Looduskalender

With these kinds of words -- those that do not seem quite right in the plural, or the singular or whatever -- I typically try to avoid the odd case usage, which is not something you can easily do with a translation.

It is not a familiar plant.

And "they" had to have a front-page item especially about the colt's-foot ...
I notice that in Naturegate, the very good Finnish site (multi-language) about botany, animals etc, the plural has been carefully avoided.

Just in case bird enthusiasts have wondered - it is the definitely less exotic ring ouzel (Turdus torquatus) that has landed in the Birder's diaries and species list. Chatshrikes (Lanioturdus torquatus) still stay in western Angola and Namibia.

The real chatshrike has " ...very short tail, with a small black mark at the tip of the central two feathers, is always carried down, never sticking up. Its range of calls includes loud ringing territorial whistles." But never in Estonia.

The bird name links in the Birder's diaries go directly to the Latin name of each bird on the Birder's own site, although the bird description is in Estonian.

How come such an exotic bird turned up in translation? For once the excellent Multilingual Birdsearch Engine lists 2 alternatives for Estonian Kaelusrästas, chatshrike first. First come, first served. Seemed a curious name, but so is ouzel ...

PS. The bird has confounded people before: "Waterhouse subsequently described it in 1838, the name Lanioturdus ('shrike-thrush') reflecting the uncertainty of its classification" ...

PPS. For those who don't feel up to following the Birder diary links, the Latin names are all there in the texts of the excellent German translations. See Vogelbeobachters Tagebuch ...

Another surprising bird discovery (thank you, Leonia and Felis for pointing it out! ):
The nightingale is not what I at least have believed.
That is, Estonian "ööbik" (Luscinia luscinia) without qualifications is the eastern or thrush nightingale or sprosser in English, not just nightingale.

The common nightingale or just nightingale in English is the "lõunaööbik" = southern nightingale in Estonian. Luscinia megarhynchos. Curiously enough not observed at all in Estonia - as far as I can check the Rarities committee lists etc - and a fairly rare visitor in Sweden and Finland.

Song and looks are quite similar, but they are still 2 clearly separate species.
So when you read the poetry and poetical texts about the nightingale's song - take care, it might be a different bird!

The nightingale ... http://www.looduskalender.ee/en/node/13386
Or rather, the nightingales
Who has heard both? What do you think?

The front-page article above telling of the beauty of the nightingale's song did not quite feel like the place to translate meticulously correctly but maybe not so romantically.
So, once more:
The nightingale, Luscinia luscinia, in the northern parts of Europe should actually be called the eastern, or thrush nightingale, or sprosser in English.
Nightingale, or common nightingale, Luscinia megarhynchos, is the usual (only?) nightingale in e g UK and the European "mainland". In the Baltic countries it is a rare visitor: Denmark, Sweden, Finland all fewer than 100 observations each altogether; Latvia none; Lithuania "rare"; no observations in Estonia. The species may interbreed in a narrow overlapping area.

Not a problem - except that opinions on the song differ widely. The song of L. megarhynchos is said to be softer, more melodious and largely lack the typical castanet clicks or lashes of L. luscinia. The latter is admittedly quite loud-voiced at times. Fresher, more vigorous its admirers say.

I think a Luscinia luscinia is singing every evening from around 11 PM onwards near the Estonian osprey camera. I have asked at the thread if somebody knows what bird is singing, but I am quite sure it is one.



The last few evenings I have just been sitting here, enjoyed the bird song and watched sunset at Käsmu ...

Which day (and time) now will birder Margus Ots pass the Estonian 1-year top number of bird species seen?
7 + 1 species to go as of May 28th ...
What bird will be the record breaker?
What will his final year number be?


See all the Birder's birding trip stories here
Here is his list of birds seen, in order of sightings, from January 1st - barely a minute into the new year - and onwards.
The record he is after is here, "Estonian Big Years 250+", two-thirds down the page.

PS (EDIT June 17th): 3 + 1 species to go, as of June 14th ...

I fell into the German thread -- actually I visit on purpose from time to time. (I am sure I have at least doubled my german vocabulary from 2 to 4. It is interesting to see words I have mostly only heard)

But today I followed Felis' link to the English translation
http://www.looduskalender.ee/en/node/13853
which was interesting since I visited a wildlife refuge today
In the region of my town we have two refuges -- neither with lakes that get fished by people, and both are controlled at least somewhat during a season.

The state refuge is for the preservation of pheasants (a non-native game bird) and water fowl. Dogs are meant to be leashed during duck breading season and people are asked to stay on the main paths.

The federal/national refuge is for the preservation of one sub-species of Canada goose and people are not allowed out of their cars in most of the refuge during much of winter season -- so that the geese are not scared into the hunting fields next door.

Our birder, Margus Ots, at 266 species seen, is just one bird short of being equal to the Estonian record of 267 species in a year after coming across a sanderling

All the birder's stories HERE

A speedy recovery from the nasty tick bite with borreliosis, and two more birds, soon!

Many plants are presented on LK's main page - as always in summer.

Not even in one country people know a plant by the same name; because of this the Latin name, although it might seem difficult, is a help in seeing what it is about.

Translation to English is sometimes a problem because there is no "authorized name" source. In Estonia and Sweden for instance there are, or at least attempts. If anyone knows of an English source, please tell! Not seldom of course a common plant in Estonia is very rare or doesn't even grow in UK - not speaking of America - so has no "common" name, or a very made-up one.
So something as trivial as the names and differences in names in various languages can also reflect fascinating differences in real life.

Some good sources for more information (yes, I have told about them before, but they are firm favourites):
Finnish Naturegate/Luontoportti http://www.luontoportti.com/suomi/en/, in 7 languages including English, German, French, Spanish; tough proper botanic terminology but also much "lighter" information. Also some insects, animals, birds.

Swedish Virtuella floran http://linnaeus.nrm.se/flora/
sadly texts Swedish only but good photos, names in 5 languages + the fascinating distribution maps (Utbredningskartor), Nordic countries + Northern hemisphere

PS The Latin name of Dutchman's pipe, Monotropa hypopitys, means, according to Luontoportti, ’hermit growing under a pine tree’ ...

Liis wrote:Many plants are presented on LK's main page - as always in summer.

Not even in one country people know a plant by the same name; because of this the Latin name, although it might seem difficult, is a help in seeing what it is about.

Translation to English is sometimes a problem because there is no "authorized name" source. In Estonia and Sweden for instance there are, or at least attempts. If anyone knows of an English source, please tell! Not seldom of course a common plant in Estonia is very rare or doesn't even grow in UK - not speaking of America - so has no "common" name, or a very made-up one.
So something as trivial as the names and differences in names in various languages can also reflect fascinating differences in real life.

Some good sources for more information (yes, I have told about them before, but they are firm favourites):
Finnish Naturegate/Luontoportti http://www.luontoportti.com/suomi/en/, in 7 languages including English, German, French, Spanish; tough proper botanic terminology but also much "lighter" information. Also some insects, animals, birds.

Swedish Virtuella floran http://linnaeus.nrm.se/flora/
sadly texts Swedish only but good photos, names in 5 languages + the fascinating distribution maps (Utbredningskartor), Nordic countries + Northern hemisphere

PS The Latin name of Dutchman's pipe, Monotropa hypopitys, means, according to Luontoportti, ’hermit growing under a pine tree’ ...

Liis,you do find some pearls.

edit; Did you see Maertha's link in Useful Tools ?

http://www.dessertsbyannk.com/ws/The_Wordsmithery.html
You must love that one.
also;
http://www.discoverlife.org/20/q?search=Plantae

Discover life link (plants etc;) in Useful tools also.

Because I knew that after the ringing of the black storks Carsten Rohde joined in at the banding of LSE in Mecklenburg-Western Pommerania, I asked him what he knows about hawk-attacks like the ones against the two LS-eaglets in Estonia and Latvia.

He writes that it often happens that femaile hawks rob young LSE, sometimes even wait until the prey has reached a good size. And in Mecklenburg-Western Pommerania they lose 1 to 2 young birds of the LSE as a hawk prey on average every year.

They are pleased with this year's LSE-breeding season, because about half of the 90 breeding pairs have successfully raised a chick. In addition a 24 year old adult male, that had hatched and was banded in 1988 only 20 km away from his nowadays nest, was found by German LSW-specialist Mayburg while providing adult birds with transmitters.

The spiked speedwell, kassisaba, "cat's tail", in Estonian:
am I mislead by the blue colour? No associations to cats!
(But I love Russian Blues)
A fox tail rather.
What about it, cat lovers and owners on the forum?

(And thank you, Macdoum, for reminding about Maertha's link.)

I have been thinking Liis.

Fox tails have a bit more poof at the tip -- but then so does my cat's tail.



(I have a bag of apples from my Estonian Transparent tree. I hope to make a pie Monday or Tuesday.)

Our birder Margus Ots has passed the earlier Estonian record for bird species seen during one year!
http://www.looduskalender.ee/node/14438 (in Estonian)
A pallid harrier (stepi-loorkull) was the record-breaking 268th species!

It has been a slow, slow last little step for Margus, but now he is there. What or who next?

Of course: CONGRATULATIONS!

I had no doubts that he will manage! The question was when and how!
Congratulations from Germany to Margus Ots!

Congratulations from Latvia too. I always read his blog with great interest.

Congratulations from the Netherlands

Congratulations from Switzerland too .

Sorry, everybody, for the lack of translations this last week, but been away on a brief holiday on a heap of granite stone just off the Swedish West coast, with painfully haphazard Internet connections (restart computer some 5 times in 15 minutes of trying to be in the outside cyber world ...)
And during the firm favourite, Rõuge mushroom week, too.

Fascinating place, all the same, half of it quarried out to various ends of the world as pavement, pillars and diverse statuary ornaments but plenty left. Wonderfully strange industrial and natural and reclaimed natural rock landscape. With tracks of several generations of stone-quarrying techniques to read in the stone walls and heaps.
And if anyone believes granite rock is for ever, just visit Bohus Malmön: granite splits, sheds outer layers, cracks, weathers, crumbles ...