Dear all, The hides may indeed be undergoing alterations to encourage
various categories of multiuse/multskilling..a concept beloved by bureaucrats,of
whom Canberra has more than its fair share, naturally. Bunks may even be
included, in order to facilitate the kind of activities I observed recently. The
story goes like this:- At about the time of the Little Bittern visit I drove to
the site at midday on one occasion. As soon as I parked, another car parked
along side me..out stepped a man who may have been mid 30’s and then another car
drew up and out stepped a woman who may have been early 20’s. They were both
dressed as though from an office environment and both appeared to have rings on
the fingers of respective left hands. They said hello, politely, to each other
and then walked through the gate, turned left and disappeared. The reason I
remembered these facts about appearances was my trained birdwatcher’s eye for
detail.
I then proceeded to go looking for the LB and about ten minutes later I
walked into the Bittern Hide When my eyes adjusted to the gloom I noticed the
said couple in the right hand corner. They were not birdwatching and appeared to
know each other very well..to my trained birdwatchers eye that is. I considered
that a LB had priority and so I said..”don’t worry about me, I’m only
birdwatching but they departed anyway and I never saw them again. I have a
suspicion that they were married but not to each other.
As I drove home (having dipped on the LB, by the way), I thought wouldn’t
it have been funny if after the lunchtime tryst, they had been unable to depart
due to the presence of a brown snake at the hide entrance, as happened to some
birdoes a few weeks ago. What excuse could you give to your boss when arriving
back late for work.
Perhaps TAMS could install red lights outside each hide to indicate if it
is being used for non ornithological purposes.
Geoff Duggan
