Beardies are probably more exotic to Czech bird enthusiasts than to Brits, but they are cracking little birds. Not sure that you'd expect to see one near to a Wryneck in the wild..
The nearest I have seen them is in the same county. That is quite possible in several areas of GB. I don't think I've ever seen an unusual wild bird in a Zoo.
Yesterday I watched something rather unusual- a mature female Blackbird attacking a male, it was standing on its back and hammering its head repeatedly like a Woodpecker. It carried on even when I approached to within a couple of feet. When it eventually desisted due to my close approach, it flew away leaving the male 'scalped' and distressed-looking lying in a pool of water. It was still there 15 minutes after but had gone later on.
Well, you two jammy birders should send me happy thoughts over the next couple of hours as I'm just off out the door to test one of my 'nightmare' species by looking for Great Northern Diver at Carsington Water! Will report back.
Well, having just spent 40min watching one feeding on Carsington Water I've clawed that one back!
Occurred to me while watching that that bird represented a whole order of birds I've never seen before. Brilliant stuff. Didn't really come close enough to photo properly but there's a distant snap attached for what it's worth!
Whilst I definitely prefer "loon" to "diver", in Europe Gavia immer is definitely not the common species. It only breeds in Iceland, which from a strictly ornithological point of view is a toss-up between Nearctic and Palaearctic!
Whilst I definitely prefer "loon" to "diver", in Europe Gavia immer is definitely not the common species. It only breeds in Iceland, which from a strictly ornithological point of view is a toss-up between Nearctic and Palaearctic!
Whilst I definitely prefer "loon" to "diver", in Europe Gavia immer is definitely not the common species. It only breeds in Iceland, which from a strictly ornithological point of view is a toss-up between Nearctic and Palaearctic!
The recommended NA/Europe compromise name is 'Great Northern Loon' - I wonder if actually 'Common Diver' might be a preferable compromise for the reasons above.
Anywho, within Europe this is known as Great Northern Diver, and this individual has entirely made my week!
(At the end of the day common names count for very little really. It'll have a different name in German/French/Spanish/Quechua/Afrikaans anyway, so it may as well have two English names. It's all Gavia immer.)
A slightly false argument, as 'Common' in a common name is not used in the sense of 'numerous', but in the sense of 'plain' or 'basic'.
The recommended NA/Europe compromise name is 'Great Northern Loon' - I wonder if actually 'Common Diver' might be a preferable compromise for the reasons above.
Anywho, within Europe this is known as Great Northern Diver, and this individual has entirely made my week!
(At the end of the day common names count for very little really. It'll have a different name in German/French/Spanish/Quechua/Afrikaans anyway, so it may as well have two English names. It's all Gavia immer.)
Yes, semantics aside I can imagine how excited you must have been. I've only ever seen Red-throated Diver aka Arctic Loon.
Some 15 or so years back I seem to remember British Birds running a piece that argued for a standard English language name for species where there were clashes between the UK/Ireland, North America, Australasia or elsewhere. Charadrius alexandrinus comes to mind as an obvious problem child - it's known as Red-capped Dotterel in Australia/New Zealand, Snowy Plover in North America, and (very inappropriately) Kentish Plover in the UK/Ireland.
