After sending out the newsletter featuring birders’ license plates, a friend in town sent me a photo of hers. She had spent many years of her life in Alaska but moved to Tucson a decade ago. Her truck still has the front plate she bought in Alaska that reflects what it was like to be a birder in Alaska.
The following plates are from Arizonans. You may notice that the tags on the plates indicate that these photos are from my ‘archives’ and not taken this year! One friend had this plate celebrating the Common Loon, the most widespread of Loons in America. Every once in a while one of these birds may be blown into our area by winter storms but don’t expect to see one here.
Sometimes a person just wants to let you know who they are and what they like to do.
Here’s another far off bird. Anhingas can be found in areas with water along the coast from Texas to the Mid-Atlantic states and inland a bit. It would be fun to know the story of what was special about this bird to this car owner.
One more Arizonan who loves birds.
Nobody will be able to see this bird. The Great Auk was a large, flightless seabird of the North Atlantic that was hunted to extinction in the mid 19th century. The Celtic name for the Great Auk was “penguin”. When later European explorers came across similar looking but unrelated birds in the southern Hemisphere, they called those birds ‘penguins’.
These days it seems as if many birders carry around cameras along with their binoculars. This plate belonged to a good friend of mine who is both an excellent birder and an excellent photographer!
I also have a photo collection of many license plates from outside of Arizona but those will have to wait, perhaps until 2027. If you have a plate that fits this collection, or find others, please send me pictures!
Fun stuff, and now I know where the name "penguin" came from!
Too fun!