But first, I'd like to add my congratulations to Sean Dooley, not only for
his sterling achievement in seeing 700 spp in Australia in a calendar year,
but especially for his entertaining reports on his progress in the form of a
serialised part-work that regularly had us hanging out for the next issue,
and cheering him on along the way! Just a thought, Sean's 700th bird was on
Christmas Eve - I'm really curious to hear what happened in the week that
followed.
Well, back to smaller numbers, and a more parochial view. This-morning a
party of twenty or so Musk Lorikeets swept across and around Abberton,
calling loudly and flashing their green underwing coverts in unison as they
twisted in flight. The Musk Lorikeet is a common enough bird around
Toowoomba and uprange generally, but not at all regular in the Lockyer
Valley - and not previously recorded at Abberton in the 14 years we've been
in this house.
I've had suspicions of Musk Lorikeets around over the last couple of weeks,
I just haven't had a good view, although I was pretty sure I'd heard them. I
hadn't mentioned my suspicions to Eileen, because I didn't want to pre-empt
our 'big event' until I was sure of it. We've been musing and hypothesising
for ages over what bird # 200 on our house list might be, so I rushed in to
share the news with Eileen. Big news, bird 200! Definitely merits a hug!
"Guess what, I've just seen about 20 Musk Lorikeets going over! New bird for
Abberton!"
"Yes", said Eileen, "I thought I'd been hearing them for a couple of weeks
now".
So, our own round number target bites the dust. It could be 20 years or more
before we get to 250, so we'll have to focus on another local challenge -
the verandah list. Of our 200 Abberton birds, only 195 have either been seen
initially, or confirmed later, from the verandah. Right, 5 to go!
Bill Jolly
"Abberton",
Lockyer Valley, Queensland.
Visit our website at http://www.abberton.org <http://www.abberton.org/>
Email: <>
Ph: (+61) 7 4697 6111 Fax: (+61) 7 4697 6056
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