Making the Most of Winter

[Guest]

I feel as though I'm now posting in the deepest shadows cast by Sandra's brilliantly sunlit images -
oh well these are the best I could find during last week's somewhat dismal visit to Melbourne.
1.
Hoping for a bite

2.
Also hoping for a bite

3.
They looked at me funny when I asked how long it would take them to pump all the water out of Port Phillip Bay ...

[Wee man]

Re: Making the Most of Winter

Like number two birds in flippers? BIF!

[Floribunda]

Re: Making the Most of Winter

Nice shot of the Little Black Cormorants Mark. Their plumage stands out nicely.
What were they "guarding"?

[KeithL]

Re: Making the Most of Winter

I do like the two birds.
I thought they were Shags when (a) they have green eyes, (b) live in the sea. Cormorants are normally fresh water birds here. Perhaps when they go Down Under, the blood runs to their head, and they change their roles..... I always laugh at their big feet. I reckon they were eyeing up your sandwich!

BTW - I think they were pumping the water in the bay from the right of the breakwater to the left hand side.....

EDIT: Just looked it up...I see they are still called Shags in NZ.

[Guest]

Re: Making the Most of Winter

I do like the two birds.
I thought they were Shags when (a) they have green eyes, (b) live in the sea. Cormorants are normally fresh water birds here. Perhaps when they go Down Under, the blood runs to their head, and they change their roles..... I always laugh at their big feet. I reckon they were eyeing up your sandwich!

BTW - I think they were pumping the water in the bay from the right of the breakwater to the left hand side.....

EDIT: Just looked it up...I see they are still called Shags in NZ.

When I was a toddler we called them shags. Nowadays in Oz the genus are commonly known as cormorants, Keith. We can thank the likes of Billy Connelly and Jimeoin for that.

[Zuiko]

Re: Making the Most of Winter

Never mind, Mark, you can look forward to next summer! In outdoor photography you can only work with the subjects and light available and you've done a pretty good job. If we were to use Sandra's latest posts as a benchmark, I think most of us would give up!

[Beagletorque]

Re: Making the Most of Winter

Come on Sandra let's have more of the good stuff!!

[Guest]

Re: Making the Most of Winter

Never mind, Mark, you can look forward to next summer! In outdoor photography you can only work with the subjects and light available and you've done a pretty good job. If we were to use Sandra's latest posts as a benchmark, I think most of us would give up!

Thanks for the consoling words John! I can feel another big trip coming on.

Come on Sandra let's have more of the good stuff!!

Sandra cracked up when she read that, Andrew!

[KeithL]

Re: Making the Most of Winter

When I was a toddler we called them shags. Nowadays in Oz the genus are commonly known as cormorants, Keith. We can thank the likes of Billy Connelly and Jimeoin for that.

I've never heard Connolly or Jimeoin call it a cormorant, Mark!! And I certainly never, ever, heard Kevin 'Bloody' Wilson use that word either - he can't say any word longer than four letters, can he? (My friend who has an NZ passport loves him, and sends me clips of his joke routines)

Can't think where they could have got a word like that from.....

[Guest]

Re: Making the Most of Winter

Connolly or Jimeoin didn't call it a cormorant, which is why we do, Keith.

[KeithL]

Re: Making the Most of Winter

Connolly or Jimeoin didn't call it a cormorant, which is why we do, Keith.

Well, I did have my tongue firmly stuck in my cheek, Mark.

Funny how words we regularly used when we were kids are no longer PC, isn't it? And if we used language like the Victorian working class did, the authorities would lock us up these days!!

[Guest]

Re: Making the Most of Winter

Well, I did have my tongue firmly stuck in my cheek, Mark.

Funny how words we regularly used when we were kids are no longer PC, isn't it? And if we used language like the Victorian working class did, the authorities would lock us up these days!!

Indeed Keith, and I think that in most cases PC'ness is a change for the better.

[KeithL]

Re: Making the Most of Winter

Indeed Keith, and I think that in most cases PC'ness is a change for the better.

I don't know. I don't know how to put this....but when kids had golliwog toys, they didn't think racist thoughts, did they? There's many a word read into things now that wasn't in our young days. Intent perhaps is the key issue.

Incidentally, one of my ex-colleagues retired to Australia some years ago. Before he did, he went and stayed with his son for a long holiday. After he returned, he said he found it confusing: a strange mix of appalling crudity and astonishing prudishness (his words, not mine!) I guess that there has been considerable cultural divergence between GB and Oz in my lifetime in this regard.

When I worked with a South African colleague in SA in 2003, I said I'd heard that the use of "kaffir" was no longer allowed. He fell about laughing, then said, "Ah, yes...for white people to say it to black South Africans is an imprisonable offence - but when they fall out, they call each other that all the time!" PC is clearly a relative term.

[Guest]

Re: Making the Most of Winter

@Keith - As we know, over the past 80 years there have been many changes in demographics, public attitudes towards everything, race, religion, politics and so on. When kids had golliwog toys they didn't think racist thoughts simply because they weren't recognised as such.

Political correctness is merely a social nicety that demands that we keep our prejudices to ourselves.

[KeithL]

Re: Making the Most of Winter

@Keith - As we know, over the past 80 years there have been many changes in demographics, public attitudes towards everything, race, religion, politics and so on. When kids had golliwog toys they didn't think racist thoughts simply because they weren't recognised as such.

Political correctness is merely a social nicety that demands that we keep our prejudices to ourselves.

And of course that cuts both ways - or at least, should.