Tuesday, June 30, 2009

My Bird List

************************
I'm lucky enough to be able to walk out of my gate & up a lovely quiet country lane to walk my dogs, walks which usually last about 90 mins, each day. That's a total of about 4 miles, which is a slow 2 miles per hour, but then of course the dogs must sniff every 2nd blade of grass, on the way round, which is fine as that gives me plenty of time to keep my eyes open for Birds. So here is the list of Birds I have seen, so far, on my daily dog walk. 

Dialect Names for Local Birds

Below is a list of local dialect names from the "Concise Ulster Dictionary" (Macafee, 1996). 

Many are of Ulster Scots or Irish/Scottish Gaelic origin.

There are many more, but I've just picked out the ones which I see on my daily dog walk, here in the North Antrim countryside.

Blue Tit ~ Billy Blue-Bonnet, Tittymouse, Tam Titty Mouse
Carrion Crow ~ Black-Neb
Chaffinch ~ Apple-picker 
Cuckoo ~ Gowk
Dunnock ~ Blue Wran, Futtock, Grey Robin, Hedgeling, Shuffle Wing, Whin Sparrow
Fieldfare ~ Frost Bird
Goldfinch ~ Corney of the Cap
Great Tit ~ Black skull
Greenfinch ~ Green Linnet
Hen Harrier ~ Gled
Hooded Crow ~ Hoodie
House Sparrow ~ Spug
Jackdaw ~ Greyhead, Daw
Linnet ~ Lintie
Meadow Pipit ~ Cuckoo’s Maid, Mosscheeper, Tattle, Titling
Mistle Thrush ~ Butcher Bird, Cornageerie
Peregrine ~ Game Hawk, Goosehawk
Pied Wagtail ~ Willie wagtail, Devilin
Reed Bunting ~ Black Bonnet, Rush Sparrow
Robin ~ God's Bird
Rook ~ Croupy, Craa
Sedge Warbler ~ Wee Nightingale
Skylark ~ Laverock
Snipe ~ Blooterwheep, God’s Goat, Guttersnipe, Heather-bleat
Song Thrush ~ Mavis, Throstle
Sparrow Hawk ~ Blue hawk
Starling ~ Stucky
Stonechat ~ Corney of the Cravat
Swift ~ Black Martin
Wheatear ~ Stone twister
Willow Warbler ~ Sally Picker, Sally Wren
Woodpigeon ~ Croodlin doo
Wren ~ Chitty Wren, God’s Hen, Jinny wran

If you know of any others, please let me know.