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The real James Bond – ornithologist

No Comments »7th September, 2007; Category: Birders

Most people have heard of James Bond the slick, handsome, debonair lady-killing spy featured in a series of novels and successful films. Good escapist stuff for those who like action packed movies.

What most people do not realise is that the REAL James Bond was an ornithologist. Ian Fleming, the author of the spy novels was a birder and had a copy of a bird field guide on his bookshelves. Searching for a suitable name for his new creation, he borrowed the character’s name from the author of the field guide, James Bond.

There is a certain poetic irony in all of this. An avid bird watcher (feathered variety) is writing a spy novel whose main character is a bird watcher (non-feathered variety) so he borrows the name of a professional bird watcher (feathered variety) for said character. That’s neat.

Further reading:

  • Bond. James Bond. Ornithologist. This article actually shows a picture of a copy of the famous field guide written by James Bond (ornithologist). It also has more information about the real James Bond.

Bird Word: Nomadic

No Comments »6th September, 2007; Category: Bird Word, Glossary
  • Nomadic: some species are able to move erratically between different regions in response to drought, rainfall or lack of food sources. For example, honeyeaters may move from their normal habitat to another area where there is an abundance of flowering trees.

Territorial birds

Wild birds can be very territorial, staying in the one location all their lives. Australian Magpies are like this. I could take you on a ten minute walk around our property and point out the boundaries of the territory “our” magpies inhabit. This becomes very evident in late winter early spring, just when they are beginning to nest. They defend their territory very willingly indeed. They also very rarely, if ever, stray from that territory.

Birds with larger territories

Other species are not as sedentary. They will move over much larger areas that could only be loosely termed their territory. Species like the Grey Currawong and White Winged Choughs are like that here in the Murray Bridge area of South Australia. Their beat can cover several kilometres in any direction.

Nomadic birds

Still other species can be highly nomadic. They respond quickly to changed environmental conditions. If one part of a forest or scrub is lacking flowering trees and other plants, birds like honeyeaters and lorikeets quickly move to an area where there is a more abundant or reliable food source.

Water birds in Australia will respond to drought conditions by leaving a dry area and moving to an area where there is still water. They can also respond very quickly to heavy rain and flooding. When the inland salt lakes fill in outback Australia, tens of thousands of water birds flock to these areas to breed, feed and live until the water dries up. They will then disperse to other areas where there is water. The Australian Pelican, for example, has been known to fly thousands of kilometres in search of water, sometimes at an altitude of several thousands of metres.

Common Skylark

No Comments »5th September, 2007; Category: Murray Bridge

One of the birds I love hearing singing is the Common Skylark, also known as the English Skylark. This species was introduced from Britain in the 1850s and it has spread throughout south eastern Australia. While it is widespread my experience of this species is that it is not abundant anywhere but present in small numbers over a wide area. I could be wrong.

This species is partly migratory here in Australia. I mainly hear it singing high in the air near our house in the winter and early spring months. I can’t recall it singing in the summer around here. Over recent weeks I have been hearing several of them singing in the paddock opposite our driveway. I have only seen this species on a handful of occasions so I don’t have a photo.

To see an excellent photo taken by someone else, click here.

Bird Word: Nocturnal

2 Comments »4th September, 2007; Category: Bird Word, Glossary, Nocturnal birds, Owls Frogmouths and Nightjars
  • Nocturnal: active at night, such as owls. (The opposite is diurnal, or active in the day time.)

I should go out birding more at night.

After all, if I want to actually see nocturnal birds, as opposed to merely hearing them, I have to make the effort to get out there in the wild of the night.

Owls and Frogmouths

From time to time – usually on those occasions when there is absolutely nothing on television (which is an increasing phenomenon these days) and we are just sitting reading or talking, we are aware of the night sounds outside. We will occasionally hear a screeching Barn Owl or the soft “ooming” of the Tawny Frogmouth. I have yet to get good shots of these two species.

Australian Owlet-Nightjar:

Another nice one to hear is the Australian Owlet-Nightjar, an occasional visitor to our garden. I actually got a really good view of one of these one beautiful afternoon a few years ago. It had settled on a dead limb of a neighbour’s tree and was quietly sunning itself. It was much smaller than I thought it would be.

Southern Boobook Owl

It has been many years since the last Boobook visit to our garden. This would have to be a favourite of mine; the haunting “boo-book” call echoes far in the Australian bush at night. My daughter hears one and sometimes two calling near her home in Clare in the mid-north of South Australia.

Spotted Nightjar

This well camouflaged species I’ve often seen while driving at night. I thought I would never get to photograph this species until a while back when a friend showed me where one was regularly roosting. Read about the Spotted Nightjar here, along with a photo.

Spotted Nightjar

Spotted Nightjar

Camping

When our children (who are now adults) were little we often went camping. A big part of any camping trip was to go out for a walk after dark with several bright torches. We would search for possums, owls and frogmouths, and any other animals getting out and about under the cover of darkness.

Must start doing that again.

Further reading:

Happy Second Birthday

6 Comments »3rd September, 2007; Category: General

Today marks the second birthday of this blog about birds and birding. It has been an interesting journey. I look forward to another great year of birding and blogging about birds and birding.

A growing blog

This blog has grown from a few dozen tentative readers in the first few months (mainly friends and family) through to nearly 29,000 visitors in 2006. Up to the end of August this year the site had received about 70,000 visitors for the year to date averaging over 300 per day. The graph in my statistics shows no sign of slowing down and it still continues its upward movement.

Dusky Woodswallow

Dusky Woodswallow

Thank you readers

Thank you to all my regular loyal visitors and readers. Thank you also to all those who take the trouble to leave a comment or to ask a question. Developing this site as a birding community is one of the aims I have in posting articles almost every day. I hope you continue to visit and participate. Any day now this blog will pass the 600 article mark. I have many more interesting articles planned for coming weeks and months. What I cannot plan for is the many wonderful sightings of birds I know will come over the next year or so, and I will just have to share them with my readers.

Special links:

I often include links to other articles and provide further reading links. As a Birthday Special I have links below to highlights from the last two years:

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