I was spending some time staring at some bushes this morning, when some cyclists came past to tell me the view over the valley was much better from the other side of the hill. Hmm, maybe they thought I was lost. The trouble is in France is that birdwatching is still punishable by electric shock therapy as birds are for shooting and eating, not for watching.
And yes, everyone thinks my scope is either a camera or a gun. I remember in Lanzarote, in the Timanfaya national park, I was sketching some Trumpeter Finches through my scope when some park rangers came by, tutting, shaking their fingers and repeating 'no fotos, keine fotos, pas de photos, no fotos, no no no, etc. Why I'd have been DRAWING what I saw through the 'viewfinder'!!
Anyway, the park rangers soon understood that it wasn't a camera, obligingly identified my trumpeters as crows and went along their way.