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Folks,
I'm also saddened by the loss of Peter
Disher. The first time I met him was at a BOCA camp at Melville Caves (now
Kooyoora State Park) in about 1975. He stepped into an animated debate
between Reg Johnson and the late Frank Stephens about where the Spotted
Quail-thrushes stop and the Chestnut Quail-thrushes start by stating
authoritatively that all the quail-thrushes THIS side of that tree over there
are Spotted and all the one the other side are Chestnut. A year or so
later he led my family on a memorable day's birding around Barham when we were
staying at Echuca. I remember heading out of Barham with my brother in the
front seat of Peter's yellow ute, and Peter's large gestures out the window
towards the Black-faced Woodswallows over there, the Pied Butcherbird over
there, White-backed Swallows nest in that sandhill over there, bad accident
recently when someone drove off this bridge - all with only the occasional
casual glance at the road. Following with the rest of the family, Dad was
a bit puzzled by all the unconventional hand signals coming from the driver's
window of the ute. We stopped for lunch on his mate Evan Thomas' place -
Peter said to drive across the creek and then take our picnic a bit further
along because that little dip just the other side of the creek was where Evan
chucked his dead foxes. Good advice! That day Peter showed us almost
every species he had said he thought he might be able to find - we missed on
Golbert's Whistlers because they weren't calling and Chestnut-crowned Babblers
because we ran out of time for the twenty minute walk to where Peter knew of a
colony. A generous, laconically humorous and exceptionally knowledgeable
man, one of the great characters of Australia birding. God
bless.
Regards,
Jack
Krohn
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