On Friday we went to conduct the grassland bird survey for the last time this year. The area we were sent to was a great place for birds but really bad for seeing the birds. There was a lot of limited visibility and the views we did get were general looking into the sun so the birds were more often silhouetted.
This time I spent more time sitting and hoping for the birds to come out for a photo opportunity. They didn’t but while I was waiting for the birds to make an appearance, I caught a glimpse of something very small moving on the country road that I was standing on. I turned and looked to see a mouse. It was running from one side of the road to the other very quickly and it would stop on the side to check for safety before darting out again and it was heading right toward me. It swam through a water filled tire track and then ran right between my feet. I lost sight of it after that. I managed to get a few pictures but I had the camera settings set for birds in the trees so I had to fix them each photo up in Photoshop even to make the mouse visible. We also got to see quite a few American Redstarts. They were very flighty though, making it hard to photograph them.
Okay now for the funny part, this road we were on runs right beside a military tank range. Yep you probably know where this is going. Each time we have gone to this location it has been silent other than the birds but on Friday there were tons of cars and people.
So, there we were in camouflage, standing beside a fence, looking into a military tank range with binoculars and cameras with large lenses and then this truck was motoring down the road towards us but on the opposite side of the fence. The truck was marked Military Police. They buzz by us and then all of a sudden they slammed on their brakes and slammed it into reverse only to slam on the brakes again once directly in front of us. The officer closest to us throws his door open and flies out of the truck and quickly made his way towards us asking what we were up to. Once we calmed him down with our birding story and showed him proof of the birding study along with our personal information they left with funny stories to tell friends.
Lessons learnt.
2. Don’t look into a tank range with binos and cameras.
3. To be determined. (Maybe next weekend)
That's really cool that the mouse swam in the water rather than running around. Maybe he was hot? :)
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