Trevor:
At 07:50 1/11/98 +1100, you wrote:
>I went with a group of overseas birders to Glen Davis and almost cleaned up
>on all the specialities of the valley.
>The other birders were from Oman, he was Norwegian and she was from
>Thailand. How cosmopolitan can we get here!
Undoubtedly you refer to Kolbjorn Schjolberg and Sopit Suwan.
They arrived in Brisbane yesterday and I took them out to the Nathan Road
Wetlands where, unfortunately, bird numbers were down - although I did
managed to find three lifers for them. I passed them on to Tom and Marie
Tarrant and hopefully Tom was able to find some nightlife and perhaps other
birds for them.
I managed to add Variegated Fairy-wren to their list of fairy-wrens and the
Pale-headed Rosella had them enthralled, as did the Tawny Grassbird which
thankfully was perched a meter or two above their heads and stayed long
enough to allow for crippling views. We were also able to note the race
differences between the Masked Lapwing they'd seen further north and those
in this area.
While talking with Tom to arrange some spotlighting for Kolbjorn and Sopit
the topic of conversation wandered over to bird NOT SEEN in the area over
the past few weeks. No Straw-necked Ibis or Brolga and indeed Nathan Road
appears to have lost its small resident population of Glossy Ibis. Even
wader numbers are down for this time of the year. Has anyone else noted
similar declines/absences for lateOctober/early November?
It was a little disappointing to learn that they had received no offers of
help during their stay in the Cairns/Atherton Tablelands areas but perhaps
they didn't actually ask for help. Knowing a number of birders in those
areas I am confident they would not have ignored any pleas for birding help
from overseas visitors.
Julian
...............
Past President
Queensland Ornithological Society
12 Florence Street
Kippa-Ring, Q. 4021
Australia
Tel: +61 7 3283 4921
Fax: +61 7 3889 4272
email:
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