An interesting item on the menu
By Birding-Aus, on January 30th, 2014
I have just spent a week in Siem Reap, Cambodia. When birding one day in an adjoining town, I stopped for lunch at a roadside stall. One of the offerings on their carte de jour was “birds”. I asked my driver what the “birds” were, and he said that they were wild birds caught in the forest and fields and asked the owner to show me some. Sure enough, there on a tray were the poor sad little plucked carcasses of birds ranging from sparrow to thrush size. Unfortunately, I am not much chop on identifying birds without plumage. I declined the offering and had the fish instead. Next day, I saw a restaurant in town offering “Khmer birds”. I presume they were the same. I wondered why the birding was a bit slow around Siem Reap town. Carl Clifford _______________________________________________ Birding-Aus mailing list Birding-Aus@birding-aus.org To change settings or unsubscribe visit: http://birding-aus.org/mailman/listinfo/birding-aus_birding-aus.org
Enough to make us all vegetarians…!!!! Truth be told, I have enjoyed duck, Francolin and Guineafowl in my younger days… Cheers Peter Madvig —– Original Message —– Sent: Friday, January 31, 2014 1:53 PM _______________________________________________ Birding-Aus mailing list Birding-Aus@birding-aus.org To change settings or unsubscribe visit: http://birding-aus.org/mailman/listinfo/birding-aus_birding-aus.org
Auguste Escoffier, the famed French chef of a century ago who made the London Savoy and Carlton hotels famous for their food, wrote landmark cookbooks. My copy of “Ma cuisine” includes a whole chapter on game birds: Pheasants, grey and red-legged partridge, rock partridge, American partridge, pigeons [only <1 year old though!], hazel-grouse, wood grouse, prairie fowl, . bustard. woodcock, snipe, small plover, lapwing, rail, water hen, scoter. ortolans, thrushes, larks. recipes i note include: landrails, thrushes (7 recipes), corsican blackbirds, larks (3), ortolans or game bunting ['no real gastronomic value unless roasted and eaten as soon cooked'], black caps, garden warblers, dotterels ['all the recipes for thrush plover apply to it. it makes an excellent pate'], lapwings [fishy tasting not good golden plover], ['with some hot cold entrees may be made' 'the various partridge woodcock are well suited plover']. finally, waders, hens, rails, march quails, etc, only served roasted' then of course there were 19th century australian such fare 'paraqueet pie'. . cheers gordon cain schofields, nw sydney --- This email is free from viruses and malware because avast! Antivirus protection is active. http://www.avast.com _______________________________________________ Birding-Aus mailing list Birding-Aus@birding-aus.org To change settings or unsubscribe visit: http://birding-aus.org/mailman/listinfo/birding-aus_birding-aus.org
Michael (husband) was present at the conversation with Dave Lindner, but he can’t remember either, whether Dave told us how he knew the fishermen had netted Yellow Chat. Denise Hi Niven We had this conversation several years ago and I cannot remember whether Dave told me the fishermen admitted to catching Yellow Chat. It seems improbable to me that they would know the name of the bird. They may have just described their catch to him. Or then again maybe they gave him feathers. Dave said something to the effect that he had seen, or had possession of, some feathers when the case went to court. From what Dave told me that seems plausible. They seemed quite open about what they were doing eg serving him songbirds for dinner! Denise On 30/1/14 3:24 PM, “Niven” < mccrie@gmail.com> wrote: _______________________________________________ Birding-Aus mailing list Birding-Aus@birding-aus.org To change settings or unsubscribe visit: http://birding-aus.org/mailman/listinfo/birding-aus_birding-aus.org
Hi Niven We had this conversation several years ago and I cannot remember whether Dave told me the fishermen admitted to catching Yellow Chat. It seems improbable to me that they would know the name of the bird. They may have just described their catch to him. Or then again maybe they gave him feathers. Dave said something to the effect that he had seen, or had possession of, some feathers when the case went to court. From what Dave told me that seems plausible. They seemed quite open about what they were doing eg serving him songbirds for dinner! Denise On 30/1/14 3:24 PM, “Niven” < mccrie@gmail.com> wrote: _______________________________________________ Birding-Aus mailing list Birding-Aus@birding-aus.org To change settings or unsubscribe visit: http://birding-aus.org/mailman/listinfo/birding-aus_birding-aus.org
I seem to remember the Yellow Chat conversation from some time ago, but it didn’t have any source for the claim. Is it that Dave Lindner identified the Yellow Chat from the ‘tiny bones’, did they admit to him that they were catching Yellow Chats or did the ID come from another source? I’d wonder where they were netting to catch Yellow Chat. Unless they were specifically after them, which seems a bit unlikely, then to put up nets in habitat where they’d catch them would make it unlikely that they’d catch much else. From a logical point of view they’d put up their nets where there was a bit of bird activity rather than out on the South Alligator floodplain for instance. Niven On 30 January 2014 13:49, Denise Goodfellow < goodfellow@bigpond.com.au>wrote: _______________________________________________ Birding-Aus mailing list Birding-Aus@birding-aus.org To change settings or unsubscribe visit: http://birding-aus.org/mailman/listinfo/birding-aus_birding-aus.org
Some years ago I posted a tale on the chatline about some italian fishermen brought to court by Dave Lindner, then a ranger. David now lives at a place called the Buffalo Park in Kakadu. Dave said they gave him a brace of whistling-ducks saying they preferred to eat other birds. He discovered what those other birds were when he accepted their invitation to dinner and while eating his bolognaise found tiny bones. The fishermen were netting songbirds to eat. One species they’d apparently eaten on occasion was Yellow Chat. I also remember John McKean telling us about eating native birds in Kakadu though I can’t remember him specifying songbirds. Jon Franzen has written an exposé of the trapping of songbirds in Cyprus (The New Yorker, July 26, 2010). I think it’s one of his best. Denise Lawungkurr Goodfellow PO Box 71, Darwin River, NT 0841 043 8650 835 On 30/1/14 11:40 AM, “Philip Veerman” < pveerman@pcug.org.au> wrote: _______________________________________________ Birding-Aus mailing list Birding-Aus@birding-aus.org To change settings or unsubscribe visit: http://birding-aus.org/mailman/listinfo/birding-aus_birding-aus.org