Some things that caught my eye this week:
- £1000 reward for information on injured Buzzard in Yorkshire
- science and technology committee thinks that EU rules on GM crops are holding us back
- planet earth is a sick patient says future king
- Sweden’s racist bird names – do we have any of our own? Or any bird names that are offensive in any way?
- Martin Harper’s blog features Sir John Randall’s speech on a Nature and Well-being
- Tony Juniper’s manifesto for nature – I will review his book here on Sunday
- take note – the badger cull will continue under a Tory government
- it’s still a bit nippy but spring is on the way. I used to hope to see a Brimstone in February each year but now I hardly get out at all! Have you seen any butterflies yet?
- there are snowdrops all over the place of course, and a couple of flowering primroses in my garden – any signs of spring in the plants near you?
- do the sums add up on Indian tiger increase?
- has Labour stopped attacking the Greens?
- Patrick Barkham on Lodge Hill, Rampisham Downs and that quarry with the horrid spider in it.
- Matt Shardlow of Buglife blogs on Fineshade Wood
Great tits.
Shag.
Woodcock.
Actually… to be more serious… the name “Honey buzzard” is more offensive to me than the silly examples I’ve thought of above.
Primarily because the “pern” is more of a kite than a buzzard really and doesn’t eat honey (or bees generally).
They might as well have called it the “Spaghetti falcon” to be honest. Equally as apt anyway.
Of course scientific nomenclature is often where the “rude” etymology lies. .. but more so for insects and the wonderfully-named moths in particular.
As for birds, our rudest scientific name for one of our birds goes (I think) to our “moronic” birds.
Literally classified as morons they are…
http://zoonames.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/gannet.html?m=1
And this reminds me…
Boobies.
*snigger*
Phallus impudicus
Red Admiral at the caff at Longstock Farm Shop on St Valentine’s Day. Pulmonarias, snowdrops, primroses and almost daffodils in the garden but no sign of my new hellebores! Buds opening on Lathyrus vernus and common hazels showering pollen madly.
Winter aconite – first yellow flar. How could I forget …
Filbert – one of my favourites.
Nice Brimstone in the valley near me on Wednesday taking advantage of a sunny spot.
re the Tigers. I read somewhere that as a species approaches extinction it will reach a point where the environment / food / or whatever will support a temporary upturn in numbers. That becomes a danger point because we take our eye off the ball and a crash occurs. I don’t know if that is true or I made it up, but that bit of information has floated around my brain for many years.
The ‘offensive’ swift name refers to White-rumped Swift (Apus caffer).
To quote from an email from Jan Holmgren:
“The Swedish name of the Common Swift Apus apus is tornseglare (torn = tower, seglare = sailer, same as German Segler). The swift now called vitgumpseglare (vit = white, gump = rump, seglare = sailer) is Apus caffer, in English known as the White-rumped Swift.
Jan”
Thanks Mark, for a very informative “Round Up”
Xanthorrhoeas are a genus of desert-adapted plants that are known as ‘blackboys’ in Australia. As with many Australian plants they are fire-adapted and, after having been burnt, the blackened trunks, general growth form and the sprouting green growth of spiky leaves supposedly give them the appearance of an aboriginal boy. A more politically correct name that is now sometimes used is grass-tree.
Jonathan – thank you, interesting.
“politically correct”
Auricularia auricula-judae gives no end of trouble
Some day lily cultivar names could be thought of as being offensive.
http://www.polliesdaylilies.co.uk/catalogue_D_G.asp?pid=&pg=8
No. I wasn’t thinking of the first in the list that I provided a link to above…. I was thinking of the twelth.
My spelling in the above comment is offensive too.
You are too hard on yourselfth!
This one caught my eye – sounds like a good example of a partnership between different groups – including dare I say it GAMEKEEPERS – to help turn around the fortunes of a locally endangered species
http://www.edp24.co.uk/news/stone_curlews_back_from_the_brink_in_norfolk_1_3974131
a friend of mine near newark had daffodils out last month no idea what was going on there – maybe sub soil heating?
Plenty of daff varieties are bred these days to flower in the winter proper.
But still peoplr comment that daffs are up way too early.
Thanks to the link to Matt Shardlow’s Fine shades blog and through that to Sir John Randall’s speech on the Nature and Wellbeing bill – superb, well worth reading.