27 October 2009

Azores FAQs: part the first

I'm going to be providing short and sweet answers to one or two queries regarding the Azores over the next few days, first up - Why go to the Azores when you can go to Canada or the USA?

Why indeed. Well, whatever you think, and despite the fact that Corvo is on a different tectonic plate to the rest of Europe, the Azores are in the Western Palearctic. If you define yourself as a local birder you probably spend a fair bit of your time searching your patch for local rarities; if you see yourself as a UK birder you may well end up on the Scillies or Shetland each autumn looking for a first for the UK; however, if you define yourself as a Western Palearctic birder you might just think about visiting Iceland, Kuwait or the Azores seeking that species never before seen in your native biozone. Personally, I don't go to Corvo to see Nearctic passerines, I have done that at Point Pelee, Long Point, Point Reyes, etc. I go to Corvo to find Nearctic passerines in a vagrant setting, it is a very different thing.

Of course, there is also the additional interest in all things Macaronesian; there is all manner of stuff to exercise even the most addled of ornithological minds; it's not just the thrill of stumbling over yankee passerines, there are seabirds and island endemics too, hell, even the Starlings seem to be genetically distinct.

See,... totally different (or, if you are struggling, try reading this).

Tomorrow - the accommodation conundrum.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

you are talking to yourself Sais

Mr Cholmondley-Warner said...

Is that not the whole point of a blog? The output is produced for the author not the potential readership. It is just another method of externalizing the internal monologue, if this were 1989 it would be a diary. I don't believe the author is interested in either the number or consistency of the 'consumers'. This isn't vanity publishing, it is more self-obsessed than that :-))

Also a nonny mouse said...

According to the stats 100+ people visit this blog per day. Of course, you could argue none of them read the content.

Another mouse said...

I love the internal contradiction and zero tolerance approach to punctuation. Anonymous comment man, congratulations, your boredom and disaffection are palpable (must be nice to have time to not read blogs at 09:23 in the morning, that is an early lunch break).

Darryl said...

Just to confirm, this blog is, almost entirely, written for one person and one person only - meeeeeeeeee. The fact that a few others drop by is just a happy accident.

As to being referred to as 'Sais', given that only... [oh wait a minute, this could be fun]... Mae ~10% o’r bobl sydd yn byw ym Gwent yn dewis adnabod eu hunain yn bobl Gymreig yn hytrach na Phrydeinig,... and [to further complicate this comment on a comment]... Mae’r defnydd o iaith Gymraeg ym Gwent yn gymharol isel, the term 'sais' is bordering on the redundant in these parts don't you think?

Anonymous said...

Not when it comes to you you four eyed jumped up jerk, go home Sais

Mickey Mouse said...

That should have been "Cai Maes Sais" Anonymous 10:02. Or can't such an obviously proud Welshman as yourself say "Sod off English" in the native tongue? MM.

Darryl said...

I assume you guys know that anonymity on the web is, at very best, a thin veil and, in all reality, a total fiction. Every time you visit a website you leave a trail of information (e.g. IP address, ISP, location (right down to lat/long in some cases), language (strangely it never says "Welsh"), operating system, etc., etc., etc.), due to the rather limited number of birders in South Wales (in Gwent and beyond) it doesn't take much to have a pretty (sometimes very) short list of who leaves a comment.

For your information anything abusive might well be deleted, but will certainly be 'copy and pasted' and sent to your ISP with all available details and a request for action to be taken against you. If you don't like the blog (or its author), save yourself the stress and don't read it; I don't have the time or inclination to bother with your nigh illiterate bleatings.