§ S · Struikgewas

Acoustics · low

Struikgewas hears what
sounds low.

The microphones hang on the shed in the garden, sheltered from the rain under the gutter. At shrub and garden height they pick up what moves close by: dunnocks slipping through the bushes, wrens that suddenly belt out a loud song from nowhere, robins marking their territory. But these microphones also catch what passes overhead pretty well.

About the confidence score

An algorithm is no ornithologist

Every detection comes with a confidence score. 92% chance it's a blackbird, 23% chance it's a noctule. The number looks scientific, but it remains a model's guess. Often very good. Sometimes completely off.

A few from this garden. A bicycle bell once became a bullfinch. A bouncing ball down the street, an eider. One pipistrelle sounds almost identical to another, as far as BatDetect2 is concerned. The algorithm misfires there regularly, even at 95%. Rare species are extra suspect. The model has seen fewer of them, so a detection like that stands on shaky ground.

I check the less common and rare species myself. For each detection I play the recording back and see if it holds up. But that leaves me running behind sometimes. I might only get to it days later, and until then a doubtful case just sits on the site.

So those numbers are a hint, not an identification. An algorithm that listens day and night hears more than I ever could on my own, and that's already something.

Latest detection

09:34 Western jackdaw 71%

§ S-02 · Live in the shrubs From the microphones under the gutter in the garden

Just in.

Every detection from BirdNET-Pi berging shows up here straight away. The microphone hangs low. So what you see here is mostly callers and begging youngsters, no fly-overs.

connecting

Listening.

No detections since you opened this page. A quiet stretch means nothing was heard, not that the pipeline is down.

§ S-03 · Today in view What we've heard so far

Top today

The day so far

grouped by species

00:12 Western jackdaw 125x until 09:34
00:42 Redwing 27x until 08:12
00:48 Song thrush 13x until 08:11
06:39 Eurasian curlew 1x
06:57 Eurasian magpie 24x until 08:35
07:26 European robin 124x until 09:31
07:27 Hawfinch 7x until 07:48
07:40 Eurasian blue tit 65x until 08:57
07:54 Common chaffinch 3x until 08:17
08:01 Greater white-fronted goose 21x until 09:22
08:07 Common blackbird 3x until 09:15
08:08 Great tit 13x until 09:15
08:11 Greylag goose 12x until 08:39
08:33 European green woodpecker 2x until 09:06
08:37 Green sandpiper 1x
08:43 White wagtail 1x
08:48 Eurasian jay 1x
08:50 Dunnock 6x until 09:34
08:51 European goldfinch 1x
09:14 Fieldfare 2x
09:20 Eurasian collared dove 3x

§ S-04 · What are we actually hearing Vocalisation types, top 10

Birds don't just sing. They call, alarm and make contact sounds.

Custom CNN models decide per detection whether it's song, call, alarm or something else. Counts over the last seven days, for the top 10 most-heard species.

Species	song	call	alarm	other
Western jackdaw	726	1,905	158	476
European robin	403	1,069	551	222
Redwing	29	1,221	64	136
Eurasian magpie	314	241	457	197
Great tit	291	198	70	108
Song thrush	2	297	15	177
Eurasian blue tit	60	223	72	109
Common blackbird	14	316	81	38
Greater white-fronted goose	·	286	4	3
Rook	·	74	71	34

Song = territorial (song / subsong / display song). Call = communication (call / begging call / flight call / nocturnal migration call). Alarm = predator spotted. Other = raw drumming or unclassified by the model.

§ S-05 · Listening Top 3 per species, top 9 on confidence

What there was to hear low down.

The low shrub layer mostly captures callers and begging youngsters. A script picks the three clearest recordings of the past year per species, every night.

Nog geen fragmenten beschikbaar voor deze plek. De index wordt elke nacht opnieuw gemaakt.

§ S-06 · Highlights · all time Hand-picked, with my own context

The classics.

Rarities, one-off passers-by, and moments I don't want to forget myself. Every single one fished out of the archive by hand.

No highlights marked yet. Ronny regularly picks new ones.

§ S-07 · Today versus normal What stands out?

Today 21 different species, with a total of 455 detections.
Peak today around 07:00 (211 detections). The 30-day average peaks around 07:00.
Today fewer detections than the average over the last thirty days (-73%).

Detections per hour 0–23 h

today 30-day average

§ S-08 · Under the hood How Struikgewas is built

Struikgewas runs on a Raspberry Pi 5 (8GB) in a weatherproof enclosure on the shed in the garden. Two microphones hang under the gutter of the shed, sheltered from the rain, at shrub height. The Steinberg UR44 audio interface handles the input. BirdNET-Pi analyses every three seconds, and then the same CNN models as on Bladerdak determine the vocalisation type (song, call, alarm or contact). North/south direction detection doesn't work here yet. That'll come later.

Further on The other acoustics station

Acoustics · north/south Bladerdak Two microphones under the gutter, listening 24/7 to birds around the canopy.