It’s that time again. Last year when I did this, I’d been birding in Spain in the spring and then the Galapagos and Ecuador in the autumn. This year has been less dramatic—no albatrosses or toucans—but I did see some great stuff in Crete in April.
First, though, some local stuff. There have been Little Grebes [...]
Posts tagged with ‘cuckoos’
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Bird of the Year 2007
31 December 2007 – 3:59 pm
Blogger Bio-blitz #1: Ayia Lake
1 May 2007 – 4:04 pm
On April 21st, I went birding to a reservoir near the village of Αγια, written as either Agia or Ayia in Roman characters. Ayia is about 9 km SW of Chania, the capital of the westernmost province of Crete, and the reservoir is a good spot for migrating waterbirds. The reservoir is surrounded by reedbeds [...]
Birding the dictionary 3
21 March 2007 – 5:26 pm
Today we start with the word ‘plover’.
plover (’plʌvə(r)). [ME. and AF. plover = OF. plovier, later L. *plovārius belonging to rain, f. L. pluvia rain; in mod.L. pluvārius pluviārius; cf. Sp. pluvial plover, ad. L. pluviālis rainy, also Ger. regenpfeifer, lit. rain-piper, and Eng. rain-bird.]
Belon, 1555, said the birds were so called because most easily [...]