I don't do surveys any more... not proper ones anyway. When I did, I always seemed to get sent to the remotest, crappiest, muddiest , wettest and most utterly useless corners in the area. But occasionally interesting things happen. On one survey area, my "bit" was a long, long boring "traverse" through almost uninhabited farmland ..and almost devoid of any birds to actually count. I didn't even "get" a Tree Sparrow. But something happened.... So ... I got there at the freezing crack of dawn, and set off with my little notebook etc. You could scarcely have found a straighter, more boring road in the entire country. Not a house in sight, zilch. Then , way way way in the distance, a person was approaching.Just a white speck in the distance. Naturally, I didn't bin them .... that wouldn't be good. Not polite. And if I antagonised this distant person, there were big deep soggy ditches for this person to roll me into after they had clouted me with the lead piping. They'd probably nick my bins and scope as well. Not that it matters if you're dead in a ditch. This was back in the days when I could actually carry my scope. So .... I shuffled on, ticking the odd bird ... and next time I looked, it was a she. She was still a long way off, but seemed not to be wearing very much. Long black hair. Young. Bare legs. This was all very odd.... it was absolutely perishing cold, and where the hell was she going ... there wasn't a house for miles. Eventually she reached me..... she was maybe 18-ish .... she had bare feet (!) and all she was wearing .. and I mean all ... was a thin white short-sleeved T-shirt. Readers, I walked sharply past her and never looked back !! Cripes. She said nowt. I said nowt. When I told The Significant Otter about this ( I thought I'd better in case the police turned up at the front door) she asked me how I knew that the T-shirt was all she was wearing. My reply was ... "how do you think ?" Nuff said. I can only assume that some "all-night party" was involved .... I don't know. When I got back to the car, I drove back along the survey route and carried on, for an extra mile or so ... no houses that she might have come from, no nothing. Then I turned round and drove back ... no sign of her, no houses for her to go to. How strange. She had walked at least 2 miles on a rough, stony farm road in bare feet and in bitter cold. During my years of birding, that's probably the oddest ( and dodgiest) thing that's happened. Dead bodies, copulating couples, getting chased by farmers, cattle, dogs, nearly dying of cold, getting chucked off bird reserves ( well, one, once), getting lost, going to the wrong hospital, twice, pulling people off electric fences, getting into arguments about Siskins, .... etc .... etc.... All I've got to do now is think of some appropriate music ... but I can't .. so I'll just pick something very odd ... and a trifle unsettling... Trôns dy dad .. "your dad's underpants".... You'll be fascinated to know that's there's actually a Welsh novel called "Trôns" ..and I've read it !! Who could resist !!!!! Actually, the Welsh seem to be a bit obsessed with underpants ... I've read all of those as well ...
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorThat's the author up there ... I was young and sprightly then. Archives
October 2022
|