Hi Paul, Both me and the wife loved your text! Haven't yet got any 2.4 GHz stuff (I'll just swap the transmitting part in my trannies and get suitable rx's), but is eagerly awaiting!
Those small birds, that seem black late afternoon, and appear in huge clouds close to sunset, are starlings, most likely, looking for somewhere to settle for the night! A cane field, a stand of reeds, stands of thick bushes, in short, anything free of predators and very dense, is their favourite sleeping quarters (In Britain they tend to move into the southern cities in wintertime - Bath is said to have the majority of Northern Europe's starlings disrupting the citizens' sleep a few months each winter! Therefore electrified roofs, windows sills, et cetera, everywhere in that old, Roman, city! A few decades back me and a friend went birdwatching on a small island close to home, just a short ferry trip from the mainland. Our goal was a football pitch-sized bog surrounded by high cliffs, very close to civilisation, and yet very remote. This is essentially unchartered ground, as no paths, nor roads, lead into the area, mainly due to the fact that this used to be banned ground for civilians - as the island used to be a military garrison, and at that time stilled banned for foreign nationals. Sadly we didn't see much of anything till close to sunset. On our latitudes, appoximately the same as Churchill, but actually Gothenburg, Sweden, it takes a while to get dark in the evenings, of course. We arrived in the afternoon, hand a nice dinner and waited. In addition to the coastal birds, like gulls and plovers, we saw some song birds, and other small birds, but nothing really exciting. An Euroasian Kestrel (similar to the American Kestrel) worried the smaller birds as he passed, but otherwise things were very calm. A cloud of starlings suddenly appeared and after a lot of false tries settled in a small stand of reeds. Then more starlings arrived in smaller groups, coming from all directions. Evidently these came from neighbouring islands, as this to man fairly unknown bird haven isn't normally frequented by people, cats or dogs. As each subgroup landed the was a bit of commotion, but after a while things settled down - the stand of reeds maybe containing a few thousands starlings, no more than that! Then suddenly, as the sun started to settle, on silent wings, a Short-eared Owl arrived on the scene. Seemed to have its nest in the bog quite close to us, but light was failing fast, so we wasn't too sure if we saw a nest, or not. A rare treat to us city-dwellers, to see this magnificent bird this close - sadly far to dark to take any pictures! Just as the last rays of light hit the cliffs the kestrel reappeared, and he/she didn't like what he saw - an intruder! So suddenly there was a hell of a fight between owl and kestrel, the two eventually crashing into the stand of reeds, and naturally all the starlings took off at once! For a little while the sky was black with panicing starlings, but soon the kestrel gave up - not a very good night flyer, in sharp contrast with the owl, he/she headed home, and the owl returned to its camping ground, to await morning and breakfast, in the form of rodents, or other unwary animals. As day broke, we packed our gear; binoculars, monoculars, MSR stove, et cetera, and took the first morning ferry home, at around 6:00 am. Tord -- Want an e-mail address like mine? Get a free e-mail account today at www.mail.com!
