Bird words
I have learned several new bird words recently.
According to this sad report on the Dunsapie Loch swans Sally and Sid, a female swan is called a pen and a male swan is called a cob. I'm not entirely sure how you tell the difference, though. Is the male swan the one that's attacking you?
In news from the Highlands, it transpires that gannet chicks are called guga. They either taste like salty goose, somewhere between kipper and steak, a mix of rotten leather and fishy beef, or anchovy paste topped with high-strength cod liver oil. Yum!
And finally, the local name for the Great Skua in Orkney is bonxie. I heard it described as being able to "bonk" puffins out of the air and eat them before they hit the sea. Less gruesomely, the word seems to basically mean "dumpy bird".
Not birdspotting, but wordspotting!
lo, a crosspost! from dreamwidth (http://tamf.dreamwidth.org/8556.html)
According to this sad report on the Dunsapie Loch swans Sally and Sid, a female swan is called a pen and a male swan is called a cob. I'm not entirely sure how you tell the difference, though. Is the male swan the one that's attacking you?
In news from the Highlands, it transpires that gannet chicks are called guga. They either taste like salty goose, somewhere between kipper and steak, a mix of rotten leather and fishy beef, or anchovy paste topped with high-strength cod liver oil. Yum!
And finally, the local name for the Great Skua in Orkney is bonxie. I heard it described as being able to "bonk" puffins out of the air and eat them before they hit the sea. Less gruesomely, the word seems to basically mean "dumpy bird".
Not birdspotting, but wordspotting!
lo, a crosspost! from dreamwidth (http://tamf.dreamwidth.org/8556.html)