You're on this game show ..... "The Big Birding Game Show" actually. There's 3 closed doors in front of you. One of them opens up to a FREE birding trip to any country in the world ! The other two doors open up to reveal a week's supply of peanuts. The host asks you to choose a door .... up you go and grasp the handle. But you don't get to open it .... but you've made your choice. The host walks up and opens another door .... .... and that one has the peanuts behind it.. ( The Host knows which doors are which ... so he knows where the peanuts are) So now, there's two doors "in use" .. one open, and one being held onto. And one still closed, all on its own. The "3rd" one. At this point, there are still 2 closed doors .... and a visible goat at the open one. Now you, the contestant, has a choice to make.... So .... 1 of the closed doors has a car behind it .... and the other has a goat . Then he asks the contestant, who is still holding on to his door-handle .. " Do you want to open your door, or do you want to switch to the other one ?" SO ... ARE YOU BETTER OFF WITH THE DOOR YOU PICKED ? OR SHOULD YOU GO TO THE OTHER UNOPENED ONE ? IT'S YOUR CHOICE ! TRICKY OR WHAT !! We're going to have a bit of music now ... to soothe the Seething Brain ! It is supposed to be the saddest song in the world.... That problem I've set you is the "bird" version of The Monty Hall Paradox. The original "prizes" were a car and two goats. So it is also known the the Car and Goats Paradox. There are TRILLIONS of videos about it, all trying to explain it. But I've found the best one ... the one that reveals why what seems to be the wrong answer is in fact the right one. Mind you, you won't like it ! I would love to see your comments about it ..... it is so baffling !!!!! It has caused huge arguments between many top mathematicians !
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Many of my faithful readers will remember the rather stodgy approach to birdwatching as portrayed in a book from the Stone age in which a dodgy old gaffer called Mr. Nesbit guides two teenagers , Mike (m) and Chips (F) along the rocky road to being stodgy old gaffers like him. ..... Here's an illuminating extract .... Aha ! What kind of tree indeed ? Already he's trying to find fault, to catch her out and establish a hierachy in which he is at the top ... anyway, moving on ... Oh yes,,,,her failure to note down the type of tree is now " no laughing matter."..... her interrogator continues to belittle her sighting ...... ... and Mike is on old Nitpicky Nesbit's side again. It goes on in this vein for some time, questioning her memory skills, and then has a go at her for not doing her homework at "the right time", whatever that might be. Now .... this is all very amusing, but it will hardly encourage any young person to bother with birding when old twerps like Nonagenarion Nesbit stick their oar in. Here's my previous scribblings from later on in the book... he's a controlling old bastard ! 726-a-rival-for-the-worst-bird-book-for-young-people.html 729-more-from-the-young-bird-watchers.html Personally, I think they should ditch him and his advice ... he's no good .... Well.... what about a relevant and uplifting spot of music ......... A while ago I showed you a rather baffling "grid-filling" puzzle from a long-ago Xmas Puzzle in BB. When I have remembered where it is, I'll put a link to it on here ... BLANK SPACE FOR POSSIBLE LINK And yesterday as I was sorting through my mountains of such magazines, I found another one. This was the grid .... ...and here's the instructions ... .. so there you are ..... all you have to do now is work out what all those birds are, and then do what the instructions tell you to do and you're sorted ! Or, er, not. The actual volume of BB from which it came was/is Vol 76 Number 12 December 1983 I was young and sprightly then. If only I could start again . I'd love to have another go At being a better me, and show That I could do things right for once Instead of acting like a dunce A porridge-brain, a total nit. I'd love another go at it And write a better sort of verse At least it couldn't get much worse And if there is a life hereafter I'll try to be a bit less dafter. But enough of wallowing about in self-analysis ..... it's time for proper music ...... and coming up it is ... I should mention that today is the Vernal Equinox ... and about time too.
This winter seems to have been about 80 years long. Mind you, in most years it doesn't arrive till tomorrow. So ! .. on the news this morning "they" told us that all those kiddywinks whose school is closing down for months are going to ...... ..... wait for it ..... ..... get the grades they need. Hmmm ! That's an interesting way of putting it. Surely what they should be getting is the grades they deserve. But this is a symptom of the new regime .... Universities want more and more cash-cow students to be herded on to their specially invented Sports Study courses, Colouring-in Studies and the like, so they would be terribly out of pocket if students got what they deserved ..... so ,yes, they'll get what they need all right. SO .... I want to get what I need as well. Fair do's. Chwarae Teg. Apparently we are all being advised to stay at home ...especially old and knackered people like me. So in this sort-of-possible-lockdown situation I can't dash off and tick whatever rarities are lurking about over the next few months ...who knows how long it will be. But surely, I ought to "get" the birds I "need." So ... in the coming months of restriction, I'm going to look up on't internet what rare birds are about that I haven't "got", and I'm going to add them to my list, without the inconvenience of having to go and actually see them. Not that I would have gone to see them anyway .... well, not if they're more than about 5 miles away ! But that's not the point .... I "need" those ticks ..... and I'm going to have them. Plus I'll be helping the planet by not pumping more exhaust fumes and brake pad dust into the atmosphere .... so at least I am doing " the right thing." Anyhow, here's a spot of relevant music ... Obviously, I'm not really going to do that ... but it's a thought, is it not ?
After all, I've invented a far better way of getting lots of extra ticks ... and here's the link to how I did it .... 771-in-which-i-do-a-bit-of-upjustment.html 775-those-extra-32-ticks.html Here's a few French bird descriptions from my copy of GUIDE des OISEAUX des RÉGIONS MÉDITERRANÉENNES ! But ... what's missing from those descriptions ? Have you spotted what they are not telling you ? Have you noticed how long-winded their bird names are ? It might take a couple of hours to say them ! By the time those French birders have called out the name of the bird they're looking at, it will have flown away, or the watchers will have died of old age ! While I've been assembling this gripping harticule, lots of things have gone wrong .... the fonts are either too big or too small, the pictures took ages to arrive, and the music refused to embed for ages .... that bloody coronavirus I reckon. Or could it be all that rain ... another 10mm poured down last night .... here's the view of one of my top birding spots .. The "missing thing" is
down below .... . . . . . Well, if you haven't noticed, where's the calls and songs ? Throughout the whole book ,there's hardly any. Oho !! Subsequent to my plea in post 806 for indexers to include bird songs and calls in their indexes/indices, here's me actually doing it ... well, a bit of it .... a sort of toe- in- the- water attempt ...... and so as not to overdo things, I chose the dinkiest bird ID book I could find to get started ...... one you'll all probably have on your shelves. I hope you like it ......... you might even find it useful Bread, a little bit of, cheese, none 38 Cadence, rollicking 34 Call-note, clear, triple 48 Caw 25 Chatters 46 Chee-aw, loud, very 23 Chee-eep 49 Chip 39 Chirp, loud,aggressive, loud 43 Chirps, variety of 43 Chuff, sometimes 23 Churrs, noisy 43 Cick 38 Clack 22 Clicks 46 Croak , a 21, 24 Croak, deep, a 20, 24 Dreamy, almost, often 31 Fairy-like 30 Flight-note, liquid, trilling 47 Jack 22 Low, musical 35 Low, not noticed 33 Note, low, single, plaintive 35 Peep 49 Pink 34 Tak 33 Tit, short 32 Tit tit tit tit tit tit 37 Tit tit tit tit tit tit tee 38 Tschis-seek, liquid 50 Tu-reep, liquid 50 Tweet, musical 31 Twite, similar to, and 28 Twitter, high, tinkling 30 Twitter, rattling 32 Twitter, trilling, pretty 40 Twitters 46 Twitters, continuing 36 Tzik, high, sharp 26 Wee, long, drawn out 27, 33 Weet, questioning 34 Whistles, long-drawn 46 How about that ..... how on earth have we managed without such a thing ? So far, I've only "done" it up to page 50. But I'm hoping something like that will be standard for bird books from now on. Well, I'm impressed anyway ....... Here's the titles of several well-known bird books .... but in the form of newspaper headlines .... plus a ! of course [1] Royal Avian on the M1 ! [2] The Ostrich Scarpers ! [3] Large Ornitholigical Pursuit ! [4] Terrific 24 hour Mad Dash Getting Feathered Friends ! [5] Onlookers Target Birds ! [6] Feathered Creatures found on Insignificant Offshore Island ! [7] Hundreds of Maps reveal UK bird locations ! [8] Pointless to-ing and fro-ing involving remote Scottish Island ! Bah ! I've run out of ideas .... what, me ? Yes ..... I should have planned ahead. Come to think of it .... we don't plan behind do we. No. If you have got some cracking headlines like that, kindly pass them on to me. [email protected] .... these sort of ideas don't just come falling at your feet you know. I suppose you'll be wanting some music now ..... Fairy Nuff ....... .... that's proper music that is !
There's some VERY IMPORTANT Canada Goose News coming up.. .. from THIS top publication .. ..and here it is .... ... Allegations ? ... Murmurings ? ....... Guesswork ? ........ New Research ? .......... Nuisance Birds ? .............. Little Relation to Reality ? What a Terrific Scheme ... to invent a crisis, then set up ... let's say ... a " Canada Goose Working Group" who will then do very little except whizz around on trains and planes at our expense,staying in fancy hotels, going to meaningless meetings and conferences, and probably coming to no useful findings at all. That was nearly 30 years ago ... I wonder what happened ? Is it still going ? Did it do anything useful whatsoever ? Well, I have done a bit of research, without jetting round the world to conferences, staying in swanky hotels etc ..... and I found no trace of said organisation. BUT .... there is this .... Canada Goose Working Group - Colorado Parks and Wildlife CANADA GOOSE WORKING GROUP Evaluation of Regulation W -17-17131 Hazing Canada Geese with Dogs. Biology and Ecology of Canada geese • 44,000 resident Canada geese • Up to 500,000 migratory Canada geese in Colorado or migrating to other locations. • Most geese on Front Range and northeast Colorado. • Resident Canada geese derived from programs in 1950’s to restore historic native geese ... ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ [...maybe they should have a similar group to restore the original "historic" inhabitants of North America as well. ] That's enough for now .... let's have an uplifting bit of music .... we need a bit of lifty-up-stuff in these troubled times ... you'll know this one ...... it's been on here before ... a truly beautiful song ... .. and here's the nifty "words" video so you can sing along in the comfort of your own home ... A mere two days and two posts ago I told you about a mystery bird call in the jungly bit behind my garden. It was weak, thin, plaintive, disyllabic and wistful .. ..and the 2nd "weee" was higher. weee weee weee weee weee weee weee weee weee weee And yesterday I heard it again ... but this time there was only one "weee" repeated on the one note. Like this ..... weee weee weee weee weee These sort of things are annoying ! There's always the fear that you've totally forgotten the call of some common bird that you've not heard for a while and completely lost it, brain-wise. Because that's what everybody else will think. Who could blame them ? So ..you start trying to track down what it might be .... you start by looking at Gt. Tit videos ...... they're famous for their amazing cavalcade of allsorts. Well... I've done that, to no avail. And I've done the same thing with various other likely sp. No luck. So ..... I thought of this smashing idea. What ? Another one ? ... you're all thinking. Bird books like Peterson etc have an index at the back. I don't know why they're always at the back. I think they'd be better at the front .. ... that way you don't need to bother finding page 99 ... you can get a good idea of what's in it straight away. Anyhow ... the index generally has all the birds in it, Gull, laughing 23, 56 Gull, limping 331 Gull, Mediterranean 8,16,133 You know the sort of thing. But why not index the calls as well ..... then you could find " wonk-wonk" in the index and look up what bird was doing it ... wonk-wonk 56, 57, 217 Or for that matter ..... her-key, her-key, her-key her-key 123, 137 or Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr 286-291 I seem to remember making a sort of mini-version of that from a bit of " Bill Oddie's Little Black Bird Book" . I'll see if I can find it .... but for now, I've done enough to revolutionise the swift and sure bird-call looky-up thing. And I'm going to have another go at actually seeing the stupid thing. But now, having kicked yet another dark and neglected corner of avian literature up the arse, it is time for the music ..... this is a lovely song that has nothing to do with anything .. ...... I've put the lyrics below ..... "paroles" in French ... On était pas si mal, on était pas si bien, avant qu'on se dévale Ni plus ni moins et puis sans freins. Deux assiettes, un couvert et l'on pourrait s'entendre, Ce serait mieux pour l'hiver des gestes tendres, je peux t'en rendre. Passer juste un peu plus loin, tourner à l'angle de tes reins, baisser la tête sous tes mains. Mais c'est déjà la fin, celle qu'on oublie d'attendre, Une baguette de pain, là, sous le cendre de nos deux mains. Deux assiettes, un couvert et l'on pourrait s'entendre, Ce serait mieux pour l'hiver des gestes tendres, je peux t'en rendre. Passer juste un peu plus loin, tourner à l'angle de tes reins, baisser la tête sous tes mains.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Now I'm going to try to find that Oddie " Bird-calls" Index thing ... . this might be it .... oh. no it isn't ... but it is about an index ... funny, too .... 491-more-index-fun.html try again .. -134-that-index-and-a-better-one.html ..... yes .... that's the one. ...... but it doesn't "do" any bird calls. ....... just stuff about binocular-straps and the like. ....... I'll do one ... in the near future ... if us 0ver-70's have a future . I thought I would set you an ID challenge this time ... and one that might seem a trifle odd ..... but also stunningly concise and accurate ........ I'm sure you are all up for it .... .... I know you all like a challenge.... ... if "like" is the right word ... This UK bird has very distinctive wings .... so you only need to see the vital ID features of said wings .... .... ... ... and here they are .... ............ read them carefully .... ........... and thoroughly ... there are some significant clues in there .... ...... you will need some equipment as well...... ....here we go ..... There you go .... everything you need to know in a mere 17 lines. Now that's sorted, on with the music ! If you haven't quite managed to work out what it is .... or perhaps you feel that the ID details are a bit woolly, and you are feeling a bit of a knit, the actual answer can be found at the far end of this nifty link .....
293-when-i-was-in-lithuania-part-2.html .... you'll need to scroll right to the end of it, after part 2 of my long account of my Lithuanian birding experiences. Gripping stuff actually. |
AuthorThat's the author up there ... I was young and sprightly then. Archives
October 2022
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