Australian Pelicans
Most people would be able to identify a pelican if shown a photo of one. In fact, most people really love pelicans and enjoy watching them on rivers, lakes, ponds and the ocean. Many would count them as one of their favourite birds. In Australia they would be instantly recognisable to most people because they are so common in many parts of the country where there is suitable habitat.
Samela Harris, a regular columnist for South Australia’s daily newspaper, The Advertiser, has compiled a lovely little site as a photographic tribute to the pelicans of Victor Harbor, the coastal town just south of Adelaide where she lives. She has included many beautiful photos as well as links to this popular coastal town and holiday destination.
Samela is the daughter of well known poet and former bookseller, Max Harris.
Links:
- Aussie Pelicans – with photos by Samela Harris
- Victor Harbor Tourism – plenty of information for the visitor.
- Granite Island Recreation Park – at Victor Harbor you can walk across a long causeway to Granite Island about one kilometre off the coast. Walking trails cover the perimeter of the island with spectacular views in all directions. Granite Island has a breeding colony of Little Penguins. This is a must if visiting Victor Harbor.
- Victor Harbor – a series of articles I have written about this lovely spot. I have included many photos as well.
- Pelicans – a list of articles about pelicans from my archives.
Australian Pelican
Bird Word: Life List
- Life list: a list of birds a birder has seen in their life time. Many also keep year lists, month lists, week lists or day lists. Other lists include place lists, state lists, country lists, lists of birds seen on television, in movies, from their office window – in fact, this listing is limited only by the birder’s imagination, time available and interests (and level of sanity).
I am a self confessed list maker.
It is one of the reasons birding appeals to me. I keep lists. All kinds of lists. Here is a list of lists I keep:
- A list of all the birds I’ve ever seen (my “Life List”).
- A list of all the birds I’ve seen in each state of Australia.
- A list of birds I’ve seen in Australia, Thailand and Nepal (that counts as 3 lists!)
- A list of places I’ve been birding (its’ a long list).
- A list of books I have read over the last 40 years (it’s a very long list).
- A list of things I have done this year – and last year – and the one before that…
- A list of things to do today.
- A list of articles, poems and stories I’ve had published (it’s a growing list).
- A list of books and stories I’ve written that I want to send to publishers (it’s a list that should be getting shorter [sigh]).
- A list of the titles of blog articles I’ve published and the dates published (that’s 3 lists because I run 3 blogs)
- A list a potential articles to write for my 3 blogs (another 3 lists).
- A list of…
Actually – I think you get the picture, and it’s not a pretty one!
And then, in the mid 1990s I bought a birding data-base to record all my bird records. This was heaven! Now I can generate all kinds of lists at the touch of a few keys strokes. Wonderful.
What kinds of lists do you keep? Tell me in the comments section.
The Birds of Shakespeare
Did you know that William Shakespeare included many different references to birds in his writing? In fact, according to one blog site, Shakespeare mentions at least 45 different species in his works. Now I’m going to trust this authority and not go and read every word that Shakespeare wrote in order to check out this fact.
Here is the full list. By clicking on the species name you will go to the article on that species with full references to where that species is mentioned in Shakespeare’s work.
The Birds of Shakespeare
by Sir Archibald GeikieBlackbird – Bunting – Buzzard – Chough – Cock (Rooster) – Cormorant – Crow – Cuckoo
Dive-dapper – Dove and Pigeon – Duck (Mallard) – Eagle – Falcon and Sparrowhawk – Finch
Goose – Hedge Sparrow (Dunnock) – House Martin – Jackdaw – Jay – Kite – Lapwing – Lark
Loon – Magpie – Nightingale – Osprey – Ostrich – Owl – Parrot – Partridge – Peacock – Pelican
Pheasant – Quail – Raven – Robin (Redbreast) – Snipe – Sparrow – Starling – Swallow – Swan
After looking at those references you may want to wander over to Trevor’s Writing, my blog about writing, books and blogging. You may even want to stay long enough to read some of my poetry and short fiction. Many of my haiku poems are about birds.
Links:
Birding Bloopers #14
I have really enjoyed reading the birding bloopers that have been shared on the Birding-Aus forum. The contributors have been very generous in allowing me to share their embarrassing experiences here on my blog. Many of the contributions have come from Australia but there have been a few from overseas. This is the case today, with an example from Malaysia.
After several trips to Malaysia, I had collected quite a few ticks for Scarlet Minivet, mostly in montane or sub-montane habitats. Very distinctive bird, no problem with ID.
Ha.
In 1995 on a wet day in Fraser”s Hill I did a bit reading through the field guides and discovered to my horror that the Scarlet Minivet only occurs below 900m. A large percentage of my sightings had to have been Grey-chinned Minivets. After going back over my notes when I got back home, my number of Minivet sightings diminished significantly after crossing out all those sightings between 800m and 1000m due to uncertainty.
Goes to show one should always read the fine print.
One of the problems with birding in a strange location or in a new country for the first time is that you basically have to start over. The learning curve is steep, especially if birding alone like I did last year in Thailand and Nepal. Carl’s experience points to the importance of doing one’s homework. Before leaving on my overseas trip I spent at least six months studying the appropriate field guides. Sounds a good theory – until one hits the trail on your own. It’s then you realise how little you’ve remembered from the books.
Thanks to Carl for permission to publish his experience here.
To read more birding bloopers click here.
Question for readers:
When did you experience an embarrassing birding moment? Perhaps it was a mistaken identification. Perhaps you didn’t look carefully enough and were later proved wrong. Maybe the bird itself fooled you in some way.
I invite readers to submit their birding bloopers in the comments section below. If it’s good enough I might just feature it in a post of its own, with a link back to your blog (if you have one).
Bird word: Field Guide
- Field Guide: a book giving details of all the birds found in a region or country. Field guides usually include colour illustrations of the birds, descriptive notes to help identify the bird and a distribution map.
When I was growing up in the 1950s the only reliable and comprehensive field guide to Australian birds was Neville Cayley’s “What Bird is That?” It wasn’t my copy, it belonged to my older brother but I tended to use it far more than he did. In my later teen years I acquired my own copy, the lesser quality but far cheaper paperback version.
When I first married and we started having family camping holidays, often in the Flinders Ranges, I bought the two volume “A field guide to Australian Birds” by Peter Slater. I used this guide alongside the beautiful, but cumbersome Reader’s Digest “Complete Book of Australian Birds.” This wonderful volume is not truly a field guide, because it uses photos instead of paintings for the illustrations and can be a little misleading as a result. Its strength is the text and I still refer to it frequently. Its major weakness is its size and weight; far too big and heavy to use as a field guide.
The 1980s saw the publication of Graham Pizzey’s “The Field Guide to the Birds of Australia” (illustrated by Doyle). This was, in my opinion, far superior to any previous publication and it has remained a favourite of mine ever since. It travels with me everywhere; in fact, it lives permanently in the car. It is also starting to fall apart despite several repair jobs.
In 1997 Graham Pizzey published a new, much revised version, this time beautifully illustrated by Frank Knight. This is a far easier to use, compact, easily carried in the field, well illustrated and with an authoritative text. It is the volume I now consult most frequently.
I do have an early edition of Simpson and Day’s “The Birds of Australia” but I find this volume sadly lacking in the text although the illustrations are quite good. I would not have bought this volume myself; it was a gift. The later editions (it’s up the 7th edition) may be much better but I haven’t checked it out.
More recently Michael Morcombe has produced a new field guide which I understand is quite good. I can’t really comment except to say that I’ve only briefly looked at it several times in bookshops. My thin wallet and my crowded bookshelf both say that I don’t really need another field guide.
For my trip overseas late 2005 and early 2006 I bought two field guides for the trip:
- The Birds of South-East Asia (for use in Thailand)
- A Field Guide to the Birds of the Indian Subcontinent (for use in Nepal).
Both proved very useful and studying them on the plane on the long flight over there proved useful in filling in the long hours. I had also been studying them for many months previous to my trip. (See my travel blog for details and photos of my trip.)