canberrabirds

Oh Canada

To: Martin Butterfield <>, "" <>
Subject: Oh Canada
From: Kevin and Gwenyth Bray <>
Date: Fri, 9 Dec 2016 07:07:32 +0000
Hi Martin
 
I’m a bit puzzled by the purported rationale for Canada choosing the beaver as opposed to a  bird, since the beaver is also to be found in the USA!
 
If it were up to me – having lived in Canada for 4 years in the 1960s and 70s – I’d have chosen the Loon, a beautiful bird with a haunting call which we saw and heard on many trips into the Canadian wilderness.
 
Cheers.
 
Kevin
 
Kevin and Gwenyth Bray

02 6251 2087
0406 376 878 (Mob, Kevin)
0409 584 342 (Mob, Gwenyth)
 
From:
Sent: Thursday, December 8, 2016 5:16 PM
To:
Cc:
Subject: Re: [canberrabirds] Oh Canada
 
An interesting read, especially about naming conventions! 

I was also interested to see the comment
“We have an animal symbol, which is the beaver,” he said by way of analogy. “I would say that most Canadians don’t see a beaver in a given year.
Presumably that's because the people in Toronto don't see them.   We lived in Ottawa for a year, and beavers were common there, to the extent that City workers used dynamite to clear beaver dams built across suburban creeks so that they didn't cause floods in the Spring thaw.

I wondered why they didn't select an endemic bird, to which the simple answer is they don't really have one.  Dr Google offered a list of three species:
  • Labrador Duck (extinct)
  • Ross's Goose (overwinters in US so IMHO not really endemic); and
  • Harris's Sparrow(ibid).
Martin
 
 
On 8 December 2016 at 16:12, Bill Hall <> wrote:
 
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