I and the bird #93
It has been too long since my last contribution to the I and the Bird carnival.
At long last I managed to scrape in a link to the latest carnival over at Vickie Henderson Art. Her compilation of wonderful posts about birds from all over the world is called The Compelling Nature of Birds.
Go on – go on over there and have a read.
I’ll wait patiently here for you to return.
I and the Bird #87
The latest birding carnival has been hosted over at Ecobirder. This is issue #87 of I and the bird. Heaps of good reading about birds from all over the world with links to many bird blogs just like this one.
Flamingo bashed at Adelaide Zoo
Flamingo at Adelaide Zoo
I was quite horrified to hear the news this morning about a 78 year old Flamingo being bashed by four teenagers at the Adelaide Zoo. Why would someone do this? It seems incomprehensible. What is more, the bird is blind and is the oldest Flamingo in captivity. It came to our local zoo here in the 1930s.
I took the photo above only last Friday on my most recent visit to the zoo. I am a Life Member so I visit often, mainly to see the excellent collection of birds, especially in the walk through aviaries. Having the birds up close is also great for photography, especially of species I would be hard pressed to see in the wild, let alone photograph them.
The news today is that the bird is making a good recovery. The four culprits, however, have been detained by police and stand to be fined up to $50,000 or four years in prison.
For the full story, including a video of the bird and an interview with the director of the zoo, go to this link:
- Shock over Adelaide Zoo Flamingo bashing
For more news about zoos in Australia – and around the world – go to ZooChat, an on-line forum about zoos owned by my son. It covers over 450 zoos from over 50 countries and features news and discussions about zoos. The rapidly growing gallery has over 18,000 photos.
I and the bird #85 – the Show Must Go On
“All the world’s a stage
And all the birds merely players
They have their exits and their entrances
And each bird in its time plays many parts.”With apologies to The Bard.
Yes – the show must go on.
Despite some technical difficulties, the show must go on. And so it came to pass that I and the Bird number eighty five has found its home.
This time I found the time to be a member of the cast – sorry – to be a part of the story of the great show.
For my readers who haven’t the faintest idea of what I am talking about, I and the The Bird is a birding blog carnival. Go and have a read, click on the links and enjoy the show.
Link: I and the Bird # 85
Birding and the Olympic Games
I spent some time watching the Men’s Cycling Road Race at the Beijing Olympic Games yesterday. It was freezing and showery all day here at my daughter’s place in Clare in the mid north of South Australia all day so it wasn’t conducive to getting out to do some birding anyway.
I figured that watching the cycling road race would have been a good opportunity of ticking a few birds of China – not that I’d be able to identify them. I don’t have access to a field guide to the birds of China. Still -with Phil Liggett commentating, an avid birder himself, there was a chance the cameras might focus briefly on a bird and he would comment on it, hopefully giving its name.
No such luck.
In fact, I didn’t see a bird at any time during the race. And then the result of the race was also disappointing – from and Aussie point of view. Same thing happened during the recent Tour de France – few birds seen during the three weeks of racing. Oh, well, all that means is that I’ll have to visit those places in person.