Whilst on a birding holiday in Hungary, within seconds the hungarian raindrops the size of birds eggs crashed down, exploding on the ground. In the two or so minutes it took me to get back to the tour bus, I would have been super-saturated if it wasnt for my trusty Falcon Jacket.
Deciding on what to pack on a foreign jaunt to a warmer country in spring or summer is always a challenge. Leave your favourite birding coat at home and your bound to run into wet weather. Pack it and you'll invaribly leave it floundering in your holdall. The trusty Falcon Jacket, which is available in both male and female styles, provides its own unique kind of travel insurance, a reliable, practical waterproof that has all the requirements of a top quality birding jacket, but is light and pliable enough to roll up and put into a small haversack before setting off on a walk. To start with, its membrane bonded "soft handled" fabric is breathable, which means you will not feel cocooned and sticky in warm, wet weather. Added features such as a detachable hood, double-front placket to minimise water seeping through the main zip and press stud adjustable cuffs all ensure you'll remain dry even in the kind of storm the Hungarian steppe can brew in a matter of minutes.
As any birder knows, a good outdoor field jacket needs to be both windproof and also silent on the move. Here, the Falcon comes in to its own with its "low rustle" fabric ensuring the birds do not hear as you move through the undergrowth.
There is plenty of room to keep a field guide, notebook, mobile phone, hand-held computer and voice recorder, I regularly load all that into my Falcon on morning walks when i dont want to take a backpack.
Reviewed by Stuart Winter in Sunday Express 20th June 2010.