Here's an "interesting" list for you .... Upper parts black Upper parts white Upper parts grey Upper parts brown Upper parts green or greenish Upper parts blue Upper parts white Upper parts pink or pinkish Upper parts golden-yellow Upper parts red What's that all about then ? Are there only going to be 10 species on the British List from now on ? Is it a totally new way of classifying the birds ? How will this affect the colour-blind fraternity ?? Are we ditching Laridae and Turdidae and all that lot ? My upperparts are two-fold... the hair ( such as it is) is grey. .... and the skin is pink with brown spots. More about this later ... meanwhile, a bit of relevant music ...
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For a long while now we've not had a " named bird" in the garden .... one that we recognised as an unique individual that we could be sure it was "the same one." And that's a shame, because it gives you something to look out for each day. Regular readers will remember him I'm sure. It ain't difficult to work out why he's called "The Rev". But there's always, eventually, the sad disappearance .... .......as did The Rev. But we hope that one day he'll be back. I'm sure that many of you have had a similar experience. Anyway ... it is, as usual, Music Time ........ ....a fascinating insight as to how PMc gets creative ....... it has cheered me up considerably because it makes my guitar-playing seem terrific ! And the singing. ... and, unlike Paul, I'm "singing" in your actual Welsh. We all love The Big Bird Race book ... even though it falls apart. But the film of it, as far as we know, doesn't exist. But here's a top idea ... ..why not turn it into a Bande Dessinée What's that then ? Basically, they are French cartoon stories. Hardbacks ... not those floppy comics. The size and shape of, for instance, the Rupert Annual. A bit thinner maybe. I've got loads of them, and they are a cherished all over Europe. They even have yearly "BD Conventions" which attract avid collectors. Here's a few of my French ones, to show you what they're like .... I dare say lots of you out there would think it's a stupid idea. But I think it would be a wonderful thing to have. We've been robbed of the long-lost (?) film of the race. Yes, the book is smashing. But a BD would be the cherry on the cake ! BRING IT ON ! For a footling amount ( £2.49) I have become the owner of this updated version of " BO'sLBBB . There it is.This new version is pretty much the same as the original.... So .... what do you think HAS changed ? Well, the main selling point is the wonderful upgrade from the original, of which I have several copies, and all of them have fa l l n t e o b i t s. But this one doesn't. Ace ! It is sturdily un-separable. Meaning ... it doesn't fall apart. Blimey ... a breathtaking breakthrough ! And ..the "new" bits are at the beginning and the end. There's a revised Introduction ...... and the "recommended book list" is, of course, very different. I'm pleased to say that I've got all but two of them on my shelves. I haven't really needed " The Birds of Siberia." And "Audubon and his Journals" neither. When the original came out, lots of old-timers didn't like it, but I thought it was bloody brilliant, and I still do. I was especially intrigued by his wonderful section on binocular-straps ! 100-bill-oddies-little-black-bird-book.html And now, a stirring anthemic Wir sind Helden song ... DENKMAL ... ..and now you can sing-along with WSH ...here we go ... it's stirring stuff ... Here's an interesting paragraph from Pete Dunne's "The Art of Bird Identification ." And the title is ... ..... WONRG ! I love misidentifying birds, and I have had a lot of practice doing so. Over the course of my birding career , I'm sure I've been guilty of thousands of misidentifications, and that's just the ones I have caught myself or had pointed out to me. But the reason I love misidentification is because I learn more about bird identification when I'm wrong than when I am right. Correct identifications are, after all, the expected norm ..what commonly happens when a careful birder sees a bird well enough to note distinguishing traits. But misidentifications are anomalous, exciting. The challenge for new and experienced birders alike becomes understanding what it was about the angle, distance, light, movement or plumage that led you to believe a bird was another species entirely. you learn, at the very least, to respect the similarity between the two species you have just confused, and you hope that what you learn will keep you from making the same mistake gain. Misidentification does not end the game. Misidentification just resets the board for the next match. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Maybe we should all think about the birding-related mistakes we've made .... Here's a lovely German song .... "Havarie" While I'm writing this up in my office/study/junkheap it is chucking it down with rain, horribly cold and apparently 'tis only going to get worse with Storm Barra looming in the distance.
Imagine, if you will, the British avifauna a century hence. The weight of evidence suggests that today's predictions are likely to be more accurate than those in the past. If they are fulfilled, then our avifauna will certainly be very different from what we know today. There will be fewer breeding species. Many northerly ones will either have disappeared or have much reduced populations. Others, especially those which have a southern range, will have expanded northwards and increased in population. There will be new additions to our breeding avifauna, mainly species currently expanding their ranges on the Continent. Many species dependent on a specialised habitat, however, such as farmland, heathland or wetland birds, will have decreased in numbers and range. Resident breeding species, especially highly adaptable ones such as pigeons, crows and gulls will have increased, and together with a greater variety of alien species, will dominate our birdlife. In winter, formerly crowded estuaries and coastal wetlands will support a much reduced variety of species and numbers of birds. Meanwhile, some of our rarer winter visitors will have been replaced by increasing numbers former summer visitors spending the whole year here. Long-distance migrants will have undergone a series of catastrophic population crashes. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Well, that was the prediction 20 + years ago. Have there been any signs of all that yet ? The next thing we've got to think about is ... what can we do about it ? So ..let's have a bit of uplifting music ....... this is the song I heard on the radio and pulled in to the side to listen to it properly ...... wonderful. A couple of Jays have been frequenting the garden lately. And they have conspicuous white rumps. But why ? Well, the idea is, the sudden flash of white as they fly away is meant to startle any possible pursuer. BUT ..surely this also draws attention to them, sometimes hostile attention. So .... how many UK birds have a white rump ? And here's another thing ....loads of birds have white wing-bars. I assume that they do the same thing. So ... how many of our UK species have them ? There we are then .... things to think about . Here we are at the 2nd of December ...and what with all the wet and cold and incredible winds it is hardly surprising that we might like to get a look at some exotic birding ... so here is some .... Cathartic or what ! I rest my case. So ...let's move straight on to the music .... |
AuthorThat's the author up there ... I was young and sprightly then. Archives
October 2022
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