Last year we set out on a four month
journey across Northern
Australia, the main
aim of which was to get 7 more birds for my then 78 year old father to achieve
the milestone of seeing 700 birds in Australia. Unfortunately, he was
admitted to hospital shortly before we left and was unable to join us. We made alternate plans for him to fly
to Darwin when he had recovered, but those plans too were thwarted when my mother
went into hospital. He was left at
home for the entire four months while we saw most of the birds he needed. Not much fun for him and disappointing
for us as well.
He now needs six birds, not seven. He got one new bird late last year with
a four day trip to see Canada Goose – we missed the
goose, but took a short detour to NW NSW and saw Eyrean
Grasswren.
In two weeks we are off again. Our plan is to go to Eulo
Bore for Chestnut-breasted Quail-thrush, Mica Creek 13km south of Mt Isa for Kalkadoon Grasswren, The Kimberley for Great-billed Heron, Chestnut-backed
Button-quail, Chestnut Rail, Northern Shrike-tit and Black Grasswren,
Broome for Red-chested Button-quail and Roseate Tern and return home through
the Gammon ranges for Short-tailed Grasswren. It doesn’t sound too hard to get
six out of a possible ten does it? Of
course, there is always the possibility of Night Parrot as well. He turns 80 on 14 November this year and
the challenge is to get the 700 before 80.
What a party we will then have!
I was intending to post a few
reports of last year’s trip, but lost all of my notes when my laptop was
stolen shortly after we returned. I
was intending to back up to disk when I got home, but the thief beat me to
it. A valuable
lesson for this year’s trip.
A few of the highlights last year
were: all of the Australian raptors (Red Goshawk at Iron Range); Laughing Gull
and Black Noddy at Portland Roads; all of the Cape
York specialties (excluding those occurring in the wet); Rufous Owl in the car
headlights and then by spotlight; 13 Golden-shouldered Parrots at Artemis
Station; 60 Hooded Parrots in one spot; all of the Kakadu
specialties; all of the tropical finches (great sightings and good numbers of Gouldians – they may be making something of a
recovery); Black Grasswren and the Yellow-eyed race
of the Partridge Pigeon at Mitchell Falls; and a spectacular number of birds on
the Canning Stock Route (100’s of water birds, lots of Brolgas, a party of Yellow Chats, 100’s of Crimson
Chats, 2 Oriental Plovers, a Pheasant Coucal which
surprised me greatly, etc etc). The only bird we tried for but missed in
the four months we were away, was Princess Parrot. A
bit of a bugger really, because I had seen 23 on my only other trip down the
Canning, but none of the others with me had seen them. If Jack had been able to join us he
would be well over 700!!!!
I am keeping my fingers crossed.
John Barkla
