TisILeclerc wrote: Well, Christians eat their god of course but he wasn't a swan. Just a dove or pigeon unless he was a fish of course
Is that where the phrase "Taking the Pisces" comes from?
TisILeclerc wrote: Well, Christians eat their god of course but he wasn't a swan. Just a dove or pigeon unless he was a fish of course
The site of this nunnery is traditionally located in a field situated at the junction of the Duns Road and the A1, north-west of the town on the western edge of Bondington; it also lies close to the foot of Halidon Hill, site of a battle fought between the English and the Scottish in 1333.
The present grounds are bordered on the S and E by a shallow, dry valley which falls towards NE, issuing seawards. A former stream channel within this valley is represented by water-sorted sediments occurring at depths of up to 2.8m from the present surface. The higher ground on the N side of this stream valley is demarcated, variously, by a stone-revetted terrace edge or by a stone kerb. Both the stream channel and the stone revetments were buried under a series of deep land-fill dumps- rich in medieval midden material- with which this low-lying area of the site had been levelled or reclaimed.
This famous surname is of English locational origin, from a place named Bewick in either Northumberland or the East Riding of Yorkshire. ... The name derives from the old English pre 7th Century "beo" meaning bee and "wic" a farm; hence a "bee farm", apparently originally it was a station for the production of honey.
The place name of 'Berwick' has Anglo-Saxon origins but, as yet, no archaeological evidence for this settlement has been found.
But the common sandpiper’s most endearing features is its clear piping song. We tend to associate singing with garden birds, but waders also sing and some are accomplished performers. The song of the curlew, for example, is one of Ireland’s most characteristic sounds. Just why waders sing is a bit of a mystery. Birds which live in forests have little choice but to sing; they can’t see each other and have to resort to sound to communicate. Waders, however, live in open spaces where they are more visible. Ducks quack, geese honk and swans whoop but their vocabulary is basic. Only waders, among the wetland birds, have developed complex songs.
In the bird world, generally, the males do the singing. Among waders, however, both sexes sing.
Most experts agree that yodeling was used in the Central Alps by herders calling their stock or to communicate between Alpine villages.
Little is known of the original Guanche language or the languages of the Canaries, but it is assumed that their phonological system must have been simple enough to allow an efficient whistled language.[5] Used by the island's original inhabitants, the Guanches, the whistled language existed before the arrival of Spanish settlers and was also spoken on el Hierro, Tenerife, and Gran Canaria. Silbo was adapted to Spanish during the Spanish settlement in the 16th century and was widely spoken throughout the period into the following 17th century.[6] In 1976 Silbo barely remained on el Hierro, where it had flourished at the end of the 19th century
But the sounds can also penetrate dense forests such as the Amazon, where hunters whistle to locate each other through the dense foliage. “The whistles are good for fighting against reverberation,” says Meyer. And unlike regular speech, they tend not to scare the potential prey. They can also be useful at sea: the Inuit communities of the Bering Strait whistle commands to each other as they hunt for whale
According to this article birds sing if they can't see each other. Presumably water fowl can see each other more easily so don't need to sing, just grunt.
Mick Harper wrote:I don't buy this. It's not just waders but skylarks! Anyone who's walked in a wood |(and I have, twice) will know they are deathly quiet.
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