Hello Auzzie birders
This is a note to thank you all for the help you have given Paul Veron and
me in planning our trip to Perth, Tasmania and Melbourne in October.
We are particularly grateful to Frank O'Connor, Margaret Cameron, Dr
Richard Nowotny, Allan Burbidge, Tommy Pedersen (Norway) Julian Bielewicz,
Mauro Maurovic, Richard Fairbank (Scots pommie) Mark Welfare et al.
It goes to show the friendliness we can expect when we arrive in Perth on
30 September.
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You might like to hear of an encounter I had with a crippled Aus birder in
Kenya many years ago.
After swapping notes about the birds we had seen on separate safaris that
day, I asked if he would do me a favour and call me a *Pommie bastard*.
Rightly, the guy was outraged at the suggestion.
It was a stereotype of the Auzzies that they had this, even friendly,
antagonism with the British, he said.
I was not to mention it again.
Naturally, I felt embarrassed by my lack of tact and blushed to the roots,
staying away from contentious subjects just long enough to excuse myself
with some dignity and slink off to bed.
The following morning I was in a minibus waiting to leave (there is always
one group member who is late) when there was a shout and the Auzzie came
rushing across the courtyard in his wheelchair.
He looked crazy and banged on the minibus door which someone opened.
Pointing his finger at me and looking angry as hell he shouted: *you mad
Pommie bastard*, turned around and wheeled off leaving my fellow group
members wondering what I had done to the poor chap.
That evening we sank a few tinnies together and he laughed like a drain at
the picture I painted of the Brits who banished me to silence for doing
something, they knew not what, to the poor Australian guy in a wheelchair.
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I am getting 100 messages a day from Aus-birds, UK-birds and other chat
lines. The migration has started (three Black-tailed godwits, Limosa
limosa, yesterday) and I cannot read them all so am signing off.
Bibi and see some of you in Aus soon
Best wishes
Tim
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Tim Earl
Guernsey
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