Subject: Time: 4:30 PM
(No) Swifts and (no) regents. Date: 10/8/98
As Sunday was one of those rare days when family responsibilities were
escapable, I was one of those Sydney enthusiasts who braved the wind and wet
to go birding. It wasn't so much a conscious participation in the survey (I
would no doubt have reported a success!) as a desire actually to glimpse one
of these much-reported creatures that took me to Castlereagh State Forest.
No such luck! We found one small tree in full blossom and a nice flock of
yellow-faced, white-naped and black-chinned honeyeaters enjoying it. Not
much else.
It is quite likely, however, that we were simply looking in the right place.
When the elusive birds were first found there, much talk took place of a
stand of ironbarks on Track 27, talk that remained arcane to everybody I
know, as neither on the detailed maps you can get nor on the ground is there
any indication that the tracks have numbers at all. We just wandered round,
taking numberless paths at random, looking for blossoming trees and trying to
remember the way back. Can somebody let the world in on this esoteric
matter? Do you go left or right from the entrance? And do you just count
the tracks you pass? A sketch-map on a website somewhere would be a boon!
John Clifton-Everest
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