A couple of posts back ( #1131] I was a bit irked that Peterson (RT) had "Eight questions to ask when you wanted to identify a bird" but he didn't actually tell us what they were. But this afternoon I think I found them. I was leafing through my extremely ancient 1969 edition of " A Field Guide to the Birds of Britain and Europe" which was written by Peterson, Mountfort and Hollom .... and an excellent book it is. It's still an excellent book despite its age and bashed-up-ness . It was the first "proper" field guide I ever had. Anyway .... within it I think I've found those " 8 Questions" of Peterson's ... ...........and here they are ....but actually, there's 8 +1 of them .... [1] What is its size ? [2] What is its shape ? [3] How does it behave ? [4] How does it fly ? [5] What are its Field Marks ? [6] Call notes and song ? [7] Where is it found ? [8] When is it found ? And the extra, all-important 9th one ... [9] CAUTION ! I've filled all the blank pages with all sorts of extra stuff .... phone numbers of local birders, French names of lots of birds, loads of underlining in the "species list", and for some unknown and totally gormless reason I've numbered all the birds from (1) Red-throated Diver right through to (471) Raven .... and then, even more preposterously, I've carried on right through all the "Accidentals" from (472) Wandering Albatross and finally (585) Daurian Jackdaw. Well, now you know the sort of nitwit I used to be ..and to a large extent, still am. And I'm fairly sure that most of us birders have done similar things ........ But now ... one of the finest songs you don't want to miss .... ..... plus a terrific video to go with it.
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AuthorThat's the author up there ... I was young and sprightly then. Archives
October 2022
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