Archive for 'Birding'
The Man with the Golden Binoculars
26 November 2009
When I’m packing for a trip to the Caribbean, the first thing that goes into the suitcase is the James Bond book.
It’s getting a bit battered now – it has seen a lot of miles – but it is still the best. Ian Fleming thought so too. The book is The Birds of the West Indies. The author is James Bond. And when Fleming was writing his first 007 thriller in his hideaway in Jamaica, he “borrowed” the name of the ornithologist for his hero in Casino Royale.
The borrowing happened in 1952, over breakfast in Fleming’s favourite room in the villa at Goldeneye, with its view under the shade trees to the sea. The book was on the table, beside the binoculars, and Fleming found his inspiration. (more…)
Wildlife from the car window
24 November 2009
Victorian books on shooting had whole chapters devoted to “Getting Close to your Quarry”, complete with illustrations of hunters disguised as buffaloes or hiding themselves in haycarts. The trick was to get inside something that animals and birds were familiar with, and would ignore.
Today’s equivalent to the peasant’s haycart is the family car. It is the perfect mobile hide for the wildlife photographer.
Whether you are hunting down lions or herons, the car is the best place to go into hiding. It is comfortable and, if you’ve got nerve, it will go almost anywhere.
Animals and birds, large and small, tend to ignore vehicles. And you can usually open the window quietly without spooking your target. It is very unlikely that the birds or animals will try to come in, although safari park monkeys are an exception — they will reach into the car and grab your camera and probably your sunglasses as well …
Elsewhere in these postings I have mentioned the rival philosophies of two types of birders, the leggers and the arsers. The leggers keep moving and hope to find something; the arsers sit quietly and wait for the birds to come to them. The leggers don’t want to get bored. The arsers are allergic to perspiration. (more…)
Smart finch is getting bigger
13 February 2009
I sold some zebra finches to an experienced fancier the other day, a man who has kept birds all his life. He cast an eye over the two dozen finches in the flight cage and said: “They look very old-fashioned.”
“What does that mean exactly?” I asked.
“They’re small,” he said. (more…)
Going home to Socorro
27 November 2008
The dove in front of my lens at Edinburgh Zoo looked like one of the New World’s common birds, the Mourning dove. There are reckoned to be nearly 500 million Mourning doves in North America and up to 70 million are shot by hunters each season.
It also looked rather like the Eared dove, which is numbered in millions in South America – about 23 million in one district of northern Argentina alone.
But the Socorro dove is different. (more…)
Godwit flies eight days for a non-stop record
24 September 2007
Peals of bells were rung out from Christchurch Cathedral in New Zealand to celebrate the astounding achievement of Miranda, a Bar-tailed godwit, which crossed the Pacific Ocean non-stop to return from her summer home in Alaska to wintering grounds in New Zealand. She covered the 7200-mile journey in eight days, flying constantly without pausing to rest or feed, proving for the first time that the godwit achieves the greatest feat of migration by any bird. (more…)
