Post by John Parry on Sept 28, 2009 18:43:10 GMT -5
Not been posting too much as I'm working on a 'dongle' and downloading (and uploading) is expensive! But here's one from a visit I made to a Royal Society for the Protection of Birds sanctuary. I went to see the deer, which are coming into the rutting season. I personally didn't see any stags, rutting or otherwise, but there were quite a few of the lovely, delicate hinds. (This is a wild herd - very wary of humans, and I'd guess this one was about half a mile away.)
Of more interest was the reaction of the birdwatchers - of whom there were quite a few, this being an RSPB site. What attracted their attention was the bird, which you can just make out down, and to the right of the deer. Children were thrown to the ground. Old ladies were dragged away from telescope eyepieces. (Of course, I'm exaggerating - the reaction of one of the 'twitchers' as they are called, was typical. He approached a lady looking through a telescope, and asked her very diffidently; "Is it true there is a Stone Curlew here?" Her response that she could actually see five of them, seemed to send him into some sort of spasm. In a strangled tone of voice he replied "I'd very much like to see them")
The cause of all the excitement were the Stone Curlews - described by the RSPB as "A strange, rare summer visitor to southern England". There are only 350 pairs in the whole country. Their strangeness seems to stem mainly from the fact that they aren't curlews at all, although their call is similar. ("The curlew tolls the knell of parting day..."). These were certainly giving it rice. Just nice to see something like that, when you've gone looking for something totally unrelated.
Regards - John
ps Don't bother critiquing - my lens wasn't up to the distance involved, and the location was 'somewhere in East Anglia'. And no - there was no sign of them having nested! And Gray's Elegy was far too dismal - it wouldn't have been had there been a few curlews in there!
Of more interest was the reaction of the birdwatchers - of whom there were quite a few, this being an RSPB site. What attracted their attention was the bird, which you can just make out down, and to the right of the deer. Children were thrown to the ground. Old ladies were dragged away from telescope eyepieces. (Of course, I'm exaggerating - the reaction of one of the 'twitchers' as they are called, was typical. He approached a lady looking through a telescope, and asked her very diffidently; "Is it true there is a Stone Curlew here?" Her response that she could actually see five of them, seemed to send him into some sort of spasm. In a strangled tone of voice he replied "I'd very much like to see them")
The cause of all the excitement were the Stone Curlews - described by the RSPB as "A strange, rare summer visitor to southern England". There are only 350 pairs in the whole country. Their strangeness seems to stem mainly from the fact that they aren't curlews at all, although their call is similar. ("The curlew tolls the knell of parting day..."). These were certainly giving it rice. Just nice to see something like that, when you've gone looking for something totally unrelated.
Regards - John
ps Don't bother critiquing - my lens wasn't up to the distance involved, and the location was 'somewhere in East Anglia'. And no - there was no sign of them having nested! And Gray's Elegy was far too dismal - it wouldn't have been had there been a few curlews in there!
