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Spangled drongo and other trivia

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Subject: Spangled drongo and other trivia
From: "Bruce Roubin" <>
Date: Tue, 15 May 2001 20:53:16 +1000
Good eye,
 I found an adult M spangled drongo dicrurus hottentottus on my lunchtime excursion today to Gore Creek Reserve, Greenwich, Sydney. Which reminds me of some trivia: the longest word (excluding proper names) is reportedly the Dutch word hottentottententententoonstelling - which translates loosely as " a hottentot's tent display"  (rather rare)!
Other trivia:
1). 'Raptor' is a palindrome of 'Parrot', and I know certain raptors which make a hobby of lunching on them anyway.
2). BELIEVE IT OR NOT: the most-played CD on Sydney Airwaves ever, has been of bird calls from Ormiston Gorge, followed closely by another on shorebirds and waders - explanation: some new FM station played the Ormiston Gorge CD non-stop repeatedly over a 3 week period, followed by the other for at least another week before commencing regular programmes this year, as a sort of test broadcast (providing a fair range of frequencies).
3). BELIEVE IT OR NOT: National rock station JJJ tonight reported some ornithological news without any comment, sarcastic or otherwise (albeit none was really needed) - apparently some research on flycatchers has been reported from Spain, from which they have derived the conclusion that females are better-off choosing ugly mates if they want to happily and successfully raise a family. The Spanish male flycatcher has some white marking on its head, the size of which is apparently a fair indication of his strike rate. Those males observed to devote more time to caring for their offspring, guaranteeing and higher success rate in fledglings, are the ones with the smallest white marks.
4). I still haven't had a certain lifer in the wild: another birder. No pre-arranged meetings please, I want to leave it to chance to gauge the probabilities.
All this after 1 glass of cab-sav!
 
Regards
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