No not the Welsh Magician from the Arthurian myths, but the Merlin Bird ID app uploaded to my phone. This very clever app, as if by Merlin’s magic, lets you listen to a bird’s song and quickly identifies it for you, 95% accurate. You can also upload other details or photos for identification. I know the vast majority of birds if I spot them, but have always been poor with their songs. I’m aiming to improve matters by regular use of the sound ID function. Practice makes perfect. Hence Merlin came out with me today.
I nearly didn’t bother with a walk as it rained all morning and didn’t promise much better for the afternoon. But come the stoke of one pm and some optimistic brightening I am ready to go at the top of the village. My plan is to simply walk around the familiar fell road, avoiding the sodden fields and moor.
As I climb the fell road I keep stopping to listen to the birds in the hedgerows and trees. Merlin does the rest. My leisurely progress gives me time to look at my surroundings, particularly the stone walls marching alongside me. A stone placed on the verge a few years ago has started to develop a pronounced mossy growth, whereas the ancient walls are completely enveloped in vegetative growth. 
Higher up the road the north facing wall is completely different to its south facing companion.
Dropping down to the weir at Cowley Brook I leave the road to wander up through my favourite plantation. Even the noise of the fast flowing brook doesn’t stop Merlin picking out the bird song. Straight away it identifies a Gray Wagtail and there in front of me is the tail wagging bird. I might have missed it without Merlin’s prompting.
There is water gurgling from every nook and cranny but I know how to avoid the worst bits. At the top of the plantation I rest awhile on a tree stump looking out over the Ribble Valley although all the tops including Pendle are in mist. I’ve been lucky so far as there has been some brightness and the rain has held off. I celebrate with an orange. 
Hitting the road to Jeffrey Hill I change my plan on a whim. Rather than just walk back on the road why not go up to the trig point of Longridge Fell 350m. the most southerly named ‘fell’ in England. Having set out on a road walk to avoid the mud here am I heading off up one of the squelchiest tracks at this time of year. 
There is something different about the walk alongside the wall, a tracked vehicle has been up here. I then notice the drainage ditch that they have been excavating. Why I ask? Surely not just for us walkers. Are there plans afoot to plant more trees? I ponder this as I walk on and then notice they have dug a similar ditch on the other side of the wall. I can’t believe what I see – one of my favourite trees, the solitary Scots Pine I christened ‘Its Grim Up North’ from its windblown appearance, has been uprooted for the sake of the ditch and is lying on its side. I almost cry. How could they have done this? 
I have alluded to it many times on walks up here and have a folio of photographs of it as it was
I plod on rather dejected. There are more drainage channels going in other directions. (is this the same work you saw above the Dog House Clare?)
I take that narrow tunnel through the trees. I’m expecting problems at its end as the last time I came the other way I couldn’t get through because of fallen trees. They are still there blocking the way but it looks like people have started to find a way round or more correctly through them. Only just, 
I emerge near the fell wall and head up to the trig point. It is fast disappearing in the thick cloud, and is that rain I can feel? Have I misjudged the time and conditions by adding on this detour? What time does it get dark? A quick march up and then I’m heading back down through the mirk, no sign of the Bowland Hills or even Chipping Vale down below. It is excessively boggy on this stretch. I am however rewarded by Skylarks singing joyfully overhead. Merlin and I can hear them, but there is no chance of seeing them in the mist which is getting worse. It is good to see the appropriate slate poem by the gate is still intact. Needless to say I don’t meet a soul, there isn’t even a car parked up at Jeffrey Hill, a rare occurrence given its popularity with dog walkers.
It’s just a long walk down the road now but I am getting gradually drenched. My phone with Merlin is buried in my deepest pocket. No one at the golf course which has been closed for many days this year due to a combination of flooding and mist. I still manage to find a couple of wayward golf balls in the verge, they will go to my son whom seems to loose a lot himself. There are some newborn lambs in the field, the first I have seen this year.
I am back at the car by 5pm, seven and a half miles under my belt, more than I had anticipated and I’m ready for a good long soak in my bath.
***
For the record here is a list of the birds Merlin recognised, I only actually saw a fraction of them but I’m getting better at recognising a Robin’s song from a Wren’s or a Chaffinch.
Robin; Blue Tit; Collared Dove; Carrion Crow; House Sparrow; Goldfinch; Rook; Starling’ Fieldfare; Chaffinch; Gray Wagtail; Coal Tit; Long tailed Tit; Wren; Great Tit; Jackdaw; Skylark; Blackbird; Goldfinch; Pheasant; Greenfinch; Dunnock. 
Here’s the Robin.
***
Oh god I’m sorry about your tree. What a magnificent one it was too.
Very sad.
I downloaded the Merlin app a liitle while ago when I saw it mentioned in an Observer review of apps, but have never got round to using it. How does it cope with multiple birds chirruping away like I get in the Plantations?
It seems to pick them all up, I had five at one time yesterday in the woods. It highlights each one. Very clever.
It does make a walk more interesting, just like being out with an expert.
Will try it out next time I’m in the woods! Thanks for your help
You will be impressed I’m sure.
That tree thing couldn’t have been done by anybody who has a feeling for nature and the outdoors so one wonders how empathetic the rest of their operation is.
Merlin sounds interesting. I have looked for it and there are several similar ones – can you say exactly which one it is before I go off and download yet another app by mistake that I never use. I have just deleted a number of those.
I wrote a blog post titled Merlin back in 2015, but with a different application of the name. I also named my Boy Scouts Senior Patrol of which I was the patrol leader The Merlins. An,d coincidentally I spent two years back in the late sixties racing a Merlin Rocket dinghy on Hollingworth Lake with my late brother Nock.
https://conradwalks.blogspot.com/2015/10/merlin.html
They, whoever they are, went right through the roots of the tree, I can’t see it surviving.
I have had trouble with apps before but since buying an up to date phone with lots of memory etc they seem to work like clockwork.
https://merlin.allaboutbirds.org/
Well what can I say? Maybe they are ‘improving’ the land by digging drainage ditches but I’m sure there could have been an alternative to sacrificing the tree – I agree with Conrad, whoever ‘they’ are it seems they have no feeling for nature and trees. I would like to think that it could possibly be reinstated in a different spot but I can imagine the next time you go up there you’ll find the trunk neatly chainsawed into manageable chunks ready to take away 😢
I like the chickens and the lambs, all rather sweet especially the white one 🙂
Very disappointed by the tree episode.
First lambs of the season and free range Rooster.
I heard that the ‘landscaping ‘ work done on the south of the fell , above Dutton Doghouse, is a fire break to protect the house and outbuildings, but doesn’t account for all the newly dug ditches?
There is an uprooted Scots Pine there too. As you say, obviously the digger driver wasn’t a sensitive nature lover! I’ll do some detective work!
I’m so upset about the loss of ‘my’ its grim up North pine which I think I pointed out to you when we were up there.
Fire break sounds like a smoke screen to me – if you will pardon the pun. There is more going on up there than we realise.
I will have to have a look up the Dog House track.
I await your sleuthing.
That’s so sad about the tree. Quite senseless.
It’s funny that you should mention the Merlin app. I downloaded it in February after it was recommended by my sort of sister in law. I have just started using it , like you I’m not great at itentifying birdsong, so it’s been interesting. It helped me identify a flock of siskins the other day.
Yes Merlin is a lovely companion whilst out and about.
I am so sorry about the pine tree!
Unnecessary destruction.
Like everyone here, I’m deeply saddened by the loss of that beautiful tree. I had seen it in previous posts of yours and was keen to look it up next time I was over your way. I’m sure such destruction could have been avoided. Anyway, I have got myself the Merlin App now and look forward to trying it out, as soon as the rain stops.
Thanks Michael, the world is a sadder place.
Was up there in the woods today with Merlin, it seems to pick up the slightest bird noise and has me searching for them with my binoculars. Hours of fun.
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I didn’t know this app. Thanks for sharing.
It’s addictive.
Hi BC
I’ve just enjoyed catching up. You have been prolific, and those Walks in the Ribble and Hodder valleys look good. Did you finish the ‘Walking in Lancashire’ routes?
I’m amazed at the depth you go into when composing your postings. These days time constraints result in my entries being superficial in comparison. I think it comes to competing demands on one’s time. Still, Merlin (in your case) and BirdNET (in my case) do encourage us to pause and listen a little more often than we used to perhaps, given a phone signal!
I have more time on my hands than you. Martin.
Enjoying using Merlin and it does slow one down to a relaxing pace which suits me.
I never quiet finished those Cicerone walks I was on with last year, a painful hip has limited my mileage. Hopefully will resume in the drier weather.
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