Ideas from the Front Page

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Liis
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Re: Ideas from the Front Page

Post by Liis »

About the funnel chanterelle, or yellowfoot, or - very apt! :innocent: - hen's foot ...

Who has picked them? What do you do with them?

The relationship to the "real" chanterelle has been questioned indeed, and on the basis of molecular phylogenetics :innocent: reclassified; the current name, according to Wikipedia, is Craterellus tubaeformis.

It is, for various reasons, not only the gourmet aspects, very popular indeed in Sweden, even imported from Canada later in the year. When it began to be more widely noted, possibly also more widely spread, it was explained that it was favoured by acidification and the increase of conifer forests. Current price around 90 SwCr/kg (some 9 €), normally twice that.

Taste and consistence is quite different from the common chanterelle - or do I lack some genes for taste?


A recipe from Swedish state forest management company Sveaskog for funnel chanterelle soup.
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Post by Liis »

Last Thursday was probably this year's last day of mushroom picking for me.
Great amounts of the yellowfoot (-feet?) and some of its prettier cousin the golden chanterelle (Cantharellus aurora), some "real" chanterelles, and a surprising lot of the Horn of plenty or black trumpet (Craterellus cornucopioides), only mostly past their best. If nothing else, then a beautiful basketful.

A mystery: yellowfoot and golden chanterelle taste and smell the same to a human; all recipes say can be used interchangeably. But roe deer go frenetically for the golden c.; just stubs of stems left for us.

About radioactivity and mushrooms:
Sweden was rather patchily hit by Chernobyl contamination, worst in the north. It was rather serious since lichens, the main food of reindeer, readily picked up radioactive cesium.
In a reasonably new mushroom book the advice is to parboil mushrooms if one is worried, that way some 60-90 % can be eliminated. Also, different species pick up different amounts - sadly, the chanterelle and relatives do so readily. On typical mushrooms with caps with gills or tubes those can be scraped off, decreasing radioactivity by 40-70 %.

I don't know how the contamination hit Estonia. Sweden happily imports great amounts of chanterelles from Estonia and Lithuania.
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Post by Liis »

Frosted mornings - http://www.looduskalender.ee/node/11620 -
so we have changed from Latin name in the name box to modern scientific lingua franca, English :innocent: ?
Google translate says Pruina mollis for soft rime. :mrgreen:
Can it be trusted?
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Post by Liis »

Liis wrote:Frosted mornings - http://www.looduskalender.ee/node/11620 -
so we have changed from Latin name in the name box to modern scientific lingua franca, English** :innocent: ?
Google translate says Pruina mollis for soft rime. :mrgreen:
Can it be trusted?
Pruina: no Latin linguists around? :book:

**(For all who don't read the Estonian original:)Usually the Latin (well, scientific!) name is given besides the Estonian in the name box at top of the articles. This time, no Latin, English "soft rime" instead ...

The power of names and words and labels:
Whooper swan is laululuik, "singing swan" in Estonian, sångsvan in Swedish, probably something equivalent in many other languages. The "whooper" is actually quite fitting, often ... But would there be as much poetry, mystery and romance in literature with a name like whooper?

To be fair to the swans: the sound of wings from a group of swans flying past is eerie, and strange, and the same for mute and whooper swans
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Post by Liis »

Nest cameras in bird of prey studies
http://www.looduskalender.ee/node/11662
EOÜ lecture tomorrow night in Tartu:
Please, Urmas, Ülo Väli, EOÜ and Looduskalender - can we have at least a summary in Looduskalender?
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Post by alice44 »

Liis wrote:Nest cameras in bird of prey studies
http://www.looduskalender.ee/node/11662
EOÜ lecture tomorrow night in Tartu:
Please, Urmas, Ülo Väli, EOÜ and Looduskalender - can we have at least a summary in Looduskalender?
I am hoping you will get a hold of some chunk of it.
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Felis silvestris
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Post by Felis silvestris »

alice44 wrote: I am hoping you will get a hold of some chunk of it.
That's what I hope too! It sounds very interesting!
“One can measure the greatness and the moral progress of a nation by looking at how it treats its animals” (Mahatma Gandhi)
"You can judge a man's true character by the way he treats his fellow animals" (Paul McCartney)



The Aquila Pomarina Collection
Liis
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Post by Liis »

Hello, everybody -
About the EOÜ lecture series -
EOÜ has them nicely videotaped on their home page!
http://www.eoy.ee/taxonomy/term/66

"Our" Urmas and Ülo are not up yet, but surely coming.
Sorry, haven't time to translate today - the previous one, about birding tourism - seemed very interesting too, but will do.

PS. All volunteer translators are welcome :wave: - just post a note and "book" your lecture, to avoid double work :innocent:

PPS. About the lecture series http://www.looduskalender.ee/en/node/11349

EDIT: Had a look at a few lectures: fact-filled, admirably illustrated. And a LOT of talk. It is probably not possible to translate more than the text visuals, maybe with some comments. Unless volunteer translators step in? :innocent:
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Post by alice44 »

I fear it would take me many years to learn the most basic level of Estonian :slap:
Liis
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Post by Liis »

alice44 wrote:I fear it would take me many years to learn the most basic level of Estonian :slap:
Hello, Alice :wave: -
I was given a basic Estonian grammar (now, wonder why?) by relatives the other day.
I am profoundly impressed and awed by what I actually seem to manage - and would never, ever be able to learn it formally :mrgreen: .
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Post by Liis »

About Urmas Sellis and Ülo Väli's talk on Nest cameras in raptor studies at the Estonian Ornithological Society - the video of the lecture is at http://www.eoy.ee/node/417, in Estonian, 1 h 55 mins, crammed with images and bird life talk.
A translation of their own summing-up, and some more text from me at viewtopic.php?p=118606#p118606. It is about bird behaviour, after all.
The talk is nearly worth learning Estonian for!
I will try to set up some sort of "script" with video run time/text notes in English.
Only it will take some time.
Meanwhile, any translation mistakes, misunderstandings etc are mine :blush:
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Post by Liis »

The grey shrike may really feel like this dictionary, Misspelt, Misunderstood, Mispronounced.
Poor bird.
Any number of nasty names in English, just because it openly lines up and tries to preserve its prey. Instead of hiding it and killing some more because it is lost, or rots away.
Butcher Boy, Murdering Bird; Murdering Pie; Wierangle (from German Wurchangel, Destroying angel) ...
It shares some with the red-backed shrike: Flesher; Nine killer - from German again, Neunmoder; it was said to kill 9 creatures before it even started eating.
Nice that in some places it was called White Whiskey John :innocent:
Katinka

Post by Katinka »

Liis, I am with you - sometimes nasty names for fascinating birds...
In the English LK article version (Nov 28) I did not recognise the bird by its English name, but in my its "Raubwürger"- robbing shrike (uuh...). But a bird of prey of that small size, I really wasn't aware of...fascinating! Regretfully such rare birds I still haven't observed in my surroundings, as we have large fields, less bushes and trees inbetween, so no good place for a diversity of nature. Not to forget that there are only few farmers with huge efficient working machines, and they mostly havn't developed a sense for nature conserving belongings yet. E. g. the skylark (põldlõoke) has nearly disappeared here due to lack of undisturbed breeding sites. It was a very frequently to hear bird up in the skies, and the dicrease is somehow a big loss.
Back to the small "predators" - within the mouse-likes there are the shrews (no Wiki article in Estonian!), and some are preferring to catch bigger animals like a toad or a fish. As I recently learnt, it is with the help of a narcotizing poison while biting...

And thanks a lot, that I could find your post about the transcript to the Nov 17 EOÜ lecture with Ülo & Urmas here again! I had seen it somewhere in the forum and soon lost the "overview" once more ( :slap: ).
Katinka

Post by Katinka »

Now to the Ural owl article from Nov 28!
Though that I try to make internet searches as short as possible, this time I was a bit brave and set the name in. Ha! Google showed a choice between simple name and bird's voice. Otherwise it would have taken me a lot of time to find this match in the depths of internet...
Here you are: http://www.luontoportti.com/suomi/en/linnut/ural-owl
Very special voice...Characteristics in many languages: see above.
(Liis, you were suggesting this site to me some time ago. I understand it more & more)
Somebody recognising the voice from webcam sequences in the wilderness??
(Me, I'm reminded of some movies taking place in dark forests)
Perhaps I'd collect more characteristic voices from the woods and post it (but where).
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Post by alice44 »

:loveshower:

I just checked out that site, pretty cool.
I went to the first page and found the Bearded Tit (except Bushtits are just one shade of grey)-- it is much like our Bush Tit -- even their calls. Bush Tits make those little squeaking noise all the time, they are always moving (hunting gnats) and I think they talk so they can all keep track of each other and stay with the flock.

http://www.luontoportti.com/suomi/en/linnut/bearded-tit
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Post by Jo UK »

Liis wrote:Frosted mornings - http://www.looduskalender.ee/node/11620 -
so we have changed from Latin name in the name box to modern scientific lingua franca, English :innocent: ?
Google translate says Pruina mollis for soft rime. :mrgreen:
Can it be trusted?
But Liis - should we expect a Latin name for a weather-related activity, frost? I thought the Latin names were used for plants and animals. Do you know more?
(I am sure you know more than I do, anyway!)
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Post by Liis »

Jo UK wrote: But Liis - should we expect a Latin name for a weather-related activity, frost? I thought the Latin names were used for plants and animals. Do you know more?
(I am sure you know more than I do, anyway!)
I don't know anything more either.
But they put the English name in the Latin name box (or scientific - we are always told that it is not all Latin) .
No, there is no Linnaeus classification system for weather! And no internationally accepted "Latin" or other terminology, although I am sure there is an international terminology committee that tries to keep some order in the various languages.
But the "Latin" names in biology are, apart from what they say about relationships and hierarchy, a precise common basis between various languages. So from that point of view it looked as if the most common language of weather science would be English. :innocent:
(actually in LK the "Latin" names are links to more information on Internet, and, quite true, "pruina mollis" would not produce very helpful links!)
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Post by unp »

Leaving mollis aside, Google Translate came up with an intriguing word.

Pruina [proo-i'na] is a powdery bloom or waxy secretion (Concise English Dictionary, 2007, Wordsworth Editions)

Image
Here --> http://www.cactus-art.biz/note-book/Dic ... uinose.htm

But also, Pruina Greeting Cards
Image Image Image etc.
Here --> http://fineartamerica.com/art/all/pruina/greeting+cards

Latin-turned-English?
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Post by Liis »

But both Google Translate (surprise, surprise) and the card company seem to know what it is about.
Swedish-Latin dictionary (from 1875; there are newer!) said "pruina" for rime = rimfrost, and "pruinosus" for covered with rime (Swedish-Latin: northern enough to be sure that rime was seen as a necessary word and included :innocent:)

Hmmm - who came up with the English sense "powdery bloom" and when? Are blueberries and sloes pruinous? Frosted glass?

EDIT: the mollis in pruina mollis might be there to distinguish between hoar frost and rime frost (some use hard and soft rime)?
The waxy plant seems to have (soft) rime on it, and the greeting cards hoar frost.
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Post by Jo UK »

I can't remember - is there a difference between hoar frost and rime frost?

I think I have heard that the hazy appearance on blueberries is called a bloom -
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