A Day of Scottish Fishing with Surprising Kilt Comment

[Calgacus]

I'm glad you had such an enjoyable day in the Borders. It's a part of the country which is rather overlooked by visitors and Scots alike.

You were fortunate to see an osprey, though they are actually more common than you might think. You were also fortunate to see a kingfisher, it's been a while since I've seen one myself. The dipper-type bird that you spotted was indeed surely a dipper. They always make me smile when I see them.

http://www.rspb.org.uk/discoveranden...name/d/dipper/

[Singlemalt]

I'm glad you had such an enjoyable day in the Borders. It's a part of the country which is rather overlooked by visitors and Scots alike.

You were fortunate to see an osprey, though they are actually more common than you might think. You were also fortunate to see a kingfisher, it's been a while since I've seen one myself. The dipper-type bird that you spotted was indeed surely a dipper. They always make me smile when I see them.

http://www.rspb.org.uk/discoveranden...name/d/dipper/

Thank you Calqacus, I am a bit of a closet bird watcher and enjoyed seeing British birds. The Osprey looked exactly like the ones which are quite common here. So did the dipper except for the white breast ours are just a plain drab grey but with the same bold attitude and pumping tail. The Kingfisher was quite different. Ours are big bold and loud and quite common. The British one was like a little gem, bright blue and was in and out of sight in a moment, though clearly recognizable as a Kingfisher by its profile and flight. I also was surprised to see Magpies which are common in western Canada but I have never seen one in Ontario.

A question for you about blackbirds. All day there were big flocks of birds which looked very much like crows to me but their calling was quite different. They were very very abundant, although I never saw one very close. Were these Rooks or European Crows?

[Jock Scot]

We have a saying, "if you see a flock of crows they will be rooks, if you see a single rook it will be a crow". They are all in the corvid family as are the magpie, jay, jackdaw and raven. The correct term for the crow is, carrion crow and they rarely move in groups. In the Highlands, I seem to recall seeing them in Ireland too, we have the hooded crow (no carrion crows), which is I suppose a carrion crow with large grey markings. We do not see magpies up here, but we have jays.

[cessna152towser]

I'm glad you enjoyed your visit to the Scottish Borders so much. I am blessed to live on the slopes of the Teviot valley, some two hundred feet above the river level.
Perhaps the gentleman confused yards and feet. 22 feet would be seven and one third yards.
22 yards would be too much material even for a Great Kilt.

[Jock Scot]

22 yards= 1 chain, in agricultural terms, a term that we still use.

[Tarheel]

22 yards= 1 chain, in agricultural terms, a term that we still use.

In surveying, a chain is 66 feet as Jock Scot stated. More the length to hold the sporran for a 22 yard kilt.

[WillowEstate]

22 yards= 1 chain, in agricultural terms, a term that we still use.

Indeed and the length of a cricket pitch. The "old" measures are certainly a reminder of gentler days.

[Dale-of-Cedars]

I wonder if he actually confused ounces and yards. It would be quite feasible to have a kilt in 22 oz. tartan, would it not?

[Tarheel]

Sorry, I got distracted by the fowl conversation. I blame the metric system. On an outside note, here are the nesting Summer Tanagers than have returned to my yard for ten years and counting.
Attachment 22891Attachment 22892

[Calgacus]

A question for you about blackbirds. All day there were big flocks of birds which looked very much like crows to me but their calling was quite different. They were very very abundant, although I never saw one very close. Were these Rooks or European Crows?

Living where I live I can't help but take a little interest in the wildlife around me, though I'm no expert.

There are a couple of possibilities for the black birds that you saw. Firstly, just to clarify, we have a species called a 'blackbird'.

http://www.rspb.org.uk/discoveranden...ird/index.aspx

This is undoubtedly not what you will have seen, it's a fairly solitary garden bird of the thrush family.

Next, there's the carrion crow and its very close relative, the hooded crow.

http://www.rspb.org.uk/discoveranden...row/index.aspx

It's not all that gregarious, so that's probably not what you saw either.

Up next, the raven.

http://www.rspb.org.uk/discoveranden...ven/index.aspx

They can flock, but commonly fly in pairs. Also, they are not so common in the region where you were, so I doubt that this is what you saw.

Now the first real contender- the rook.

http://www.rspb.org.uk/discoveranden...ook/index.aspx

...and the second real contender- the jackdaw.

http://www.rspb.org.uk/discoveranden...daw/index.aspx

Just to confuse the issue, they commonly flock together, so it may actually have been a mix of both species that you saw. If you follow the links above you will find small audio clips. These are a great way of identifying bird species. When we moved to our new house, we found that we have about 5,000 or so geese that roost on our neighbour's loch. I identified them as pink-footed geese by their call.