Dear Australian birders,
I would like to ask your advice and suggestions. My name is Istvan
Katona, I am a hungarian birder and biologist. From the 10th of October
until the 16th of December with my wife (who is also a birder) we would
like to travel mainly in the East Coast of Australia from Sydney to Cairns
and if possible come south through the NT and SA. During our 9 and half
week long trip, our major goal is to visit and study the most typical and
exciting Australian ecosystems, which do not exist in Europe, certainly
with birds in the focus of our interest. We are not really concentrating
on adding as many new species as possible to our lifelists, but instead
would like to learn more about the most characteristic birdlife of
Australia. Actually, reading the birding-aus for some weeks now we were
delighted every day to learn what movements reflect for example the spring
arrival in Australia. Certainly, we also have many "secret dreams", which
we would like to see very much mainly from those bird families we don't
have in Europe.
We dreamed about this trip for many years and read a lot as well as
discussed with friends before. Originally we wanted to stay for much
longer, but recently it turned out that after
completing our PhDs and between two jobs this autumn will give us the
chance and it is quite uncertain both financially and in terms of working
and family obligations to try it later.
Luckily, mainly due to the excellent Australian homepages maintained about
nature reserves and birding areas and through the several
tripreports, birding books as well as by being a reading member of the
birding-aus, now we could put together an itinerary, to select those
places among the countless potentially very exciting and beautiful OZ
lands, which we are most interested in. Still, there are many questions
left and I would be very grateful if I could hear your opinion about them.
Here they are:
1. Although we booked on the Sydney pelagic trip on 12th of October,
which we are looking forward very much, still I would like to ask your
advices about the best sea-watching points on the East and Sout-East
Coast. Hungary has no connection to the sea, so for us every seabird is
very exciting! For example, we have read that Shy Albatrosses bread on
islands in the Flinders strait, but are they observable somewhere from the
mainland?
2. In addition, what do you think which are the best places to enjoy
Little Penguins beside the Penguin Parade? Is it possible to participate
somewhere on Little Penguin counting? (A German friend of us had the luck
some years ago on the Western Coast to take part in such a counting).
3. Are there some chances to see Tropicbirds, Roseate terns and
Frigatebirds on the Lady Elliot Island in the second half of October? Do
they arrive back by then?
4. How can we make reservations ahead for the Chris Dahlberg Daintree
river trip as well as to the Kingfisher park? Unfortunately the e-mails
come back from their addresses.
5. Which spots would be rewarding to see any button-quails? Due to
lack of time we don't plan to search for the rarer ones, but I guess to
have the luck to find any of even the commonest ones like painted BQ, any
chance to increase the probability may be useful.
6. The same with the Cassowary, according to some reports, now they are
even at the Mission Beach are very difficult to see. What do you think
where should we go to look for?
7. Which wader spots do you suggest to visit very much on the East and
South-East Coast? Is it possible to get access somehow to the very famous
Weribee?
8. Which mallee habitat do you suggest to visit most Hattah-Kulkyne
NP, Wyperfield NP or something else?
9. Is it worth to go to the Gluepot reserve still at the beginning of
December? This seems to be a fantastic place after reading the homepage,
but my fear that this time of the year may be not as productive due to the
hot wheather.
10. Surprisingly, I could find very little information on the
Internet about bird ringing. Are there some ringing camps working and
possible to visit for a day in the Eastern part of Australia?
11. And finally the most important. In Hungary we worked with owls and
they are our most favourite birds. We are aware of the fact that to see
any owl species requires a very precise knowledge of their habitats and
their habits and the probability to find them by chance is very
low. Therefore I would like to ask your help about the owls. Reading the
birding-aus discussion about RFI on location of rare
and endangered birds, my view and experience is that blindly I would not
give out any information. (This is largely based on the time when I worked
during the high school and university years as a guard and nature guide of
a protected area in Budapest and generally we have many problems in
Hungary especially in case of breeding falcons like Saker). Thus, I would
not require any written description, but instead, I would like to ask if
we could join to some of you, if you have some free time for us to look
for owls (like the Southern Boobok, Powerful or Barking Owls) or some
advice whom we should contact to see some even more difficult owls. I have
read amazing descriptions about John Young at Ingham however I could not
figure out on the Internet, how can I contact him. In addition, about the
Greater Sooty Owl at Bunya Mts and about the Rufous Owl in Darwin there
are publicly available descriptions exist for example in the Thomas and
Thomas or on Niven McCrie's very useful and nice homepage. Are these birds
still observable at these places or they have left by now?
12. And really finally: besides the owls we would be delighted if we could
bird together with some of you in your local patches. Although we
really tried to read upon as much as possible and listening to the
Australian bird songs casettes to learn to recognize the birds, I am sure
that the most fun and the most rewarding regarding learning is to visit a
habitat with those who live there and can tell about the plants and
other animals besides the birds. What we can offer certainly is that if
you ever visit Budapest or Hungary then we guide you around as well (some
years ago I had already a lady guest from Melbourne in the Eagle Hill
Nature Reserve of Budapest).
We don't have a day by day schedule but we plan to be in Sydney in the
middle of October, then around Brisbane on the third week of October, then
drive up to Cairns and bird around until approximately 10th of November,
then drive to Darwin (is it possible to manage in a week?) and bird around
Darwin in the middle of November. In the second half of November we would
drive south and visit the West McDonnel Ranges and bird around Alice and
then during the first week of December we would bird in South Australia
and then during the second (our final) week of December around Melbourne.
I am sorry if I was too long and thank you very much in advance any
suggestions!
I wish you a nice weekend with full of birds!
Istvan
Istvan Katona
Daniel ut 15/1
1125 Budapest
Hungary
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