Gambia 2019

Well behind in posting this one as life has been a bit full on but here's pics from our trip to Gambia in 2019.  Unfortunately there will be a bit of a gap in trips to that country for a while as the travel agent who organised most of the holidays down that direction went bust, taking a fair block of our cash along with them.  However, life goes on.  Hope you like the photos.

Broad Meadow Estuary

Had a bit of time while over visiting my mother to visit an old haunt of mine from my youth, the Broad Meadow Estuary in North County Dublin. The Estuary has seen significant changes over the past 30 years not least of which include the new motorway extension which normally means the end for nature sites. However, in their wisdom the authorities recognized the site as being of importance for wildlife and instead of ploughing right through the middle of it they put a flyover instead. The resulting landscape means the area is a lot noisier but the Estuary largely remains unchanged. It certainly does not look like it has bothered the birds and wildlife too much at all. I must say well done to the Irish Authorities for this, I have seen in excess of 1000 Brent Geese on this a few years ago and it would be a great shame to lose it. That said I had a couple of hours free last weekend (July 23) and headed down to see what I could find. I took as many pictures as I could but to be honest the weather was very dull and showery so the photos were not brilliant.

Some Mute Swans

Mallard

Grey Heron Hunting

Herring Gull

Black Headed Gull

Cormorant drying off

Barn Swallow Resting

 

Pied Wagtail immature

MagpieSandpiper

Hooded Crow with Mute Swan looking on

Small Flock of Starling

Pied WagtailPoor shot of a Little Grebe

This time I also had my trusty smartphone to hand with the Merlin App loaded so I set it to work for a couple of minutes to see what bird species it could hear. Recordings were only a couple of minutes each but picked up Black Headed Gull, Common Sandpiper, Barn Swallow (of which there were dozens feeding) Herring Gull, Goldfinch, House Martin, Woodpigeon, Collared Dove, Pied Wagtail and there were some Robins in the bushes. A nice little selection of birds and a very pleasant outing despite the traffic noise.

Bird recordings

 Since being floored by Covid my old way of birding has had to change.  I can't walk anything like the distances I could.  So one area I have begun to explore is the world of audio recording.  I started with a small digital Dictaphone which worked great but there was no way to transfer it to a computer for playback or analysis

I heard about a great tool, the AudioMoth, from an ornithologist friend, which although a little hard to get hold of is relatively cheap and can be configured to record over days or even weeks and having eventually gotten my hands on one worked really well.

I have been using this for almost a year now and am delighted with the results.  I mostly set it up in my garden at home but also of late have been setting it up in the Cemetery Woods at Colne in Lancashire (SD 89770 439895)*  and also at Greenfield Nature Reserve at the opposite end of the town from my place (SD 87225 39618).  Early efforts were a bit frustrating as getting into wildlife audio recording you soon come to realize how much ambient noise there is about that our wonderful brain filters out for us.  However, the AudioMoth's configuration tools are designed to help reduce this.  

My first outing at Greenfield NR was was at the start of April and we had a total of 28 species including Wren, Chiffchaff, Great Tit, Robin, Bullfinch, Goldfinch, Blackbird, Carrion Crow, Dunnock, Oystercatcher, Jackdaw, Blue Tit, Chaffinch, Goldcrest, Grey Wagtail, Song Thrush, Mallard, Coal Tit, Wood Pigeon, Long Tailed Tit, Blackcap, Jackdaw,, Canada Goose, Greater Spotted Woodpecker, Magpie, Willow Warbler, Song Thrush and possibly Mistle Thrush.

I have been gradually learning bird calls and songs but also make use of a wonderful tool from Cornell University, the Merlin Application which can be downloaded to your smartphone.  I have noticed that some calls, like the Ring Necked Pheasant and members of the Pigeon and Dove family cause occasional issues for Merlin, these are almost entirely in the lower frequencies.   

Once the recordings are made I use yet another valuable tool to help identify the birds and that is Audacity which allows you to download the WAV files and analyze them via the sonogram,  I have taken a screen shot of one of the files I loaded in the back garden recently;

This was recorded at .4:26 in the morning in Mid May and has Wren, Ring Necked Pheasant, Curlew and Blackbird in this minute long image.  No I was not up that time but the beauty of AudioMoth is you don't need to be.  An obvious thing to say here is if the bird remains silent like many overflying and female ones do you don't know they are there but in combination with visual records this can show a lot more of what is around you, especially when the trees are leafed up and birds can hide easily.

On another front this could be a great way for the visually impaired to become involved in our great past time.

I now have two AudioMoths and am gradually getting the time to get out and place them in more interesting places. The latest piece of kit to arrive (sorry I'm a real sucker for a gadget) is a HydroMoth, which is the underwater version of the AudioMoth, but can be used out of water too.  Can't wait to get a chance to try this out.

Parabolic Microphone

I have also taken delivery of a parabolic Microphone with which to continue my journey into the audio side.  I plan to use this most at migration time for some nocmig,ing but will be playing with it in the meantime to see how best to use it.

More anon but it is certainly a facinating area to expand the birding experiences,  In terms of cost the whole lot so far cost me less than a good mid range set of binoculars, so its pretty affordable.  There are obviously other kit suppliers and no doubt these have a much better recording range but at over £600 to £700 they are unlikely to get in to my box any time soon.

* for those not familiar with the location coding, this is the one used by the UK Ordinance Survey Maps to identify the location.

© Bernard Bracken 13/6/23