murder

that there is something beautiful about black and white photos is almost a cliche. there certainly is something timeless and luminous about black and white photography in winter. how much more contrast can there be than between freshly, fallen snow on the ground- silent and white and a murder of crows overhead- raucous and black.

no other "groups" of words are as fascinating, colourful and trivia-worthy and yet as illogical as names for groups of animals/birds. all your -phobias and -philias, -mancy, -cracy and -logy have rock-solid, grecian pedigrees. why is a group of larks an exaltation? (this also happens to be the title of james lipton's lovely, illustrated gem of a book which is a collection of these obscure, often obsolete collective nouns tracing back to sources in medieval texts and hunting manuals). or for that matter a group of crows a murder or an unkindness of ravens or my personal favourite- a fesnyng of ferrets? for the curious, here is one such collection. some of these words are not uncommon in the birdwatching patois- kettle, rafter, skein, charm.. but it is as rare to hear a birder refer to a murmuration of starlings as it is to spot a parliament of owls !!