24 February 08
Duck Days and a Bag of Rice
A postdoc arrived from Spain a fortnight ago. He’s working in Plant Sciences under the direction of a faculty member — Numenius is working on a project concerning climate change and agriculture with her, so he met Fernando.
Fernando’s from Madrid, where I grew up. He’s also a birder; a really, really good birder. But he doesn’t know our birds. There’s something wonderful about having a newcomer enthuse over your robins and white-breasted nuthatches (we all went out on bikes last weekend; today it’s raining hard, time to catch up on laundry).
Apparently in Spain (in Europe? Richard? ) people are now taking bags of rice — large bean bags, in effect — along with them when they’re birding to anchor their spotting scope (and long camera lens) from the car window without having to set up a tripod. Since we got handed bags of sushi rice at the California Duck Days reception on Friday night, I might just cobble this together. Might be useful on the bike, too…
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When you have managed to work out how to anchor your long camera lens without tripod using a bag of rice, make sure you post the result! Your birds sound so much more interesting than ours although caught sight of a flock of sooty oyster catchers this morning.
Jenny: GASP.
It’s the dream of most birders I know to go to Australia to bird. You have so many bird families that are found nowhere else. One day..,.
I will hold you to that promise Pica. Now Sarah has moved into a flat, we have a spare room!!! I’d still like to see your Californian species however.Robins and nuthatches!!