recording checked
- Eurasian Blue Tit Recording checked
- Eurasian Bullfinch Strongly suspect - actually Starling
- Eurasian Collared-Dove Recording checked
- Eurasian Coot Recording checked
- Eurasian Curlew Recording checked
- Eurasian Green Woodpecker Recording checked
- Eurasian Jackdaw Recording checked
- Eurasian Jay Recording checked
- Eurasian Kestrel Recording checked
- Eurasian Linnet Recording checked
- Eurasian Magpie Recording checked
- Eurasian Moorhen Recording checked
- Eurasian Nuthatch Not checked but have heard from garden before
- Eurasian Oystercatcher Recording checked
- Eurasian Siskin Recording checked
- Eurasian Wigeon Recording checked
- Eurasian Wren Recording checked
- European Golden-Plover Recording checked
- European Goldfinch Recording checked
- European Greenfinch Recording checked
- European Robin Recording checked
- European Serin Likely miss-identification - but possible
- European Starling Recording checked
- European Stonechat Not confirmed yet
- Fieldfare Recording checked
- Gadwall Recording not checked but quite likely
- Goldcrest Consistently detected - have spotted in conifers back of garden
- Gray Heron Recording not checked but quite likely
- Gray Partridge Not sure - unlikely
- Gray Wagtail Think miss-detection for White Wagtail but model seems confident - possible but unlikely
- Graylag Goose Probably local feral Geese
- Great Bittern Not-confirmed but aligns with recent local sightings, detected regularly overnight
- Great Spotted Woodpecker Recording checked
- Great Tit Recording checked
- Greater White-fronted Goose Could be local feral Geese - but was detected overnight - possible overflight but not confirmed
- Green Sandpiper Not confirmed recording but quite possible
- Green-winged Teal Recording checked - Teal not Green-winged
- Herring Gull Recording checked
- House Sparrow Recording checked
- Little Bittern Very certain in error although has been detected at high confidence several times
- Long-tailed Tit Recording checked
- Mallard Recording checked
- Manx Shearwater Not confirmed - detected once overnight
- Mediterranean Gull Recording checked
- Merlin One instance - sounds different to all the Kestrel recordings but can't be certain. Seen locally so possible
- Mistle Thrush Recording checked
- Lapwing Recording checked
- Northern Wheatear 2 detections in March - possible but not checked recording
- Pink-footed Goose Probably local feral Geese
- Redwing Recording checked
- Reed Bunting Recording checked
- Pheasant Recording checked
- Rock Pigeon Likely Feral Pigeon
- Rook Recording checked
- Ruddy Turnstone Not checked but quite likely
- Song Thrush Recording checked
- Stock Dove Recording checked
- Tawny Owl Recording checked
- Tree Pipit Not had chance to investigate but likely miss-identification
- Water Rail Recording checked
- Whimbrel Possible - but not confirmed
- White Wagtail Recording checked
- Yellowhammer Recording checked
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and as an aside - if anyone can identify this mammal - it will be a first ID as I've not managed to find anyone yet who can identify it. I have posted it on Field Club Facebook group (wide range of specialists) and Birding Facebook groups and no-one knows. It was only recorded as it detected and recorded a Redwing (bird you can hear 1/2 way through recording). I think it is a type of Deer or an odd vocalisation of a Fox - but I've trawled through Youtube videos and can't find any match, I tried Muntjak, Roe, Red, Fallow, listened to so many Fox recordings, its not Badger. There are some dogs around but I've listened to when they occasionally do a howl and doesn't sound anything like this recording and are further away (this sounds quite close)
House is right next to a field and mic was along the fence (so field just the other side), and the location is a couple of miles away from 2 Estuaries (one each side)
House is right next to a field and mic was along the fence (so field just the other side), and the location is a couple of miles away from 2 Estuaries (one each side)
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