It was great fun talking to a packed lecture theatre in the Zoology Department in Aberdeen about Passenger Pigeons and Hen Harriers on Tuesday evening. We also all had the opportunity to look at a stuffed Passenger Pigeon in the adjacent museum – which I always find is a rather poignant experience.
I was talking to the Aberdeen RSPB Local Group but there were quite a few familiar faces in the audience. One, in particular, I was very pleased to see, Professor Bill Mordue, who was head of department when I did my PhD at Aberdeen (under the tutelage of Prof Paul Racey) and who came and said hello.
I made some new friends too. I had dinner before my talk with several members of the group and was taken out birding on the Wednesday. Everybody was very welcoming and I can see that they are all building up for their 40th birthday celebration with Chris Packham on 10 March.
The Zoology building itself is as ugly as ever from the outside (it looks like one of the less attractive buildings in central Minsk, Belarus, see above) but the lecture theatre has been spruced up quite a bit since I last spoke there (about sandeel fisheries in c1987) or I first spoke there (I guess, as a PhD student in about 1982). But despite its unprepossessing external appearance, I have a soft spot for the place in my affections.
There was a lot of support for the idea of banning driven grouse shooting, and a lot of amazement at the numbers of Passenger Pigeons that graced the American forests and skies 150 years ago.
Looking at the specimen in the Museum I felt, as I always feel, very sad that there aren’t Passenger Pigeons still flying around in their millions – the loss is always brought home to me when I see a single bird.
Girdle Ness failed, rather remarkably, to produce a Purple Sandpiper (or maybe the fault was mine and my companion’s) but the Ythan Estuary had plenty of frisky Eiders and a selection of waders. At Loch of Strathbeg we saw lots of Pinkfeet and some Barnacle Geese too, and my first Tree Sparrows of the year (!).
So it was a good trip. It always feels good when one’s talk seems to have gone down well, and this time it certainly did, and I saw some birds, but it will probably be the kindness, hospitality and warmth of fellow birders, especially Mark and Eric, which will stay with me the longest.
Thank you grey, granite, Aberdeen for being so warm to me.
You think that Zoology building is ugly? What about the Zoology / Psychology building in South Parks Road, Oxford? No contest in my opinion!
Tony – that’s ugly too! In a similar sort of way – but it isn’t as tall. I was always amused by the fact that the Zoo/Psych building had won an award – from the concrete Society I think!
Is there still a bear beside the coffee machine?
Gosh reading this blog reminded me of that same sad feeling I had to stomach when I stared into the eyes of a stuffed passenger pigeon at The Natural History Musuem. The worst part about it all was the fact that so little was said about its life story and why it’s now lost. It’s almost like its whole existence and beauty is a just a hazy blur that never actually happened…