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
