There's lots of " Big Year" books to be had ...varying from a local birder "doing" his/her little patch, right up to whole-world round trips. And up there you've got all three ... but my quests this year, assuming I live long enough, are to get my house list up to 100 ( it is now 97) , then to get my long-stuck- just-a-few-short-of-the-magic-400 up to the aforesaid number. One of those three tomes up there is a rare item ..... and, in my humble opinion, the best. British Birding 1984 was written by Ted Abrahams, a North Wales based birder. How many copies of it exist I don't know ..... maybe my copy is now worth squillions of quids ! The one on the right is another absolute belter of a book. A gripping read. The ideal bird book to read when you are ill in bed with something or other. I know I did. Along with Oddie's Big Bird Race. And now, as I write this, it is getting dark on this last day of 2021. My last book purchase of the year isn't a bird book at all. It is " Dwi'n hapus pan" a Welsh children's book. It means " I'm happy when...... " And here's a fine Welsh song ..... "Seddi Gwag" performed on Bangor Pier....... So ...have a smashing 2022
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Yes readers, here's yet another way to footle away your precious time .... I'm sure you've all got loads of back issues of your local " Trumptonshire Annual Bird Report" ..... I know I have. So why not get them all out and track down how all those birds are getting on through the years ..... our Treecreepers, for example, have totally plummeted round my way, and that's not all. On the other hand, some have prospered. So you can have a smashing time rifling through all that data, drawing graphs, making lists etc. Another good laugh can be had by inspecting the list of contributors in the back pages. Some of them you will know to be downright fantasists and/or halfwits. About 30% is the norm. And quite a few will have dropped dead . Another gripping bar chart to be had there. And once you've done the scientific stuff, why not write a stiff letter to the edditers about all the miprpsints, bra charts, farburcations, growss erurs and mislabeld snaps of, you'll never guess, "raritis." Not to be confused with ratites. They all died out up my way about 30 million years ago. Maybe a few days more. But enough ! Here's various versions of "What Birders Do" Yes, once again, I've got some good news for you all .... I'm going to show you all those rubbish bird books that I've reviewed over the centuries .... 715-the-worst-world-tick-fest-book.html 642-the-worst-bird-book-in-the-universe.html 644-the-worst-bird-book-in-the-universe-part-2.html 659-the-worst-foreign-bird-guide.html 665-the-worst-nature-newspaper-column.html 726-a-rival-for-the-worst-bird-book-for-young-people.html 732-the-worst-garden-birdwatching-book-ever.html 729-more-from-the-young-bird-watchers.html Blimey ! Is there no end to the panoply of crap bird books ? Here's our usual spot of wonderful music ..... Top Spanish band Vetusta morla with the scintillating " La Deriva" ...... Way way back to the very birth of this blog I showed you a wonderful picture of a rather odd bird .. I christened it as "The Spring Crosby." What a smashing bird .... but not a real one. I cobbled it together from bits cut out of the RSPB mag a long time ago. ..... and you can have great fun doing the same thing ... ... and create a whole panoply of odd -looking birds. .... and there's a crap sort of day turned into an excellent/silly/entertaining day. Ever since, I've been hoping that some nit might have thought it was real, and tried to find where it could be spotted, and/or what its call was. It might even get into a "real" bird book. Rather more drastically, I also cut up and pasted together various RSPB people in the mag, to hilarious effect. BUT ... since then, the "people pictures" in the mag got rather smaller, I presume to stop anyone else doing it. They are are still mostly smaller to this day ! So ... have a go at it with pics from your ancient bird mags. I recommend it. As I write this, it is chucking it down outside plus bloody cold.... so I'll make some too. OK ... there's more "doldrum-related silliness" to come. And now, the music .... the wonderful " Wir sind Helden" and " Bring mich nach Hause" ..why not sing along with it ... German is a smashing language to sing/speak..... And this time I'm going to direct you to lots of those regional " tick celebrations" ... they're different all over over the country.
The idea is, when you've got a tick, before you drive back home, you do a special, and rather personal, " Tick Dance." And when you get back home, you do a different ritual ... you climb up your special chosen tree. I, for example, climb our garden Eucalyptus. Here's the links to my favourite ones ...... they usually involve lots of prancing around and farting about. (!). 180-the-exeter-cirl-bunting-another-tick-dance.html 174-tick-celebrations-a-selection.html 238-another-space-saving-tick-dance.html 457-tick-celebrations-some-new-ideas.html There's more of them, but the computer has gone a bit bonkers and won't load them up. It could be because of everyone falling into a stupor having eaten 447 Christmas cakes. Who knows ? As you might remember, I made a Huge Pyramid Of My Bird Books long time ago, but over time it has whittled down what with taking one out and not putting it back ... and anyway, I only managed to pyramidicate a tiny fraction of my collection. And a large % of them are HUGE GREAT TOMES . Here's my first prototype...... just a precarious column. There were several other readjustments .. ..and it keeps getting smaller and bigger ...... ..and it got re-arranged into this rather precarious pyramid. ...and it is still there, plus or minus numerous insertions and extractions. .. it now has a right side as well, but it has shrunk quite a bit. In this slack period between CD and NYD I'll put more silly but relevant blasts from the past on here. ... and remember, we do all this bird stuff in the name of love ... Idling through some of my many ( very many) copies of British Birds, I came across a review of " Popular Garden Birds" ..by one Joe Firmin .... see below .. Is there such a thing as an "unpopular garden bird" ? Here's the BB review of it .... A little book with some helpful advice as to how to attract birds to a garden, but I am not sure that I agree : " The illustrations should also prove helpful in identifying visitors to your garden"; some, such as that of the Dunnock Prunella modularis are almost unrecognisable. Forty species are illustrated, and Brambling Fringilla montifringilla and Hawfinch Coccothraustes coccothraustes will indeed be "popular" if they visit my garden. So ... I'm hoping to get " Unpopular Garden Birds" in my huge heap of presents ....... if only to have a laugh at that dubious Dunnock ( Prunella obscurus ). Here's another Mike Nesmith song ...... rest in peace ..... You'll all be wondering where my yearly " Birds on Christmas Cards" list is. And here it actually is ..... Barn Owl 1 Goldfinch 1 Robin 7 Pheasant 1 Penguin sp. 1 Blackbird m. 1 Blue Tit 1 Bullfinch m. 1 Crested Tit 1 Great Tit f. 1 Blue Jay 1 Nightingale 7 Unknown passerines 5 Mammals Hare 1 Sheep 3 Dog 1 Deer 1 I think that might be the biggest list I've had in past Xmas counts. Here's the link to the 2020 list ..... don't get too excited. 993-christmas-card-critters.html OK folks ... 'tis Music Time .... let's have a lovely Love of Lesbian song ..... ..and you can sing along to it ... Spanish is a very sensuous language to sing ... oh yes! Having got that hefty tome about Polish birds ..(see previous post) well, half of them anyway, I thought I should find a a film about the terrific-ness of their birds. And I found one ...... here we go .... how many will you ID ? I think Lithuania would come out pretty high in the " best places" list as well .... .. not that I'm biased or owt ! Here's the links to my gripping account of my Lithuanian Experience .... 288-when-i-was-in-lithuania-part-1.html 293-when-i-was-in-lithuania-part-2.html 389-when-i-was-in-lithuania-part-3.html ..and now ... music ...... Johnny Halliday ... L'envie ... My sister got me a very hefty bird book for my 72nd birthday ..... I could hardly carry it back to the car ... that one down there is the first book ... and I'm the proud possessor of Tom 2. As you might have noticed, it is entirely in Polish. I would be dead chuffed if there was a book called "Polish up your Polish." But sadly, there isn't. But the nifty thing is ... it does give you the Latin names ! So .... Wodnik ...... Rallus aquaticus One of the rules of Polish bird names seems to be that all have a zed or two. They like a k as well..... Slonka ..... Scolopax rusticola They're not big fans of vowels ... Jastrzqb ... Accipiter gentilis. Well, having made you all feel somewhat "out of the loop" of Polish bird literature I'll leave you with an excellent spot of Polish music ... there's at least 1 bird in it ! |
AuthorThat's the author up there ... I was young and sprightly then. Archives
October 2022
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