I’m rapidly learning a thing or two about finding poo with dogs, and one thing I’ve learnt in the last couple of days is that working with dogs and looking for birds are incompatible activities!!! Aaaarrrgh!!! The first thing I think of when I see a piece of forest is what birds are in there? How can I get in? I want to see the birds, no, I need to see the birds! But when working with the dog, I can’t. I have to concentrate on the dog and what it’s doing 100% of the time. There’s no time to raise the binoculars and take a look at something flitting around in the branches that’s caught my eye, or to stop and tape in something that sounds interesting. It’s just work, work, work. Stare at that dog as he searches for poo. Read his body movement so that you can see when he zeros in on the smell of the poo above the general sniffing of forest odors. Watch him intently in case he catches the scent of something to chase, call him back firmly, praise his return and resume the search. No time for birding. Help!!!!
But, I’m here in the national park all day every day, one of the best bits of forest in Vietnam. I’m not in the office in Hanoi anymore with the Tree Sparrows, Japanese White-eyes, Red-whiskered Bulbul and White-throated Fantail my only avian companions. Here when I work I can look at no birds, but while the dogs rest, I can play. A short recce of a trail for dog training yesterday afternoon produced a pair of Germain’s Peacock-pheasants, and in the morning while leaving the cabin a Woolly-necked Stork flew overhead. There may be no birding during work time, but there wasn’t in Hanoi either, and it’s just great to be living in the forest and able to see birds at other times. As long as I keep getting my fix, I won’t become a gibbering wreck …
Sarah on the other hand, does not have the obsessive compulsive disorder of birding and is just very happy to be in the forest, surrounded by nature and in the company of two lovely dogs again (and me of course)!. What a well balanced individual!.
But, I’m here in the national park all day every day, one of the best bits of forest in Vietnam. I’m not in the office in Hanoi anymore with the Tree Sparrows, Japanese White-eyes, Red-whiskered Bulbul and White-throated Fantail my only avian companions. Here when I work I can look at no birds, but while the dogs rest, I can play. A short recce of a trail for dog training yesterday afternoon produced a pair of Germain’s Peacock-pheasants, and in the morning while leaving the cabin a Woolly-necked Stork flew overhead. There may be no birding during work time, but there wasn’t in Hanoi either, and it’s just great to be living in the forest and able to see birds at other times. As long as I keep getting my fix, I won’t become a gibbering wreck …
Sarah on the other hand, does not have the obsessive compulsive disorder of birding and is just very happy to be in the forest, surrounded by nature and in the company of two lovely dogs again (and me of course)!. What a well balanced individual!.
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