Western Tanager - Piranga Ludoviciana
My definition of a "win-win" is a trip to a botanical garden on holiday. The kids perhaps have to raise their game a bit but if there are outdoor sculptures and a maze and a decent foodie cafe then its not a hardship. For Mrs C the Van Dusen Botanical Garden was a delight and I craftily picked up a couple of birds. I am quite a fan of ornamental vegetable gardens in any event - they even had bees. As a morning out then a bit of a slam dunk.
It even had a great bookshop where I picked up the "100 mile diet" which is a Vancouver book I had not heard of before but a really good read for foodies coming out of the food miles movement. I always come back off holiday with ideas as well as photos but I am not sure that that one will fly in Dubai. I have posted the link to the original blog - the book that resulted has been a catalyst in the local food movement. I am hooked anyway for a number of reasons on questioning my food chain.
The general premise is that you only buy or eat food that has been (including its ingredients !!) created within 100 miles of your home. A challenge even in Hippie Vancouver as there was no wheat or sugar grown so its all potatoes, chick peas and honey ! They did have organic pinot noir and wild salmon so I wouldn't pity them too much. Living in Dubai that would be challenging. A move way from processed foods and ones as close to home as can be achieved has got to be a health winner though. Jane has a thing about "sugar" at the moment. I think the Al Barsha villa might be about to go Hillbilly - if it wasn't already a small island of home grown tomatoes in a suburb of Sodom and Gomorrah. It would be nice to have a run to Hadleigh this morning or tomorrow (half way home in Suffolk) and look at the seeds anyway and the books in the second hand bookshop. It never hurts and it usually marks the end of my "Summer" at least. I say this every year but then get distracted - I would like to grow and make more of my own food. Bread, vegetables - still to make a sausage in anger and no Crossley hen has ever yet delivered an egg. Chickens - now there is a thought. Air conditioned Egglu ? I think I should start with one bean - thats a quote stolen from a hippie again but everybody should plant a bean in any event and everybody who wants to eat meat should keep 1 animal as a minimum. I am facing a move to Jebel Ali and a goat and a chicken and a small allotment. Perhaps I just buy a fishing rod ??
Back to Tanagers as its a whole new family for the Daily Bird - Thraupidae. We are catching them at the very North of their range in Vancouver which is mostly South and Central America - 283 species in all of beautiful colourful passerines. They could become a real favourite. "Orange-headed", "Flame-Crested", "Paradise", "Black-goggled", "Masked Crimson", "Lemon Rumped" - that's quite a nice door that has just been opened ! Roll on the Tanagers - "Emerald", "Gilt-edged", "Burnished Buff". Saying the names is fun of itself. Time to have a look at some old Audabon prints ! On the colour front the North Americans really outdo the UK for birds - Golden Oriole, Kingfisher ? Some of the Tits - We have nothing on say a Northern Cardinal though - Just think crimson finch with a black bib. Even their goldfinch was a show stopper. They even had humming birds in Canada with metallic green tail feathers and orangey plumage (sadly my camera stayed at my side and my jaw dropped and away it zipped).
Even the adult male breeding bird of the Western Tanager picks up a scarlet head through the Summer months so this is either female caught above or a non-breeding male ( I guess that's a juvenile bird). There were quite a few flitting about but I didn't notice any bright red heads. A new world of colour though - or color.
Western Tanager, Piranga ludoviciana
Van Dusen Botancial Garden, Vancouver, British Columbia
12 August 2014
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