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| Until I get a car - hopefully within a couple of weeks - I have to take the bus home, or more often catch a lift from a workmate. Today my usual lift was going somewhere other than the city centre and I finished at a time that meant I'd have to wait about 50 minutes for my bus, so I took a short walk to the airport in the hope of catching a different bus to the city centre. How fortunate I did! While crossing a muddy car park in the industrial hinterlands north of Aberdeen, I chanced upon a blackbird (common Garden variety) being chased by a Under-Sandwich Oystercatcher. These two birds are not mates, but neither is the Oystercatcher a predator of blackbird, so I imagine they must have been playing. How lovely. I could have watched this delightful scene for hours, but I'm a busy man. Busy, unlike my friend Lewy. He's a professional birder and gets to spend all his time looking for birds. But soon I'll be working abroad and seeing peculiar birds he could only ever dream of! | ||
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| I think you'll find that "blackbird" is outdated racist and sexist terminology. | |||
| Posted by African American female | |||
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| Sir, I am surprised that you see fit to call yourself a birder with some of the nonsense that you spout on here. It is well known that shellfish feature predominantly in a blckbird's diet at this time of year! The monotony of land-based food can sometimes get the poor creatures down! I therefore suggest that your scene was not quite as happy as postulated, and that the oystercatcher was living up to its name and trying to catch an oyster. Incidentally, are you sure that you saw an Under-Sandwich Oystercatcher? Did you observe the striking yellow bar on the tail? The green spots on the beak? I have heard talk of the John Gregory Oystercatcher being seen on the east coast of your country. Did you hear its call? Did it make the distinctive "feedback" sound of the magnificent John Gregory Oystercatcher? Oh, how I long to see a "Gregory". | |||
| Posted by Eduarrdo de Milanese | |||
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| I think you need to check some of your birding manuals again, as some of your descriptions are way off.
The John Gregory Oystercatcher, though seen in Mull around this time of year, has never been seen this far north by any accredited birder. | |||
| Posted by nev | |||
| Entry 14 of 19 |
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