I and the Bird #49: The Wordchaser
I am constantly amazed and inspired by the creativity of those who volunteer to host carnivals. A carnival to which I frequently contribute is I and the Bird. The latest edition has just been posted over at Via Negativa. In Dave Bonta’s words:
Welcome to the 49th edition of I and the Bird, the carnival for bloggers who love birds. I’m calling this edition  with a nod to my fellow Pennsylvanian Rob Fergus  the Wordchaser. I’m less of a birder than a bird appreciator (for street cred, I can only point to my vice-presidency in the local Audubon chapter), but I chase down poems the way a life-lister chases birds.
Dave has taken some of the words of the contributors to this carnival and produced a poem. Plenty of interesting reading and photos in the links. It is worth a visit.
Links:
- I and the Bird #49 – the latest edition of the carnival.
- I and the Bird – homepage where you can find links to all the previous editions.
Cattle Egret, Adelaide Zoo
The above photo has nothing to do with this post. It’s just a lovely photo that I wanted to share with you. Click on the photo to enlarge the image. To see more of my bird photos go to my photo gallery here.
Bird Watching in Greece
I have never been to Greece and have no immediate plans to take a holiday there. However, if you would like to send me a return airline ticket to Greece I would be forced to consider changing any plans I have.
It certainly is one of those countries I would love to visit. At school I studied ancient history and so I know quite a deal about many aspects of Greek culture and their history. I enjoyed the coverage of the Athens Olympics in 2004 and the snippets of the countryside shown during that time. Several of our television networks here in Australia feature holiday destinations in Greece occasionally.
I must admit that my main interest in visiting Greece would have to be to visit historic sites, cultural sites and some of the beautiful islands. Until recently I hadn’t considered going there just to go birding. That was until I discovered the blog Birdwatching in Greece. This blog gives an excellent coverage of many of the birds found in Greece. It also features many wonderful photos of birds seen there by birders. Over a dozen trip reports are included in the archives. It also includes links to a number of Greek birding blogs and birding web sites.
This blog is worth a visit even if it is just to look at the photos.
Good birding sites
Here is another collection of good birding sites that are worth a visit:
- Birding Kuwait – very strong on excellent photos with only minimal text. (Rating 9/10)
- Oygarden Birding – about birding in Norway with plenty of photos and some explanatory text. It has two drawbacks in my opinion: the photos only enlarge slightly and the black background makes reading the text difficult (it hurts my eyes). Still worth a visit. Rating 5/10)
- African Bird Club – an excellent resource for birding anywhere in Africa. The photo gallery has nearly 7000 photos of over 1500 African bird species. Every African country has a section devoted to it, including a map. There is also a section giving advice on what books and CDs to buy. Rating 9/10.
- Brdpics – yes – I spelled it correctly – he has a matching number plate on his car – Bill Schmoker’s Birding Blog from Colorado. Many excellent photos, some cartoons and some amazing animated GIFs of birds. And if you ever suffer from a bad hair day, you won’t want to look at this amazing duck! Worth a good look. Rating 8/10.
Stay tuned for more good birding links in coming weeks.
In the meantime – can you recommend any?
Good Birding Sites
Here is another list of birding sites that are worth a visit.
- Abberton Birding – this site features hundreds of wonderful photos taken by Bill Jolly in the heart of Queensland’s bird-rich Lochyer Valley.
- Birdfreak Birding Blog – building a conservation community one birder at a time.
- Pohanginapete – this is a blog with a difference. New Zealander Pete McGregor writes about birds, wildlife, mountains, photography, people, travelling and a whole range of other topics. The photography alone is worth a visit, but try to stay a while and savour some of his brilliant writing.
Good Birding Sites
Quite often I come across a good birding site that just cries out to be shared with others. I’ve been meaning to do this for a while – I just haven’t got around to it. So here we go.
I’ve used some basic criteria for selecting those sites I link to in this way:
- The site must be mainly about birds (but this is a flexible rule).
- The site ideally features photos of birds.
- The writing must be interesting and complement the photos.
- The site must be updated relatively frequently (at least weekly).
Here are this week’s links:
- Natural Visions – nature and photography with Kevin Doxstater.
- Ben Cruachan Blog – birding and nature observations in Victoria, SE Australia.
- A Snail’s Eye View – another blog from Victoria, Australia, but with an interest in many things, not just birds.
- Charlie’s Bird Blog – amazing photos from Charlie – his job with an airline takes him all over the world.
- Peregrine’s Bird Blog – this one comes from Northern Ireland and features many photos too. An added bonus on this blog is the incredibly long blogroll; this list could provide weeks of happy surfing.
Enjoy.