You might recall my encounter with one of the UK's top birders ..... well, today we interacted again. Over a half-hour cup of coffee he managed yet again to reduce my birding credentials to a quivering heap of crap !! (I ought to come up with a nickname for him .... how about Stodgy ? OK.) But how, you might ask, did he manage to create this ego-destroying effect ? Well, he had really tricky question for me, for a start.... " Where do our Red-Necked Phalaropes overwinter ?" Crumbs ! I had what I thought was a reasonable response ..... but boy, was I wrong. Mind you, it's not something I felt I really needed to know... but as far as he was concerned, it tipped me onto the birding scrapheap ..ouch. Fair enough. So, dear reader ... put yourself in my place ... what would your answer be ? Now onto the second topic .... he got started on Green-winged Teals. Here's his questions about that .... [a] Why weren't they accepted as different species years ago ? [b] How did those two completely differently positioned white stripes evolve ? They're on completely different feather tracts. As far as anyone knows, there's no "intermediate" versions. They're no bloody use anyway ... in either position. So ... how did that come about ? Er ... I did come up with a possible hypothesis ... Maybe there was a whole panoply of intermediates, but those two versions withstood the test of selection/evolution. But we both agreed it seemed pretty unlikely. Have a think for yourself. I'm thinking right now. And by the way ... he repeatedly accused me of being a creationist. What ? Me ? I'm about as far away from "creationism" as any person on the planet. But we'll let that pass. Right .... so there's a couple of things for you to think about. Mind you, I think I stumped him a bit with my question as to whether "our" Swallows breed when they get to southern Africa... ah-ha !! But now, the lovely " Oceanos de sed" with the words (letra) and everything ... I'm feeling a little less crushed now .....
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AuthorThat's the author up there ... I was young and sprightly then. Archives
October 2022
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