Hobbies and Interests

On this page you can introduce your hobby or interest. Just to inform others or perhaps to find someone else who is interested in the same area. Why not take up a new interest when you are on holiday and have some time to spare?

Just send an e-mail with your ideas or views to Lars Olof via the link at the end of this page!

Model building

Bosse and Christina, house no 19

 

 

Replica ship building

Bosse is not only a sailor by profession. He also has a hobby connected to shipping, he is now building a replica of an American clipper ship, in scale 1:96. With a lot of details!
 

 

 

Bosse brought the model from the ship he is working on and has spent some time with it in Hua Hin. At this time he is still working with the hull of the ship model.

 

 

 

 

 

 
After the hull, the deck will be next in line,
probably for quite a few hours of work...

 

Bird watching

From Jans and Trudi, house no 4

 

Baan Thai Village 2 and its birds
 

When we came to Hua Hin the first time, being very interested in bird watching, we searched through Internet about birdlife in Thailand, especially Hua Hin region.

We found out that one of the most searched for waders of the world by birders, “spoonbilled sandpiper”, is a regular winter visitor in the region south of Bangkok. Probably the most reliable spot to see this bird with easy access. But it became clear there was more to look for.


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Spoonbilled 
sandpiper

 

We found out that one of the most searched for waders of the world by birders, “spoonbilled sandpiper”, is a regular winter visitor in the region south of Bangkok. Probably the most reliable spot to see this bird with easy access. But it became clear there was more to look for.

 

This year (March 2007), when our house was ready and we stayed 3 weeks in BTV2, we planned of course a visit to the wader area (one hour from BTV 2) but things went different.

 

During our stay we saw daily raptors flying over the house going north. We counted between 2 and 3 thousand birds, mainly “grey-faced buzzards”. All these birds on their way to their breeding grounds after wintering south. And as we birded intensively also the local birds of BTV2 came along. Most common birds “common mynah”, “yellow-vented mynah”, “green bee-eater”, “ashy wood swallow” and “intermediate egrets”. Very loudly present, but hardly seen: “asian koel”.  The most spectacular local bird we saw was “black-winged kite”.

 

Recently (from 11 September) we stayed again almost 2 weeks in our house and again we were surprised about what we saw. In one week we counted 800 “painted storks” migrating south to their wintering grounds and on our last day (September 22nd) almost 200 sparrow hawks. Superb was the sighting of an “greater spotted eagle”!

 

Through contacts with local birders it appears that Hua Hin migration could by quite significant. Moreover it would be great to look for birds in and around the resort like you look for birds in your back-garden and by doing this make a fine list of our flying neighbours.

 

During our trips around the world we often met Swedish birders and BTV 2 could very well be a good place to stay around and as a base when searching for the spoonbilled sandpiper.

 

We have already listed about 50 species, so who has interest to join in, just send an e-mail to: sikkensj@planet.nl.

 

Jans and Trudi Sikkens

Golfslag 91

9732 ME Groningen

Netherlands

Genealogy

From Lars Olof, house no 29

Family search over Internet

For the last 10 years I have been working with my hobby genealogy. Sweden has very good possibilities to search for family history, mainly due to the the church and taxation records carried out during the past 3-400 years.

Sweden also started to map villages and cities in 1628, so there are a lot of sources for the interested genealogist! You can see one example of a historical map, with information about the people living in this village, to the right. Click on the map for a high resolution image!

My first step was to talk to my parents and some other old relatives. But the big kick I got when I could download a family tree software from Internet, in 1996. Since then, I have spent numerous hours in archives and on Internet, to record the about 17 000 people I now have in my databases.

The Internet is full of accessible information in the form of databases, discussion lists, private family trees and archives with scanned historical records. I am happy to share my experiences with anyone interested to know more, whether it is for your own family history knowledge, interest in what Internet can offer or just pure curiosity.

You can see more about genealogy and about my family tree on my home page. Do not hesitate to contact me!

Lars Olof
House no 29

Map of Österflo village, Långsele parish,
Västernorrland county, made in 1771.
The picture is taken from a book
at the Swedish National Land Survey, see http://historiskakartor.lantmateriet.se/arken/s/search.html
You can choose Swedish or English language.

Ideas or views? Send an e-mail to Lars Olof

This page was checked on February 27, 2008.