Oh, Shrikes!

We continue with the bird taxonomy lesson/rant with another family on another continent - shrikes. The all-knowing Wikipedia informs me that the name is derived from the Latin word for 'butcher'  - or, at least, its scientific family, Laniidae, is. (Linguist nerds: the Latin word is Lanius, which happily also means executioner.) Now, "butcher" might…

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From the Lake to the Trees

Some lovely branches against the sky from the Pyrenees caught my eye. Their curling intricacies fascinated me, especially when the sun shone through - and so I photographed it. On another note, posting will be sporadic to totally absent over the next ten days due to the fact I'm travelling and will likely have no…

The Case of the Vagabond Wagtails

I've mentioned white wagtails before - and how my desire to see them twisted the identity of completely different bird species to fit my purpose - and so, having yearned and not achieved, I expected that they would be a pipe dream. But fate conspired against me. And so you can imagined how surprised I…