Oh ye too easily led, - beware of over enthusiastic harbingers and prophets bearing news of false gods.
Steve, I recommend "The God Delusion" by one R. Dawkins.
Mind you, if you can turn up a Willet at say Horrocks's Flash, I might seek to elevate you to the pantheon of birding deities, (and burn my copy of Dawkins' book).
Regards, MLP
__________________
Challenges are inevitable, but failure is optional.
Great fun. After watching the bird for about 30 minutes when it alternated between shoot stripping and chasing bread two men turned up in shorts and with keep nets to try and repatriate it to the other 3 they kept in an aviary in a nearby garden "nearby".
Cue Benny Hill scenes as it showed far more nous than they did and led them a merry dance before flying off up the ditch and around the corner.
Whilst they could have been opportunists my hunch is that they were genuine, this bird being the female of a pair that escaped, the male having given itself up earlier.
Either way, it was good to see the bird, and the attempts to capture.
For what it is worth, up to then I was in the "don't write it off until proved an escape" camp.
-- Edited by Rob Smallwood on Monday 2nd of August 2010 03:36:16 PM
Steve the big purple Moorhen has been collected by it's rightful owner (who was not God funnily enough) and taken back to the three others he keeps nearby so you and Bernard might need to reconsider unfortunately!
As for me being God in the bird world, erm, I don't think so more like a feral pigeon just picking' at crumbs.
-- Edited by Ian McKerchar on Sunday 1st of August 2010 11:02:27 PM
as this is an obvious escapee what makes it so obvious it is unrung it flys it pulls grass down then stands on it to strip the seed in the water as any wild swamphen would do .i have watched the bird for the last 2 days .my hobby my bird and if u dont like my arse happy birding sorry forgot to p in the swam
-- Edited by steve ashworth on Sunday 1st of August 2010 09:46:34 PM
Called in on the way home from the Lesser Yellowlegs at Inner Marsh to see this bird in the flesh.
Although it is an obvious escapee, it was still a nice bird to look at and I was quite suprised (after never seeing one before) of it's size. I knew it would be bigger than a Moorhen or Coot but didn't expect it to be so big (Ian I know what you mean now!!)
One of the locals told me that he expects it to be caught soon as somebody has reported it missing from somewhere nearby.
Not a "tick" but still nice to see on the way home nonetheless.
And for further clarification P. martinica is a fully paid up category A species on the British list. Although there have been a number of examples of the migratory (Grey-headed) sub-species P. porphyrio found in Britain all, thus far, have been deemed escapes and consigned to the Category E dustbin.
Phil, just browsed Collins and you've gotten mixed up! Their 'Purple Gallinule' martinica is actually (what atleast was called) American Purple Gallinule, a vagrant from North America. Why they've dropped the 'American' bit and are trying to force us to use Swamphen for the birds our side of the pond I don't know. Probably some taxonomic 'fits it 'better'' crap but I shalln't be given it over to those Yanks.
Our big massive purple Moorhens on steroids (on the proper side of the Atlantic) used to be called Purple Gallinules but seem to have been changed to Purple Swamphen. Full stop.
Their (the Yanks) much smaller and all-round inferior purple Moorhen was always called American Purple Gallinule but now seems to be called Purple Gallinule. End of!
Name-changes my arse!
-- Edited by Ian McKerchar on Sunday 1st of August 2010 02:41:23 PM
Erm nope! Taxonomy moves at a pace Phil and perhaps they've been split? I haven't checked any references and am certainly not current with their taxonomy but Gallinule/Swamphen is the same as Bush Chat/Scrub Robin etc, it depends what era you're from and whether you can be arsed to use a name which someone else says is 'better'. It seems we tend to split anything at the moment even if just because it farts at a slightly different tune
Steve, the eastern grey headed race is 'poliocephalus' and has a in fact a wide distribution other than just Turkey. Swamphen is just the 'new' name for this gallinule, it will always be Purple Gallinule for some
Ian, The Collins guide 2nd edition (correctly or incorrectly) quotes them as 2 seperate species.
Page 411 (under vagrants) shows a Purple Gallinule (Porphyrio martinica) whereas the reported bird at Saltney is the poliocephalus sub-species of the Purple Swamphen (Porphyrio porphyrio) on page 127 apparently??
Can you shed any more light on this please as it is confusing??
Thanks
Phil
-- Edited by Phil Owen on Sunday 1st of August 2010 02:22:26 PM
Steve, the eastern grey headed race is 'poliocephalus' and has a in fact a wide distribution other than just Turkey. Swamphen is just the 'new' name for this gallinule, it will always be Purple Gallinule for some
the bird that has been reported as a purple gallinule is infact its turkish cousin the purple swamphen. Look in the new collins book on page 127 i will post the photos later happy birding
the big purple Moorhen has been collected by it's rightful owner (who was not God funnily enough) and taken back to the three others he keeps nearby so you and Bernard might need to reconsider unfortunately!
more like a feral pigeon just picking' at crumbs.
my arse!
