Please reply directly to Rob if you can help answer any of his questions.
Thanks,
Russell Woodford
*************FORWARDED MESSAGE**********
I am a Dutch birder (rather fanatic) and I will visit, with my wife,
Australia
for the first time this August. Of course, having some of your good bird
books
we will be able to find many of your nice species, but some might be more
difficult, and some help of local birders would be very welcomed. Also,
some
comments on how to improve my itinerary would be highly appreciated. I
used
Nigel Wheatley's bird find guide, but still have problems to optimise the
traject Sydney-Melbourne as to get the most (species) out of the trip.
Briefly our itinerary:
We will at all places rent a small camper and visit first visit the
Darwin/Fog
Dam/ Kakadu NP region (July 28 - August 5), then drive to Alice Springs
(August 6-8) , then fly to Sydney to participate in an international
congress
(August 8-13), join the next day (Saturday 14th) the Sydney pelagic,
visit
Royal National Park on August 15/16, and then drive south on afternoon of
the
16th, via Barren Grounds (August 17, ground parrots?) to Promontory NP
area
(August 18) incl. evening at Phillip Island. Thursday August 19 we have
reserved for birding in the Melbourne area (Ferntree Gully NP
recommendable?
Werribee Sewage Works), to fly on August 20 to Brisbane, and stay at
Lamington
NP till August 23, next fly (August 24) to Cairns area to stay in this
region
untill August 31, plannning visits to e.g. Michaelmas Cay/Hastings Reef,
to
Casssowary House, and to Julatten (Kingfisher Park), and maybe Mission
Beach
when we would have missed Cassowaries earlier.
As for getting some aid in finding some of the more special birds in
Darwin I
already successfully contacted Niven McCrie (very nice website!), but
would
appreciate when some birders in the Alice Springs, Sydney and Melbourne
areas
would be able and willing to show for a couplle fo hours some of their
goodies
on a colleague's base (in return I would be more than happy to show some
good
Dutch birds in a return visit).
For instance in Sydney I easily could escape for part of a day during the
congress to do some birding in the outskirts of Sydney which should hold
specialties such as Tawny Frogmouth, Powerful Owls, Satin Bowerbirds, etc.
but
which may be impossible to find for a foreign birder. Also we would of
course
like to see the Superb Lyrebird at Royal NP, and maybe some birder could
join
us on Sunday morning August 15th to avoid dipping on this major "tick""?
Furthermore, any comment helping to optimise our routing from Royal NP
(leave
afternoon of August 16) to Phillip Island (I know it is a bit touristic
but
surely want to see your pinguins!) where we are on August 18, would be
very
welcome. We plan to visit Barren Grounds. Good choice for a.o. Ground
Parrots?
Finally at Melbourne, we would like to get as much as possible of the
waders,
gulls, and other wetland birds at and around Werribee Sewage works, where
we
plan to be on August 19. When there is still time left that day, a visit
to
Ferntree Gully NP. Good choice?
Any respons would be highly appreciated!
Best regards,
Rob Goldbach
Laboratory of Virology
Agricultural University
Binnenhaven 11
6705 BC Wageningen
The Netherlands
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