Quiz Time

Tuesday 17^th October, and as Mary was away to Nottingham with our daughter for some retail therapy, I spent the morning at Attenborough Gravel Pits.   I’m still hoping to add a Bittern to my 2017 list, but it is very much a matter of being in the right spot when the bird decides to emerge from the reeds. Which was not to-day.

However, it was chilly but sunny, and I had a good count of 33 species, the hi-lights being a pair of Ruff and a pair of calling Ravens. I love hearing that deep throated “cronk” from a Raven, which is always enough to make me look up to see where the bird is.

Attenborough was very much a run of the mill day but the beef and mushroom casserole in Guinness was good (as always), and as half-term in Notts is not until next week, all was calm!!

Amanda, as you will appreciate is absolutely ethical about what birds she has and has not seen. Having been on North Ronaldsay earlier in the year, and having witnessed the major twitch for a red-winged blackbird, she waited until the sighting was ratified by the BTO before adding it to her 2017 list.  And now it has been confirmed, it can go on her year list, (probably in pole position!), giving her 220 to date. Catch that if you can!

Harking back to my other interest Micro-Tibialism, I’ve spent most of this week, fitting out a multi drawer wooden tool box, as a display cabinet to hold the 101 items in my leg collection. So my birding activity has been zilch. I did intend to go to Carsington this morning, but it was windy, cold and raining, so I decided to leave it to the dedicated team of Pat, Mac and Amanda.  An e-mail from Pat will let me know if I’ve missed anything.

I was recapitulating on my blog this week, and realised that today is my 89^th diatribe since I started in December 2015, encompassing  a total of c60,000 words, at an average of 680 words per post.  The blog has been viewed 7,000 times, of which 4,160 were from the UK, 350 from the USA, 440 from France, and……1,460 from … Russia… I wonder why or were they just computer generated hits?

In the absence of any significant bird news, her follows my the first ever blog test, to see how much you have learnt from my articles, or indeed learnt in other ways whilst birding.

The following is a list of 14 bird nicknames, contractions or names from folklore or local custom. See how many you know, and the answers are further down the page.

1 1. Spink

2 2. Dabchick

3 3. Bumbarrel

4 4. Cuddys Duck

5 5. Gropper

6 6. Yaffle

7 7. Windhover

8 8. Harry Redcap

9 9. Fudge Duck

110.  Storm Cock

111.  Spuggy

112.  Barwit

113.  Bonxie

114.  Sprawk

OK? Answers below.

I’m adding a small poster to the bird food donation box in the Wildlife Centre at Carsington. It reminds visitors that as they cannot use the old £ coins for shopping, if they are dropped in the donation box, WE have ways of converting them into bird food for the Carsington birds.. So please save any you happen to find, and drop them in the donation box when you are next there.

Thanks.

Diary wise, the next Beginners Bird Walk will be in two weeks, on Sunday November 5^th, at 10.00am, as usual.

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1. Chaffinch

2. Little Grebe

3. Long Tailed Tit

4. Eider

5. Grasshopper Warbler

6. Green Woodpecker

7. Kestrel

8.Goldfinch

9. Ferruginous Duck

10. Mistle Thrush

11. House Sparrow

12. Bar Tailed Godwit

13. Great Skua

14. Sparrowhawk

Happy Birding.