The House(s) of Fran_mart

And it was on today, Friday 28 August.  The only reason I knew this was because I was reading about Wattle Day and came across this , including:  Another welcome decision has come from the State and Territory cancer societies and councils to hold Daffodil Day on a Friday in late August, not on Wattle Day as previously. I haven't seen any posters or media coverage this year,  However when doing a doorstep interview on SBS news on the night Bill Shorten and his team all had daffodil pins.  The Prime Minister -filmed at Bamaga didn't have one. Here are some images from various parts of El Rancho Carwoola.  And there are sill plenty to come!

In my post of book reviews a couple of days ago I made an observation that Romance languages use the possessive element in bird names more than other languages.  That was followed by the suggestion that a research project was available. The weather today was such that an indoor project was quite welcome so I got stuck into it.  (And a few other linguistic/historic byways.) Before getting to the results a few words about methods are both important and interesting. Methodology There are 2,368 species included in Whose Bird (Beolens and Watkins).  Looking all of them up would be a huge task, especially for something essentially trivial.  So I decided to restrict myself to the species including  a person's name in their vernacular name as listed as the official entry in Australian Bird Names (Fraser and Gray).  This was a much more manageable 43 species! To get the names in other languages I referred to Avibase .  The species pages there include two lists of names as shown h

OK the proportion was about 3 -4% represented by 1 member who could qualify for Acker Bilk's explanation of folk from Somerset: Somerset born and Somerset bred, Strong in the arm and weak in the head. I don't actually come from Somerset and in my case I am not too sure about the "strong in the arm" bit at this stage. Before I left home I saw an email mentioning a Grey Goshawk at Jerrabomberra Wetlands.  As this is one of my bogey birds I decided to invest a little time in looking for it.  On the way I  went past the Turf farm which was looking a bit soggy. Here is a close up of the swans. There were about 30 of the grazing across the farm, seeming totally at ease with the work going on (and the workers totally at ease with the swans). I spent about an hour at the wetlands and found neither hide nor feather of the Grey Goshawk.  I did find the original observer who gave some clues as it where it might be but I could not relocate the bird.  Damn!  I record

I'll begin with " A History of birdwatching in 100 Objects " by David Callahan.  It is really a very interesting book dealing with things ranging from Arnhemland rock painting (~45,000 years ago); via  a stuffed dodo (~320 years ago and a total fraud); to  eBird (surprisingly 13 years ago).   The overall layout of the book is a photograph of the object on the RH page and a page or a bit more of text on the left.  The text generally puts the object in historical context and then explains how it was important for the development of birdwatching.  I generally found the first half of the book more interesting that the second.  I think that is because the earlier endeavours were more about the development of concepts, while the latter stages were more about equipment. In summary well worth a read. My second book is " Whose bird ?" by Bo Beolens and Michael Watkins.  This is devoted to people whose names are reflected in the common names of birds. What I

The month of August is still officially Winter but things are definitely getting into Spring mode so I am declaring the second half thereof as Sprinter ! We have had at least one Swamp Wallaby ( Wallabia bicolor ) around the property ever since we have been here.  At present we have at least three and one of those should, judging by the shape of its abdomen, be counted as at least one and a half!  I haven't been able to grab a snap of the distension but another one of the mob paused for a pose.  I am mystified how the taxonomists can only count two colours in animals like that.  Perhaps their colour vision is on the fritz?  My Irfanview software counts 36709 unique colours in the image! I went for a walk to my site for Cyanicula caerulens  (Blue Finger orchids) but there was nothing happening there.  On the way up to the site I noticed several more occurrences of Acacia gunnii . To my mind the leaves at the base of the pedicel look a bit soft and strange but the others ap

Actually it took itself to the cleaner (aka birdbath) but I liked the ambiguity of my subject.  An interesting discussion of the phrase "taken to the cleaners" is here . The birds' breeding season is really beginning to fire up in Carwoola and this is particularly evident with the male Superb Fairy-wrens getting the superb-ness at the maximum.  If nothing else this sequence of snaps from the kitchen window show a lovely little bird.

32 members and guests gathered at the appointed time and place and headed off for a loop including elements of both the Defence land and the Nature Park. Some birds from the adjoining rural property were also noted. The weather was brilliant, being mild and sunny.  As we set off along the Eastern fence line our first Flame Robins (1 of each sex) were sighted. Before we got to their nesting area a Long-billed Corella was seen peering out of a hollow. It was agreed that this was an IH record, but since it was peering out of the hollowing it was agreed that this was Inspecting Humans rather than Inspecting Hollow. The image shows the red face and the red "cut-throat".  The long bill is less clear. Other birds seen checking out hollows included Galah, Sulphur-crested Cockatoo, ... ... Eastern Rosella and Australian Wood Duck. A female Flame Robin was seen flying in to a nest site. A female Common Bronzewing (note grey on the forehead in second image) was sitting f