Dear Andrew (and others),
 
Your story of being held up by police reminds me of something else. My dad
is interested in birds and bird sound recordings. He use to go out into the
bush with a tape recorder and a microphone. To aid the quality of the
recordings, he had made himself a dish, a bit like a small satellite dish.
Because it was made out of some plastic, he painted it black, and to stop
the wind from howling in the microphone, he covered it with some thin cloth
(also black). He used to get up at the crack of dawn to record bird sounds.
He would walk around with this 1m diameter dish and a tape recorder and
headphones. Rather weird!
 
This was during the seventies, when the reds were still under the bed.
Combine this with the fact that military reserves and especially shooting
ranges are great for rare birds, since nobody ever goes there.
 
So one day he was recording this amazingly rare bird from the other side of
the fence around a military base. He got home quite late. He was questioned
by military police, and apparently had to play back the entire tape, and
dismantle his tape recorder to convince them he wasn't some kind of Russian
spy!
 
Still makes a good story at parties!
 
Patty
WWW: http://www.capricornica.com
 
Capricornica Publications               on-line natural history bookshop
P.O. Box 345
Lindfield NSW 2070
 
phone/fax: 02 9415 8098 international: +61 2 9415 8098
 
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