Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Wild Bird Wednesday and Nature Notes - Oh so Common!


Oh dear, just a couple of really common birds
and a fish, a fish?
To make matters worse, an imported pest fish!


One of our house sparrows, "so what"! I hear you say.

Well, this little bird kept its beak open flying about and landing 
here and there without closing it at all. I had to wonder whether 
it had tried to swallow something too big and now was stuck in
a very sticky situation.


This silly gull I met at the Murray River.
It picked up something it may have thought was a tasty
morsel


showed it to me and threw it into the river. Nothing is as it seems.


Conversely, a fisherman had pulled this beautiful almost 
2 pound carp out of the river and thrown it onto the lawn 
behind him. Australians, unlike Austrians, do not honour the 
humble carp and with the excuse of saying it tastes of mud
and has too many bones don't even think of eating it. 
Once it is caught, it is against the law to throw it back since 
they helping the extinction of our native fish.


Having spent my early youth in Europe and, in consequence,
being used to freshwater fish with bones one had to be wary of,
I was not going to let it go to waste.  You could not get a 
fresher fish. An hour after is stopped swimming in the river, it 
was in my pot and made the most delicious soup with 
the most delicate white flesh. Yummm!

Linking with Wild Bird Wednesday
and

24 comments:

  1. Lovely birds and a tasty looking fish for the day! Wish I could have stopped by for lunch!! Hope your week is going well, Arija!! Enjoy!

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  2. Nice to have fresh fish for dinner.

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  3. Glad to hear the fish didn't go to waste.

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  4. Nice photos of the birds and fish but the previous post with the photos of the beach caught my eye. An expanse of sea like that always lifts my mood as well.

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  5. Maybe a humble little bird but you captured it beautifully!
    Loved the gull shots!
    I'm glad you took the fish and used it.

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  6. Nice shots and that fish must have been yummy:)Have a great day!

    Shantana

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  7. Walking in the wake of fishermen looked never more tempting! ;-)

    The House sparrow is considered an endangered species in parts (?) of Europe. Sad state of affairs.

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  8. Arija, perhaps the little house sparrow was panting from the heat? As for the fish, you are on resourceful woman! My grandparetns would be proud of you! We have a saying in New England that is not often heard nowadays. It goes like this: Use it up or wear it out, make it do, or do without! I suspect you have a similar philosophy!

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  9. I like sparrows. Cheekly little charmers - and I do hope that one was able to eventually close its mouth.
    And I hate the way we waste carp here. We introduced them, we should find a way to make use of them. I love that you did. Thank you.

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  10. You are so clever using that carp Arija - I would not know where to start with something like that. Here in the UK, unless you live near to a fishing port, I don't think it is the tradition to use fish like this - I'm sure we miss a lot.
    I love your sparrow photograph - they are becoming quite rare in the UK although we have plenty on the farm because they like to steal our chicken corn.

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  11. Arija, great shots of the Sparrow and gull. I am glad the fish did not go to waste. Wishing you a happy day!

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  12. I used to fish in a pond that was an old Carp Fishery for a local Abbey - that never made sense with the "they taste like mud" idea.

    Nice pictures.

    Cheers and thanks for linking to WBW.

    Stewart M - Melbourne

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  13. Good for you Arija, it would have been a shame to see it wasted. It's a shame it was introduced in the first place, and I found the Australian law interesting about not throwing them back. Wise considering how devastating they can be to the native fish. I have never eaten carp before and have only started liking fish in these last few years. I don't know what changed, mind and palate probably. Great shots of the sparrow, gull and the fish.

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  14. I quite like your House Sparrow...wonder why it kept it's mouth open...The Gull is quite the cool chap, and throwing his meal away too...hmm for real;')the Carp soup sounds yummy for sure! Hugs your way~

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  15. I'm kind of partial myself to common birds, and of course what is common in your part of the world may not be common somewhere else. Although we get many varieties of sparrows here, we don't have the house sparrow. I'm hoping to see a few sparrows soon! Glad you were able to make such good use of that carp!

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  16. I love the house sparrow.
    Well photographed.
    Best wishes, Irma

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  17. Good for you for not letting it go to waste and making a nice meal of it!

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  18. The House Sparrow might be common and humble but we neglect such birds at our peril - theyall have a place. Nice pictures and I'm pleased you enjoyed your fish supper.

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  19. I'm with Phil. If we ignore the lowly in Nature, we shall soon be in that position.

    The carp was also thought of as "trash fish" as I grew up in central Florida. Once I had lived in Europe and tasted it prepared in many ways, I have changed my ways!

    Thank you for a lovely post.

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  20. I love the way you caught the sparrow with it's mouth open and funny about the water bird throwing the morsel back. I'm glad you were able to use the discarded fish. I grew up learning to work around bones in fish.

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  21. It is good that the fish didn't go to waste..I like the house sparrow and gull photos..hugs to you Arija..Michelle

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  22. Oh my, the carp around here aren't thought of very highly either.In my younger days, I liked to fish whenever I could, ( I still would if I could) and I was never very good at catching carp. They are very smart, and you could drop a line right in the middle of a school, and they would ignore you.So glad you made good use of that fish. I think you were supposed to be there at the time that fish was put out there for you..

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