Walking the dogs this evening and I saw a couple of birds down at the beach that aren’t usually there. “Oh” I said to myself “I wonder if they are masked lapwings or spur winged plovers?” But I was just tricking ha ha because they are both names for the same bird. And now I’m going to have to look up the Latin scientific name and maybe a photo for you completionists out there:
Awesome names like these are why we have birders or twitchers and not animal watchers, or fish freaks, or plant nuts. Because lion/zebra/elephant = yawn; big fish/little fish and maybe an eel – come on! How are you going to catch the public’s imagination with names like “North Island Rata”? It’s embarrassing.
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photo below to illustrate my reply to Hamish’s comment
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You’re winding me up, right? What about, off the top of my head, Dracula’s flower (Dranunculus vulgaris) for e.g.? BTW it’s not ‘North Island Rata’, it’s northern rata. Blurrgh!
Thanks for your comment and apologies for my error. I found a photo of Dracula’s flower which I thought people would like to see as he’s particularly topical with the latest BBC adaptation (I’ve seen the first episode which was excellent although I felt sorry for the nuns, and I gather the series goes steeply downhill from there). Unfortunately I couldn’t find a way of putting the photo into the comments so I’ve put it at the bottom of the post. It is a very evocative plant, and it’s even got flies on it which fits in with a recurring… Read more »
In a similar vein, Nic’s reminded of dragon blood tree (Dracaena cinnabari) which bleeds red sap & is a rather striking looking tree.
Ooh sounds interesting! If I have time I’ll that up too.
OK, that is amazing. Botanists: 2; birder: 0. Am admitting defeat, at least temporarily. But I will return!