Office dreams

You might wonder wonder when I am going to talk about my research again, I am getting to that. But not now. For now, just a little "work observation":

Last week I wanted to tell you about two house sparrows that were fighting in front of the window of my NIOO-office (so far the work related part). Some downfeathers swirled downwards, that was what caught my attention. And a moment later, two little balls of feathers tumbling around eachother, heading towards the grass. Then one had a hold on top of the other, the next moment it was the otherway around. And when one bird flew away, the other would follow him. Minutes long it continued. When 15 minutes nothing happened, and I was thinking to myself why those little birds would be so eagerly fighting this time of year, they would show up again and do everything once more. That was the moment I decided for myself that they were not fighting. They were playing. An improbable thought, but one that fits much better in a field of wild growing flowers, between a flock of hyperactive juvenile goldfinches and next to a bold scrounging great tit.
Just because..

"What some folks call impossible, is just stuff they haven't seen before."*




*What Dreams May Come

Heroes

Another great thing of being a scientist is that you are sometimes asked to speak on fairs. The Dutch Bird Fair to be exact. And why is this so great you may wonder? Well, it is the place to meet your long-time idols (if you are a bird-person).

We started building up our little stands, early in the morning. The day began windy and dark grey with some rare rays of sunlight. Geese were flying over and crows were calling. Luckily the fair took place in a very beautiful nature area, the kind of nature that is magnificent in any form of weather.

Our team for that day consisted of six people. Two of Vogeltrekstation (Bird Migration Station) and four of the NIOO (Netherlands Institute of Ecology): Pieter, Berber, Rinse, Peter, Nicole and me. And I think we were a great team, but how can you not be if you all are fascinated with birds? My presentation was scheduled at the end of the day, so I could help out with the stand and our game for almost the whole day.

Yes, we had a game. The ‘caterpillar catching’ game. Not so much fun as the ‘geese migration’ game, I have heard from a certain someone (we will definitely be trying to work that in for next year), but it was still a pretty cool game. Three kids can choose if they want to be a great tit chick in a warm, normal or cold spring and they are dressed accordingly:  yellow bib, black necktie and a black head with added sunglasses for the ‘warm’ chick and an added woolen hat for the ‘cold’ chick. Sometimes even the occasional parent jumped in to participate.
                The goal is to catch a caterpillar being pulled up a string by only using your ‘beaks’. The idea is (as of course you would have guessed) that the warm spring caterpillar moves to quickly, being gone before the chick is able to get it; the cold one being slow (and hanging too low), representing that the caterpillars are still absent or too small to be descent food; and the normal one, in general being perfectly timed. I say “in general” because, as with most things, sometimes there might be some human error involved… By the way, just to be clear, they were candy caterpillars.     

I can also write a whole story about the stress involved giving my presentation. Not that I was nervous, but mostly because the organizers thought it was a good idea to ask everyone for a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation (and to certainly not bring your own memory stick and computer) and then, without telling anyone in advance, have it run on an Apple. Forget about a story, I can write a book about why this was not a good idea.
                Thanks to the very nice people of the Vogeltrekstation, who did bring a (non-Apple) computer, everything turned out just perfect and I could run my presentation (with awesome video’s and sounds) without a problem. It’s the best way of letting people join in a bit on the great job I have and hopefully teach them a bit about the fascinating lives and habits of great tits.

However, I am just a Rookie in the bird world. There are other people there that know so much more, idols for many bird people (me and Peter). You know their names, you have seen them on television, heard them on radio and seen them in books and newspapers and then… you meet them. You belong to ‘the bird world’ now and suddenly you are there shaking their hand. Such a person is Nico de Haan (http://www.vogelkijkcentrum.nl/ndh.php3 ). Some sort of a legend, a mystical creature with all its mysterious ways. The grey beard, the secretive smile, the way he appears to be able to divide himself in multiple persons and be everywhere at once (seven times! Ask http://www.peterimwald.blogspot.nl/) and of course his wise and encouraging words when we were trying very hard to hold our stand together “Het waait wel, maar het waait over”; “The wind blows, but it will blow over”.

Every time when you think you are somewhere teaching others, never forget, you still got so much to learn.

Best wishes!