Besançon, France.
Summer 2005
by Nick Derry
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I've never been the best writer. Last year I lived in France, teaching English and preparing a dissertation in French on White Storks being a symbol of Alsace. When I started gathering notes, I spent a lot more time drawing storks all over the paper. In fact, the only writing on that page was a shopping list of all the ingredients needed to make Welsh Cakes (manifestation of homesickness). So by the Summer the damned bit of writing was still nowhere near completion and with the September deadline looming, I decided to rent a room in the student halls of residence at a French university so I could stay focussed on my work and not "waste" all my time birding and making Welsh Cakes.
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 The view was not the best, from my window I could see more windows, staring straight back at mine. Between the two blocks was a no man's land of flat roof, covered in flip flops, cigarette ends and any other rubbish that had been thrown there by the other residents. This rubbish also included the bread rolls from the canteen that I found useful as doorstops and paperweights. The House Sparrows on the other hand, seemed to quite like them and soon their constant visits provided a welcome distraction from work. It was nice to see that House Sparrow is still common in France. |
 I didn't need binoculars to sketch the Sparrows, nor the Blackbirds that came to sun themselves in the morning. So much the better! As it isn't a good idea to use binoculars from a room where you can see everything going on in the rooms opposite, and therefore be seen yourself. |
 With a bit of curtain twitching and ducking below the windowsill, I did manage to find a position where I could watch the Serins and Black Redstarts singing from the aerials on the other block of flats, without making people think I was trying to watch them get changed!
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 The reason I had rented the room in the first place was to get some work done on my dissertation. The constant birdwatching and high temperatures of the daytime meant I wasn't getting any work done while it was light. As a result, I was slowly becoming more nocturnal in an attempt to get through all the writing I had to do. I genuinely thought I would be able to concentrate a lot better at night when all the avian distractions were asleep.
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 Of course, not all the avian distractions were asleep. I suppose I could work happily with everyday birds singing in the background without feeling the need to go to the window and see what is there. But when the noise is a lot of hooting that is definitely not coming from a Tawny Owl, that's when I get no work done at all. I don't even got to sleep at a reasonable hour because I'm at the window all night staring into the orange light cast by the lampposts hoping to see what is there.
And after several hours, I finally saw what it was, as at four a.m., a pair of Long-eared Owls flew down onto the ground in front of my window. They stayed a minute or so catching beetles while I tried to sketch them from the total darkness of my room, it wasn't easy when I couldn't even see my sketchbook, which is why I only managed to draw one of them! This is a painting I did the day after, in daylight!
I handed in my dissertation two months ago now, all 10,000 words, very little of which was written in that room in France.
Nick Derry
November 2005
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