Equinox—23 September 2026

This morning’s soundscape seemed to hold two seasons at once.

The house martins are still here, while pink-footed geese are beginning their autumn return. Among them, Merlin suggested twenty-three birds:

Robin, long-tailed tit, chaffinch, blue tit, great tit, wren, coal tit, spotted flycatcher, song thrush, buzzard, goldfinch, house sparrow, bullfinch, dunnock, meadow pipit, carrion crow, house martin, pink-footed goose, jay, siskin, redpoll, bittern and brambling.

Most belong comfortably to the landscape around us. The redpoll is entirely believable, moving through the birches and alders. A brambling would be an early arrival from the north, possible at this point in September but still something to raise a questioning eyebrow.

The bittern is another matter. A secretive bird of reedbeds and marshes, it seems vanishingly unlikely here. Listening back to the sound recording, I think Merlin picked up a noisy cow. Not quite as exotic, but a lot more likely.

Mind you, I once dismissed Merlin for thinking a yapping dog sound was a tawny owl. As I have said before, bird IDs are not my superpower.

Birds are identified mainly by sound using the Merlin Bird ID app. The list is a record of what the app detected rather than a confirmed survey, so occasional misidentifications are possible—especially with unexpected or particularly exotic visitors.