Over the last 3 weeks I have had 2 sets of birdwatching guests, one from Sweden, one from France. All were first time visitors to Aust but had been to several Aust sites before reaching here and respective lists of unseen birds to be found in a couple of days had become small. This led to the challenge of finding particular birds on request, which brings home to you the limitations of the season and just how chancy such an exercise can be. Frogmouths are dead easy, male red-breasted robins hard (one (Scarlet) at Booroomba Rocks), Gang-gangs surprisingly iffy (one group got ‘em at Elizabeth’s feeder), Superb Parrots a challenge (couldn’t turn up any), but the occasional unexpected bonus came along (Diamond Firetail at the horse crossing). A high point came when one OV got the below snap with her compact camera in front of a hide at Kellys. A snipe on, of all things, a star picket. I have not (as we like to say on this chatline) seen that before. I think I have been told they do that sort of thing in Japan.
