About
Observations and encounters with wildlife as I walk this lovely county in the East of England, with camera and audio recorder in hand. Most of it will be from East Anglia and Suffolk in particular, but not exclusively.
I'm no professional naturalist, this is about serendipity, flânerie and learning a bit more about the beings we share this county with.
Why a blog? Didn't those go out with the ark, or at least with the advent of the iPhone in the 2010s? I like the gentler pace and time for reflection. I don't do social media and I'm not that keen on the attention economy and favour writing, natural sound and photos over podcasts and video, so I accept my anachronism with joy. And I accept my amateur status, I will get things wrong at times, by all means flag up ID errors! In that vein I use these resources to help with ID
ID resources
Good for suggesting/identifying bird photos (not sounds, you have to do that yourself). Weak on identifying insects in my experience, for which I found
has the edge. Identifying insects from photos is inherently a tougher game than birds, and it pays to learn about what characteristics to photograph.
I have no skill with keying plants, and I don't really record plants because of that, but maybe I can learn
There are too many ID/web recording sites, though at least iNaturalist feeds qualified observations into iRecord
Merlin deserves an honourable mention, identify birds by their calls on a smartphone app. It works very well, though it works even better if you have some familiarity with bird calls in your area because it's not error-free, even to my amateur ears. It doesn't make bonkers suggestions like some sound ID programs I've tried. Merlin knows where you are which helps get the right list of likely birds into it.
I make an exception for no smartphone in the field principle for Merlin, though I do feel the pull of the rectangle of doom yanking me out of the real world. I sometimes play recordings through headphones into the phone mic if there's a sound ID I have doubts about or I often confuse to get a second opinion.
Recording resources
You may as well make your observations in the field help with recording observations of what you see/hear, Unfortunately, a bit like the ID resources, there are perhaps too many choices in this respect. I don't use a smartphone in the field or apps if I can help it, which limits me to web based resources. IMO the most relevant choices for UK/Suffolk recording here are
Birdtrack from the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO). Emphasis on birds, natch ;)
iRecord - from their website
The goal of iRecord is to make it easier for wildlife sightings to be collated, checked by experts and made available to support research and decision-making at local and national levels. Join iRecord now to share your sightings with the recording community, explore dynamic maps and graphs of your data and make a real contribution to science and conservation
This is a little bit beyond my pay grade 😀I only post things there that I didn't use iNaturalist for (because iNaturalist feeds qualified records to iRecord) and I am dead certain sure of, which are few.
Floobydust
I've been involved with the Oak Tree Community farm in Rushmere St Andrew near Ipswich on and off since its inception, which is why it comes up in many posts. It is probably my local patch.
