At 07:10 PM 06/05/1997 +1000, you wrote:
>Wouldn't it rot your socks!!! (Probably literally if I'd stayed much
longer.)
>As readers of this service will probably remember, I had a short,
>short-notice trip to Fiji these past few days and sought help and advice
>from "birding-aus-ers" re where to go and what to look for around Suva.
>Many helpful suggestions all focussed (correctly of course) on the remaining
>native forest sites, to which I was looking forward with some enthusiasm.
>The best laid plans (and all that). What my advisers failed to take into
>account was cyclone June - a rather pathetic specimen but able to threaten
>as well as the big boys, bring plenty of rain and reasonable lashings of
>wind - all cloaked in typical cyclonic uncertainty. Local flooding, closed
>local airports and worst of all impassable unsealed roads (such as serve all
>the native forest sites - and believe me I tried, although I would prefer
>no-one mentions this to Hertz - just kidding, a little) left me struggling
>with birding around the south-western Queen's Road from Nadi to Suva (farmed
>and cleared almost completely) and the extremely soggy botanical gardens in
>Suva. Pleasant but definitely uninspiring bird-wise and obviously quite
>disappointing.
>The result? 25 species as follows:
>
>Lesser Frigatebird
>Pacific Reef Heron
>Gray Duck (Pacific Black Duck)
>Fiji Goshawk
>Pacific Golden Plover
>Wandering Tattler
>Great Crested Tern
>Black-naped Tern
>Rock Dove (I)
>Spotted Turtle-Dove (I)
>Collared Lory
>White-rumped Swiftlet
>Sacred Kingfisher
>Pacific Swallow
>Red-vented Bulbul (I) +++
>Vanikoro Flycatcher
>White-breasted Woodswallow
>Common Myna (I) ++++
>Jungle Myna (I) ++++
>Orange-breasted Honeyeater
>Wattled Honeyeater
>Silvereye
>Red Avadavat (I)
>Red-headed Parrotfinch
>(Golden Whistler (H))
>
>Thank you to all who responded and proffered advice. Suffice it to say that
>next time I will be well equipped as a result of your help, and I certainly
>have plenty of birds left to see!
>Field Guide? Pratt, Bruner and Berrett's "The Birds of Hawaii and the
>Tropical Pacific" is excellent, with full illustrations and Fiji list (by
>island) and acts as an enticement to try exploring some of the other
>tropical paradises (and their weather!) - any excuse to combine hedonism and
>birding (or are they synonymous?).
>
>Cheers
>
>Richard Nowotny.
>
>
> There's no pleasing some people. I'm only a casual birder in that I do
not go about hunting lifers. If I see something different in my travels,
I'm rapt. This way there is always something new & exciting over the horizon.
Cheers from the casual birder. ( a rare breed )
Peter.
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