The Grey Wagtail The Grey Wagtail’s scientific name is Motacilla cinerea, Motacilla originates from the Latin word mota, meaning ‘move’ or ‘shake’, which is the root for words such as ‘motive’ and ‘mobile’, and cinerea comes from the Latin for ‘ashes’ or ‘grey’, being the root for ‘cinders’ and ‘incinerated’. Unlike a lot of scientificContinue reading “The Grey Wagtail”
Author Archives: Northwest nature and history
Baa, Ram, Ewe! An A to Z of sheep terminology
This is a basic A to Z of sheep terminology, it’s by no means exhaustive though as there are hundreds of obscure and technical terms that farmers and shepherds use, let me know if you can think of any that aren’t here. Aries The sign of the sheep, and the second half of its scientificContinue reading “Baa, Ram, Ewe! An A to Z of sheep terminology”
Yain Tain Tethera
Yain Tain Tethera ‘Yain Tain Tethera’ is a rhyming system of counting historically used by shepherds in the Bowland area, it is the local dialectic version of an ancient counting system with many variations around the British isles collectively known as ‘Yan Tan Tethera’, here is the Bowland version; Yain=1Tain=2Eddera=3Peddera=4Pit=5Tayter=6Layter=7Overa=8Covera=9Dix=10Yain-a-dix=11Tain-a-dix=12Eddera-a-dix=13Peddera-a-dix=14Bumfit=15Yain-a-bumfit=16Tain-a-bumfit=17Eddera-a-bumfit=18Peddera-a-bumfit=19Jiggit=20 Most of these ways ofContinue reading “Yain Tain Tethera”
Northwest Nature and History 