Empty Skies or How I Spent The Best Day Ever in the Delta
6 Years and 1 day ago I woke up with the heaviest hangover of my life. And it was not only from the Chacha.
The day before I was in the delta for bird ringing. We had a real nice morning and I was quite content, but as I knew a big day was possible in the coming days, I kept in close contact with Jasper Wehrmann on the counting station, until around noon, when the communication suddenly stopped. The last information I got was that it was an extremely quiet morning, so I presumed that he fell asleep or his battery was dead…. How wrong I was..
That evening I got a call from Jasper and I started actually quite enthusiastic because we caught some nice birds, the local Marsh Harrier gave some splendid views and we even had some kettles of black kites… And then I heard I missed the best day ever on the counting station! Of course I joined the celebration, but the reason I drank Chacha that night was somewhat different from the rest.
And I was not entirely alone in my misery, as the day after a film crew from the Netherlands joined us on the station to record “In de ban van de Condor”. Where on the record day it would have been difficult to see some clear sky between the birds, now it was difficult to find a bird which came close enough to film…