Wildlife summer 2012

[Gerdk]

After a bit internetresearch I found this

 ... in the region Pfalz (Palatinate) this bird was (is ?) called ' Goldhammer'

from Hugo Suolahti (1901): Die deutschen Vogelnamen  (German names for birds)

Gerd

[Anthony Darby]

One of my bird books ("A Bird Book for the Pocket" by Edmund Sanders - 1945 copy of the 1933 3rd Edition) gives "Yellow Yowler" as an alternative name.

[mark smyth]

I've heard them referred to as yellow yornies or maybe yarnies

I like the way short-eared owls fly

[Roma]

Local name here is 'yalla yitie'

[mark smyth]

from birdlore.net
The English name “Yellowhammer” has been in use since the 16th century.  It derives from the Middle English Yelwambre – yelwe, yellow + ambre, a type of bird (a bunting) from Old English amore with the same root as the German ammer.  (In modern German most bunting names end -ammer: theYellowhammer is called “Goldammer” and the Snow Bunting “Schneeammer.)

The Scientific name is Emberiza citronella, from the Old German: embriz, bunting, and Latin citreus, of the citrus tree.

Other languages
Gaelic:  Buidheag-bhealaidh
Welsh:  Melyn yr Eithin  Yellow bird of the gorse
Czech  Strnad obecný   Common bunting
Danish:  Gulspurv
Dutch:   Geelgors
Finnish:  Keltasirkku
French:  Bruant jaune    Yellow bunting
German:  Goldammer    Gold bunting
Hungarian:  Citromsármány
Icelandic:  Gultittlingur
Irish:   Buíóg
Italian:  Zigolo giallo
Norwegian:  Gulspurv
Polish:  Trznadel zwyczajny
Portuguese:  Escrevedeira-amarela
Spanish:  Escribano cerillo

Local Names

The Yellowhammer is also known as the Scribble Lark or Scribbler because of the unusual, and quite strange, markings on its eggs.  In Breckland they were known as Gulers – a name thought to be derived from Gulden, a gold coin of Germany and the Netherlands.

Yellow bunting, Yellow yowley, Yellow yeldrin, Yellow yoldrin, Yellow yite, Yeldrock, Yoldring, Yoit Goldie, Yellow amber
Yellow ring, Scribble lark, Scribbler

[mark smyth]

Did anyone watch Inside Nature's Giants last week? Aren't 'roos strange?

[arillady]

Roos as in kangaroos??? Yes I guess if you have not grown up with them they are strange - some of the pretty early Colonial painters made them look stranger still! Their design seems to be pretty efficient in speed and agility. There are a few in the garden every night mainly eating the kangaroo grass and some rose leaves but not seeming to stand on the irises that are coming up well.

[Anthony Darby]

When I was a child a legend grew up about the kangaroo. Captain Cook asked a local what is it. The reply was kangaroo, which I was told meant "haven't a clue" in the local language. BTW, are budgerigars good to eat?

[scatigaz]

Seen my first Swifts (4 of them) over my local reservoir. Should see them over the house any day now.

[mark smyth]

Lucky you Gary. Reports of swifts from across Europe yesterday with many in their nest boxes

[arillady]

Heck you wouldn't get much of a feed from a budgie.
I do have a vague memory when I was very young that a relation cooked up some galahs - very vague memory from loooong ago.

[Lesley Cox]

Yes, you'd need many more than four and twenty budgies to make even a small pie Anthony. Kangaroo tail soup though is very good (so I'm told)

[fredg]

Kangaroo tail soup though is very good (so I'm told)

You try convincing a kangaroo of that 

[scatigaz]

5 Swifts over my local breeding colony this evening. Well worth the wait.

[Lesley Cox]

You try convincing a kangaroo of that 

Gosh, I hadn't thought of it from the kangaroo's point of view.