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Post by varsovian on May 4, 2007 4:28:54 GMT -7
I went up there last weekend and had a WWF guide - truly remarkable. Apart from the elk we saw, there were so many rare birds that I would bore you if I listed them all. And I didn't even like birds before I went! If ever you go to Poland, you simply must get a guided tour (available in excellent English) to this place: www.biebrza.org.pl/ang/ I went with Biebrza Eco-Travel, a tiny but expert outfit owned and run by a helpful (and attractive) lady called Katarzyna Ramotowska. Their website is patchy, though, which is a shame. Polecam! |
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Post by kaima on May 4, 2007 6:46:39 GMT -7
Ah, we must be going to the birds on this forum! I spent all day yesterday at Merritt National Wildlife Refuge just north of Cape Canaveral, Florida. I am also not a birder, but there was a great variety of birds, and it was great to see the turtles and learn about the other wildlife in the area.
Thanks for word on Biebrza National Park. Do I understand this right, it translates as Beaver National Park, or am I fooled by similar words?
Kai
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Post by varsovian on May 7, 2007 1:42:44 GMT -7
It does have roots in the word "Beaver", but that's going back hundreds of years and the link is not obvious to modern-day Poles. So you couldn't honestly translate it that way except for advertising reasons!
Wonderful place though, and it's becoming really popular with British "twitchers" and I can understand why, even though I'm not a mi³osnikiem ptaków.
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Post by Jaga on May 7, 2007 9:03:35 GMT -7
Varsovian is right. Biebrza connection to "bobr"(beaver) is not that obvious for us although the name of the river "Biebrza" probably came from bobr.
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Post by kaima on May 7, 2007 10:06:15 GMT -7
I have been fascinated by descriptive place names since I was a kid. In cowboy movies there were the "foothills" that at first I thought was a 'place' or location rather than a geographic description "foothills of the mountains". Then in Slovak I discovered they also have "Green Valley", "Cold Valley", "Bald Mountain" and such. Best of all is "Distillery Creek". I wish these were more readily apparent to the casual reader, but .... that is where the handicap of limited mastery of languages comes in!
Now I like the German "Frogtown" and "MosquitoHole" Froschhausen and Mueckenloch.
Kai
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Post by varsovian on May 8, 2007 7:02:01 GMT -7
Well, the meaning of hundreds of English place names is a mystery to all but etymology freaks, and many of them simply predate the birth or arrival of anything similar to the English language.
The river names are often celtic in origin. Mr Angle came along and asked Mr Celt what the name of the river was ... before killing him or chasing him off. The one that cracks me up is the River Avon - "afon" simply means "river" in Welsh.
You can imagine the exchange:
Mr Angle (speaking old German): "What's that called?" [pointing at river]
Mr Celt (speaking old Welsh): "It's a river you barbarian idiot!"
Mr Angle (talking to friend knowingly): "It's the River Avon!"
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