With our glorious leader struck down with the dreaded lurgy, and with a weather forecast promising gale-force winds and precipitation, we opted to experiment with an indoor meeting.
Ten intrepid souls ventured into the Adams kitchen, fitted out for the day as a cinema. Some prepared for the worst by bringing their own chairs.
Using a DVD from the three volume set, entitled Guide to British Birds (narrated by Paul Doherty), we chose to look at a 45 minute section on Waders.
Although we missed Richard’s expertise, Andrew Bailey was able to help us separate Redshanks from Ruff and Dunlins from Grey Plovers. The video included vocals to help the more aurally challenged amongst us.
Once the projectionist had finally mastered the technology, it made a nice change to be able to look at bird plumage in close up, birds in (stationary) detail and, occasionally, birds flying backwards! It was an opportunity to share thoughts on how to separate one species from another.
After a coffee break we selected another disc which gave us a preview of the sights and sounds of Martin Mere in February. This is something we hope to experience for real on February 24th. It was noticeable that we were all a little more confident as familiar species such as Shelduck, Whooper Swan and Teal appeared on the screen.
Thanks to everyone who came and I hope there may be opportunities to do something similar in the future.
learn, laugh, live