I've kept you busy trying to find out ... [1] How many UK birds you need to "get" all 26 letters of the alphabet ? 893-at-last-a-reasonably-short-post.html [2] How many do you need if you use the Latin names ? 895-the-latin-solution.html But this time we're going global... [3] How many " World Birds" do you need to "get" all 26 letters of the alphabet ? I've "done" it, using the English names .... but I can't be sure I've got the definitive answer. ... there's an awful lot of species in the world. I'm not even entirely sure I've got the first two answers right either. But its an interesting, absorbing task ... which is what we all need in these troubled times. The Quest is all ! And we also need regular doses of silliness ... I was talking to The King of Bryher and Tom in the drizzle ( Glaw mân) and I swung the conversation around from TKOB slagging me off to the more enlightening " all the letters of the alphabet bird quests" I've been doing. Actually, TKOB's estimates were pretty close .... I was impressed. Then Tom suggested I could "do" it with Welsh birds. So I did ... and I have ..... .. there's something you'll all be desperate to see . .... but it's taken 7 birds to do it .. so I'm going to see if I can do better. ... I might have to work at it all through the night ..
0 Comments
I've written about Bruce Campbell's "of-its-time" (1952) but interesting book " Bird-Watching for Beginners" several times ... and here's another chunk from it which you might find " interesting." "I must also mention here the identification of nests and eggs. This is always surer if you can identify the bird owning them. Many British nests can be recognized by themselves, in fact with more certainty than many eggs. If you showed me an egg of each of the hundred commonest British breeding birds, I should hope to identify more than sixty of them correctly, but if you showed me their nests, I think I should get seventy right, even away from their sites; in position, I should take a bet on eighty with some confidence. But eighty is not one hundred and that is why it is usually safer to see the bird. There are a few exceptions ; it is easier to tell the nests of Chiffchaff and Willow-Warbler apart than the birds themselves and the same is true of Reed-Warblers and Marsh-Warblers, Willow-tits and Marsh-Tits, Whitethoat and Lesser Whitethroat, and, for that matter, Missel-Thrush and Song-Thrush .. not that the birds in this case are really very similar, but their nests and eggs are much more different. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Well ... that whole " searching for nests and eggs" obsession has, I hope, faded into the background these days. That's why I had a bit of a "go" at Springwatch's relentless " nestfest" simply because it was convenient for them to have a reliable gravy-train of " ooh aren't they lovely" eggs-and-chicks clips and the occasional " oh-dear" moments of drama when some predator came along and ate them all. 881-the-springwatch-nestfest.html Here's the other bits I've written about the book ... well, the ones I can find ... 3-one-of-my-first-bird-books.html 119-how-to-encourage-young-birdwatchers-or-not.html 212-behind-the-scenes-at-the-museum.html .... so, it must be time for some irrelevant but lovely music .... Apropos of nowt, The Significant Otter and me were a bit baffled by this massive and , I suspect, expensive sign..... But enough of that sort of thing .. let's have THIS sort of thing ... First, you could nip back two posts to read the wonderful and terrific ( but totally pointless) challenge I set you. And if you can't be bothered, here it is ... How many UK birds would you need to "get" all the letters of the alphabet ? Willet and Knot would get you just e i k l n o t w .. . a measly eight of them. If you go back to the previous post, you'll find "my" solution" which used a mere 7 birds.. which could possibly be improved . But ... but ... than I suggested you could try it using just the Latin names. And I've "done" that too. I only had to use 6 birds to do it. And I suspect that can be bettered too. So ...why not have a go at that as well You never know .... you might "do it in 5" and have a "World Record" . I "did it in six" in double quick time just follow this link to post 259 ..... then scroll down to the end of it ... you'll be impressed ..well, just a bit ... and you might admire my skill as a setter of things like that .. but can you do better ? 259-chris-packhams-song-titles-sad-absence-of.html [email protected] ..or as a comment. Some nit has sent me an " answer" to the puzzle I set you in the previous post . I can't help thinking that he/she has failed to read the instructions with sufficient care. Or, in fact, at all. Putting it bluntly, it is about the "worst" answer that could be devised. Here's "his/her" so called "solution" .... Black-winged Stilt Blackbird Green Woodpecker Mandarin Duck Wandering Albatross Siberian Chiffchaff Redwing Black-throated Thrush Sandwich Tern Jackdaw Lesser Black-backed Gull Red-necked Phalarope Mediterranean Shearwater Semi-palmated Sandpiper Ortolan Bunting Lady Amherst's Pheasant Quail Pomarine Skua Short-toed Treecreeper Great White Egret Great Spotted Cuckoo Olive-backed Pipit White-winged Black Tern Waxwing Yellow-browed Warbler Buzzard Well, "he" seems to have gone the extra mile in taking 26 birds to "get" all 26 letters of the alphabet. The word " twerp" comes to mind. He was supposed to "do" it using as few birds as possible. I blame the schools mainly. Seriously folks ... let's have a "proper" answer. But now, in a return to some sort of sanity,some completely irrelevant music ... I know which two birds I would start with. So there. And if you want to see my humble attempt you will find it at the end of this link. It will lead you to an ancient post and then you scroll down to the end of it. 126-the-newcastle-laughing-gull-and-me.html I've just been looking back at my recent "things" and they're all rather long and rambling ... smashing stuff, of course, but this time I thought I would do something short and sweet .... well, short anyway. So ..here we go then ... How many UK birds would you need to collect all 26 letters of the alphabet ? To make things clearer, if you picked Robin and Waxwing ... you would only have a, b, g, i, n, o, r, x and w. ..... a mere 9 letters. and if you added Great Crested Grebe you would have a b c d e g i n o r s t w x and NOT f h j k l m p q u v y z ... so you would have to find birds with those letters in them to complete the task. ... the overall aim being .. to "do" it using the fewest possible number of birds. .... so there you are. ... you could, of course, try "doing it" with Latin names instead/ as well. .... in fact, you might find it a lot easier. Or not. Music Time ...... stirring stuff .... A se changer en Roi
A hurler à la lune A traquer la fortune Tout ça pour traîner son poids Au risque de s'y plaire Au moment de s'y croire Sonnez les courants d'air Faîtes donner l'exutoire Il faudrait qu'on s'élève Au fond il a d'la classe Ou alors qu'on prenne la sève Comme elle vient Encore et encore Tu la vois la belle bleue Des feux de l'artifice Et tu la sens même un peu mieux A la faveur d'une éclipse On voit du jour au lendemain Que ça ne s'invente pas Instantanément comme ça Reprendre de volée d'aussi loin Comme elle vient Encore et encore Comme elle vient Comme on peut C'est cruel et sans fard Ça choisit pas, merci pour eux Comme une flèche Comme un pieux C'est bon pour la mémoire Ça vous fait quoi d'être au milieu ? Camarades Si les jeux sont faits Au son des mascarades On pourra toujours se marrer Et tout le long des courants d'air On voit des amoureux Qui savent encore changer leurs nerfs En un bouquet délicieux On en aura des saisons Des torrides et des blêmes Je peux encore garder ton nom Je peux aussi dire que je l'aime ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ... and if so, why ? Well, it "seems" that it has been "established" that they "do." There's all sorts of " anecdotal evidence" .... parties of swifts flying high into the sky in the late evening, ditto evening flights out to sea, pilots seeing flocks of them high up in the late evening, radar tracking of them ... and blah blah blah. But ...why ? Why would they do it ? Here's a quote from a "reliable source "- .. well, that was a bit feeble, don't you think ..it reeks of "barrel-scraping." Here's another possible "reason" ... ........... but that wasn't a "reason" at all. ..this is a bit like all that rubbish about swallows spending the winter in the mud at the bottom of village ponds. Bah ! Humbug ! BUT .. but ... it seems ridiculous that they would do that FOR A WHOLE NIGHT. Here's that same source casting an inkling of doubt about the whole caboodle. ..and it's not just that ... if they're up in the bloody stratosphere all sodding night,what about the eggs/chicks in the nest getting cold, and/or predated ? Maybe one parent stays overnight, and the other one whizzes around at 10000 ft for the night having a jolly time sleeping for 80 seconds and flying for 80 seconds for hours and hours, and then next night its swap-over time. Brilliant. ... well, I've made my case ... it took a while, because I had to stop every couple of minutes to run 600m, and then come back for the next 2 minutes, and so on till the hartikle was finished. My next thing is to try to find a relevant bit of music ... (..that bloke reminds me somewhat of The Flat Controller)
... and now, the words for that fine song ... I once loved a girl, her skin it was bronze With the innocence of a lamb, she was gentle like a fawn I courted her proudly but now she is gone Gone as the season she’s taken Through young summer’s breeze, I stole her away From her mother and sister, though close did they stay Each one of them suffering from the failures of their day With strings of guilt they tried hard to guide us Of the two sisters, I loved the young With sensitive instincts, she was the creative one The constant scapegoat, she was easily undone By the jealousy of others around her For her parasite sister, I had no respect Bound by her boredom, her pride to protect Countless visions of the other she’d reflect As a crutch for her scenes and her society Myself, for what I did, I cannot be excused The changes I was going through can’t even be used For the lies that I told her in hopes not to lose The could-be dream-lover of my lifetime With unknown consciousness, I possessed in my grip A magnificent mantelpiece, though its heart being chipped Noticing not that I’d already slipped To a sin of love’s false security From silhouetted anger to manufactured peace Answers of emptiness, voice vacancies Till the tombstones of damage read me no questions but, “Please What’s wrong and what’s exactly the matter?” And so it did happen like it could have been foreseen The timeless explosion of fantasy’s dream At the peak of the night, the king and the queen Tumbled all down into pieces “The tragic figure!” her sister did shout “Leave her alone, God damn you, get out!” And I in my armor, turning about And nailing her to the ruins of her pettiness Beneath a bare lightbulb the plaster did pound Her sister and I in a screaming battleground And she in between, the victim of sound Soon shattered as a child ’neath her shadows All is gone, all is gone, admit it, take flight I gagged twice, doubled, tears blinding my sight My mind it was mangled, I ran into the night Leaving all of love’s ashes behind me The wind knocks my window, the room it is wet The words to say I’m sorry, I haven’t found yet I think of her often and hope whoever she’s met Will be fully aware of how precious she is Ah, my friends from the prison, they ask unto me “How good, how good does it feel to be free?” And I answer them most mysteriously “Are birds free from the chains of the skyway?” Ok ..here's the "reliable source" ... it's an excellent book actually ... Last night on't TV, Swifts were indeed in the news. Or rather, the lack of them. They blamed [a] the steady removal of nest sites .. holes being filled in etc. [b] the steady decline of the insect population. And at my local level, we have only 2 Swift nests in our street.... as opposed to 4/5 a few years ago. Whether the previously-used sites have been blocked I can't tell. One householder has put up two (2) posh expensive Swift boxes ... but he's put them far too low down. What happens then, is, the Swifts leaving the box hit the ground and can't get back into the air. This happened occasionally to the Swifts in next door's roof years ago ... I had to go and pick them up, take them upstairs and release them. Also, none have used his posh boxes, partly because he should attract the Swifts to them with a recording of Swift sounds... but he hasn't. Mind you, with me not being able to hear the beggars any more, he might be belting the calls out at 80 decibels ... but I don't think so. But .... never mind that now ... I was hoping hopefully that " Swift Towers" might be mentioned ... but they weren't. On the continent, many towns and cities have Swift Towers ... tall structures with dozens of Swift boxes attached to the top of them .... they're very popular. I've written about them, plus lots of pictures of all different sorts pictures and everything, on here ... 377-the-demise-of-the-swift-and-how-to-stop-it.html I've also written ( a real, hand-written letter)(!) to my MP about it .. .let's get one put up somewhere .... anywhere ! And here's the link to the "Save Our Swifts" website https://actionforswifts.blogspot.com/2011/04/swift-tower-is-created.html ... and now, a some extra pictures of Swift towers .. Right then ... music time .... Taylor Swift is an obvious option ... but I prefer this .. As you all know, if you've read post 888, I've been meandering through "The Birds of Lancashire" by Clifford Oakes. And I was thinking ... I must preserve something of its flavour before its inevitable destruction ( see post 888 again.) So .. which bit to keep for posterity ? Well, the very last bird featured in it is the Corn-Crake ( as they wrote it then). And it exemplifies all the elements of the book .... the names of long-dead birdwatchers, the prevalence of shooting, the nest-finding, the scarcity of observers .... how different, dear readers, to the current birding scene ! Here we go then ..... (including a few comments from me) ORDER RALLIFORMES Sub-Order RALLI Family RALLIDAE Genus CREX Bechstein 264 CORN-CRAKE Crex crex( Linnæus) ( all that stuff was essential in those days) ( they all had the Latin back then) (Grammar Schools meant LATIN grammar) Thirty years ago the rasping voice of the Corn-Crake was as well known as the cuckoo's familiar call. Today (1953) the bird is a scarce and local summer resident , breeding regularly in small numbers near the eastern and northern hills. On the south Lancashire plain it is so rare as to be almost extinct and only odd pairs are reported breeding in the Fylde.As long ago as 1884 Mitchell noticed a decrease in many districts and suggested that the mowing machine was responsible. From the evidence given in recent investigations it seems to be indisputable that the modern development of close-cutting machines has in fact been the cause of the decrease ( cf. C.A.Norris, British birds, Vol 38, pp.142,162,and Vol. 40, pp. 226-44). The decline was clearly apparent on the southern plains in 1900 and became generally accelerated from 1914 onwards. The present scarcity in the south-west may be judged from the fact that W.L.French has not heard a single bird in the Kirkby-Knowsley for ten years, while the species has become so rare near Aughton and Ormskirk that Miss N. Medcalf has placed it in brackets in her local bird-list. ( Crikey ! Imagine the international repercussions) Near St. Helens and Widnes ( hey ... I spent my teenage years in blasted Widnes. ) the corn-crake is seldom heard ( well, that's mainly because most Widnesians ( Winsneezians ) are racked with lung disease from all the smoke-belching factories, in which most of the population work, and toil in those demonic slave-like conditions from the age of 5, and have 28 kids to look after when they get home.) and it has completely disappeared from the Manchester district during the past twenty years. At Heywood, where at least ten pairs bred in 1915, I. Whittaker heard three birds calling in 1934. Nesting takes place in one or two localities near Bury; in the Bolton area ( where six pairs were recorded in 1937 by F.A. Lowe) a few pairs still breed fairly regularly. Marked fluctuations occur in the north-east , several years of scarcity followed by widespread reports of the birds' presence. Corn-crakes were locally numerous in 1946, and P.A. Clancey noted at least six pairs in Gawthorpe , near Burnley. In the foothills to the east of the Fylde plain and in Lunesdale odd pairs nest in most years, but farhter west the position is similar to that obtaining south of the river Ribble. Not a single bird was heard or seen in the western Fylde by F.B.D Thorpe and R. Walker between 1939 and 1945, and the few subsequent reports which have come to hand do not suggest that any improvement has taken place. None were heard ( or heard of) by N. Duerden in Bleasdale and Wyresdale during 1946. The sporadic breeding which still occurs in Furness is mostly confined to low ground in Cartmel. No birds have appeared in the Seathwaite district for many years, though K.R.Burgess heard one at Broughton Mills in 1946. The species has been known to arrive in the third week of April, but as a rule very few birds are heard calling until the first week of May.Many depart during August ; A. W. Boyd notes four which were seen flying from a field of oats near Worsley in late August 1944 ( Country Diary p.296) and mentions others in the same area during the following month, including one shot ( what a surprise) at Martin Mere on 14th December ,1939, and afterwards identified by F.W.Holder. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Well readers ... wasn't that lovely ..except, of course, for the ever-declining Corn-Crakes. But mostly it's those people that I think about .... most of them long dead and gone ... and the lovely Miss N. Medcalf and her "bracketed Corn-Crake " ... we can imagine her,rather sadly, neatly penning those two curvaceous ( )s. ..and let's not forget those others..... Mitchell ( the un-forenamed) C.A.Norris, (British birds, Vol 38, pp.142,162,and Vol. 40, pp. 226-44). W.L.French .. who didn't hear any. Miss N. Medcalf and her sad brackets. I. Whittaker ( Mr. Three-birds) P.A. Clancey of Gawthorpe. F.B.D Thorpe & R. Walker ... Western Fylders N. Duerden who didn't hear any either. K.R.Burgess who did 1 better. A. W. Boyd noted four of them and mentioned another, identified by ... F.W.Holder who examined the corpse. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ So ...suitable music ! Are there any songs about Widnes ... NO. What we need is a song about " the past" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
... and what a fine book it is .... but I was looking for something special. ...... I wanted to compare my 3K species/km² with other sites.... ( see post 880) ....... and I found what I wanted ... a comparative figure for the London Recording Area. ........ it is a 20-mile-radius circle centred on St. Paul's Cathedral. ......... that must have been a hell of a long piece of string. .......... and god only knows how many tins of white paint. ........... and they probably have to repaint it every couple of years. Anyway ... as of 1957, within that circle ( 3215 km²) 245 species have been found. And that amounts to approx 13/km² At first I was a bit irked, what with my 3K result being a feeble 6.23/km² That's half of wot London gets. Bah. BUT ..... here's a litany of excuses for my Rancid Results ... [a] I'm just 1 tiny observer compared to hundreds and hundreds in the London Area. [b] I've only been " doing" the 3k for a few years .... they've been doing it for 57 years ! [c] I'm not on any sort of grapevine about birds turning up ... London will be absolutely awash with them. I'm amazed all those 5G masts we see haven't melted. [d] So, for the most part, I'm on my own. [e] London has a vast array of habitats, and excellent transport links. [f] I'm old and knackered. [g] And, according to The King of Bryher, a scatterbrain. [h] I encountered him yesterday, and he immediately went into attack mode and spent the whole of our 40 minutes together slagging me off. I should have got in't car and gone home. [i] I had to point out to him that I've read The House at Pooh Corner in 5 languages, and I could read it in Welsh if it existed ... which it doesn't. Dim Byd. Oh Weh, oh Weh ! Ciel! [j] I think I've veered off the Core Mission somehow .. so we'll have the music bit ... In the ever-deepening depths of this so-called blog there are some posts that were inspired by "The Birds of Lancashire" by one Clifford Oakes. And those articles were mainly about the incredible amount of bird-shooting that went on back then. A huge proportion of " rarity records" were birds that had been shot ... innocent dicky birds that were just minding their own business often after a long and arduous journey and then got blasted to death for no good reason . 575-whats-hits-history-whats-missed-is-mystery.html 576-mass-shooting-in-lancashire.html 579-the-most-shot-species.html And quite often, good old Clifford would tell us which museum their stuffed remains were on display... or where their skins were filed away in some dusty drawer in the basement. But ... but ... in the current " chucking statues into rivers" upheaval, where all " things that were bad in the past" must be destroyed, including Clifford's book, and those stuffed birds, and all those skins in their little cupboards will all have to be dragged out into the street and burned. And all the dioramas of Jurassic Animals etc will have to go, hey, and The Pyramids, which were built by slaves who no doubt died in large numbers, and those huge skellingtons in The Natural History Museum ... all must GO. Even my own street, which has a potential famous person's name, a person who almost certainly has a dodgy background, might have the plaque taken down, and the name changed, and I'll have to chuck away all my expensive headed notepaper as well as Clifford's magnum opus. Bah! But .. at least my " in-progress" Pyramid of Bird Books" will be slightly shorter. But ..... then they'll come and tear down the house ! Here's a fine and very apt song ... and ironically, they're sitting on a bulldozer .... Tear down the house that I grew up in.
I'll never be the same again. Take everything that I've collected, and throw it in a pile. Bulldoze the woods that I ran through. Carry the pictures of me and you. I have no memory of who I once was, and I don't remember your name. Park the old car that I love the best. Inspection's due and it won't pass the test. It's funny how I have to put it to rest, and how one day I will join it. I remember crying over you, and I don't mean like a couple of tears and I'm blue. I'm talking about collapsing and screaming at the moon, but I'm a better man for having gone through it. Yes, I'm a better man for having gone through. Ever since I learned how to curse. I've been using those sorry old words. But I'm talking to these children and I'm keeping it clean. I don't need those words to say what I mean. No, I don't need those words to say what I mean Tear down the house that I grew up in. I'll never be the same again. Take everything that I used to own, and burn it in a pile Bulldoze the woods that I ran through. Carry the pictures of me and you. I have no memory of who I once was, and I don't remember your name. Hey ...wasn't that lovely ? |
AuthorThat's the author up there ... I was young and sprightly then. Archives
October 2022
|