A while ago , down at the Estuary, I came across one of the "other" local birders .... we'll call him " Curly" for security reasons. Curly had spotted a few Med Gulls out on the mudbanks and was a bit irked because he thought there could well be more, and he wanted to beat his " Local Patch Med Gull Record." As you do. He had tried flushing them up ...as all us clever-arses know, Meds are dead easy to ID when they're flying around.But they wouldn't respond to all his arm-waving antics. Personally, I recommend a starting pistol for these occasions. I can't understand why it's not standard kit . So I suggested that he get himself a drone.This could initiate a two-pronged attack. First, he could whoosh it over the flock at a low level ..that would put the buggers up .And if that failed, he could wait for them to settle , then film them. ¡ Sorted ! But here's the thing. Once he had the visuals ( don't scratch them, it only makes them worse) , would he be able to do the ID-ing? Think about it. When have we had to ID birds from above? We don't very often get the opportunity. And when do you ever see an illustration of a bird from above. You don't. No. So ...here my idea ...which is free to anyone out there who wants it. You write a book called, simply, "Birds from Above." It would be like a normal field guide, but all the ID information and all the pictures would be "top views." I think it might be a bit too soon for it right now. But now I've told you all about how useful drones might be to the bird-spotting fraternity (?) they'll all be at it . Just saying ! I hope you were impressed with that ¡ I did a bit earlier. That's from my book, "Punctuation Marks from all Angles." OK ...enough of this silliness, conjecture and tripe .... let's have some music .... ...here's Klee and the beautiful " Zwischen den Jahren"
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorThat's the author up there ... I was young and sprightly then. Archives
October 2022
|