Some people have been asking about Philip Veerman who lives in Canberra. I
received this message from him a few minutes ago (I haven't been online for a
couple of days).
Cheers
Russell
--- Original Message ---
From: "Philip A. Veerman" <>
Sent: Mon, 20 Jan 2003 10:55:14 +1100
To: <>
Subject: Fires
Saturday afternoon was scarey out this way. There are many COG (Canberra
Ornithologists Group) members and friends in the worst fire affected areas.
Hopefully they escaped the worst.
So far I am fine. I have a lot of friends in the worst fire affected areas,
suburbs of Duffy, Weston, etc. are about 8 km away. I don't know specifically
of who was and wasn't directly impacted (well we all are, some just indirectly)
but the chance that I don't have friends who have lost property is pretty
remote. We had several hundred houses burned down in bushfires in Canberra. The
nearest about 1 km from my place. From where I was at home, I wouldn't have
know whether fires were 100 m away or 10 km away but it was hot, dark (almost
like night time) at 4.00 pm with a great noise from the fires. During the day,
I couldn't see Mt Taylor and Urambi Hills, which are the reserve areas on the
north east south west boundaries of Kambah (my suburb). At night, they were
clearly burning throughout the whole length of these reserves. Yesterday I had
helicopters constantly flying over (and I can hear at least one now),
presumably taking water from Tuggeranong Lake. I was raking my law
n for a escape route, clearing the roof, clearing the roof of the carport,
making a start on one neighbour's property's roof, etc.
Power was off here for 27 hours.
At 1 am Sunday morning there were Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoos calling and
flying around my place. They or others of their kind were still here throughout
the morning. It was really noticeable that there were lots of birds around here
today. Nothing I haven't had before but in numbers and presence quite abnormal
for mid summer or that haven't been here for weeks. Including Gang-gang
Cockatoo, Yellow-tailed Black-Cockatoos, 1 Satin Bowerbird, about 6
King-Parrots, 2 Brown Thornbills, White-naped Honeyeater, 1 Golden (& pair of
Rufous) Whistlers, 1 Dollarbird, 1 Brown Falcon, far bigger flocks of Galahs &
S-c Cockatoos than usual.
I sure hope that today & tomorrow is better than Saturday.
Philip
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