Birds in the News #92
No Comments »28th July, 2007; Category: Birds in the News
The latest edition of Birds in the News (#92) has been posted over at Living the Scientific Life. It features a beautiful photo of a Snowy Owl.
This edition is a special – it’s a Hedwig the Owl edition. For the three or four people in the world who may be as ignorant as me on these matters, this is a reference to Harry Potter. I’m not into HP – in fact, I’m probably one of less than a dozen or so people left who do not like the HP books (yes – I did make the effort to read the first in the series – and I thought it quite second rate as a work of literature).
More importantly, this edition of Birds in the News has a link to a worrying article about the bird life around Chernobyl. All is not well with the birds living in or near the disaster zone. Surprise, surprise.
Rearranging the nest
No Comments »22nd July, 2007; Category: General
I’ve not been posting many new articles on this blog in recent weeks. I’ve been very busy rearranging various aspects of the nest.
By that I mean we’ve been making a few changes to our house, rearranging the rooms. My new office – formerly our bedroom – has a lovely outlook over the garden and nearby trees – perfect for birding but a slight distraction from writing.
All the furniture moving, shifting and rearranging reference books, cleaning and so on has meant little time for birding and writing on this blog. Now that is all over – so back to birding and writing on this blog.
And thrown into this mix was a short holiday at Robe on the south east coast of South Australia last week. It was cold and the birding was good without being great. I intend writing about what I saw over the coming days. Stay tuned.
How to watch birds
Some time ago I write a series of articles called How to be a birder – some hints. This series of 20 articles covered many aspects of being a birder, with hints for the beginner through to more experienced.
How to watch birds is an article on another website. It has some very useful information for beginners to this fascinating hobby, including what equipment is needed. Its information about binoculars is most detailed and useful. The sections on bird books, including field guides is for American birders only so readers from other countries need to seek out those resources relevant to their own region of interest.
Here in Australia we have many useful resources (go to the links section for relevant places to seek out books, field guides and equipment).
Dusky Woodswallow
Birding and children
No Comments »17th April, 2007; Category: Birds
In another life I was a primary (elementary) school teacher for 35 years until I retired several years ago.
During my time with children mostly aged between 6 and 10 I promoted the love and study of birds. I always included as many units of study on birds as I could fit into the curriculum. I also included units of work on animals, insects, plants and the environment in general. Most of my teaching was pre-internet, so much of our classroom study was confined to books.
Whenever possible, however, these studies flowed out into the real environment. I remember fondly many class excursions and school camps where I led children into natural environments distant and different from their home town. Some of these were in the Mt Lofty Ranges and the Adelaide Hills, South Australia. Others were at the seaside location of Victor Harbor.
I recently discovered a website of someone working with children in schools teaching them about birds. I think it’s a delightful site, full of information relevant to children and with interactive pages. It also includes teaching resources. The downside is that it deals mostly in birds found in north America.
Link:
- Kidwings – a website for teaching children about birds.
Australian Pelicans, Rocky Gully Wetlands
Good birding sites
Here is another collection of good birding sites that are worth a visit:
- Birding Kuwait – very strong on excellent photos with only minimal text. (Rating 9/10)
- Oygarden Birding – about birding in Norway with plenty of photos and some explanatory text. It has two drawbacks in my opinion: the photos only enlarge slightly and the black background makes reading the text difficult (it hurts my eyes). Still worth a visit. Rating 5/10)
- African Bird Club – an excellent resource for birding anywhere in Africa. The photo gallery has nearly 7000 photos of over 1500 African bird species. Every African country has a section devoted to it, including a map. There is also a section giving advice on what books and CDs to buy. Rating 9/10.
- Brdpics – yes – I spelled it correctly – he has a matching number plate on his car – Bill Schmoker’s Birding Blog from Colorado. Many excellent photos, some cartoons and some amazing animated GIFs of birds. And if you ever suffer from a bad hair day, you won’t want to look at this amazing duck! Worth a good look. Rating 8/10.
Stay tuned for more good birding links in coming weeks.
In the meantime – can you recommend any?