Hi all,
Highlights? Well, one could mention a flock of Turquois Parrots in the grass
with nesting Painted Honeyeaters overhead and sunlight sparkling on them all.
Or a 2 second glimpse of a Grey Honeyeater that you could see all the field
marks on? Or spending an hour and a half on windy Bruny island peering straight
up into the canopy of White Gums through misty rain and wind to watch 40
Spotted Pardalote (aussie tick 500). Or mind-bending views of a Greater
Flameback in the melting humid heat of Malaysia, that makes you totally forget
that you have just step on and destroyed your $300 prescription glasses. Or
ticking off a Square tailed Kite and Powerful Owl - within an hour.
I would have to say, though, the true highlight for me is my time with mad,
manic bird-twitching, bird watching friends.
Really, without them why would you spend three days in a howling gale of wind,
surrounded by ravenous bush flies and a dry heat that toasts your sandwiches
between the esky and your mouth - just to try and find an obsure little grey
honeyeater? Why would you smile as you punch out the shattered rear window of
your car half way down the Oodnadatta track? Why would you do 276 u turns/360
degree turns between Alice Springs and Melbourne; just because someone in the
back seat thought (and often did) see a little brown bird, that turns into a
tick? Why would you be violently seasick somewhere that does not exist, way way
off the coast at Port Fairy - and then come back for more?
And planned highlights of 2005? More and more of the same. Please!!
Jen
Joy Tansey wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> What a year! The first 8 months in Broome, a road trip from the Alice to
> Melbourne and of course, a few birding highlights in Victoria.
>
> 1. Migration watch. The spectacle of watching waders leave for the northern
> breeding grounds, and the individual species behavioural patterns as they
> try to decide whether today is the day to depart.
>
> 2. A flock of 70 Yellow Wagtails on Roebuck Plains.
>
> 3. Because of late rains in May, going wader watching on Roebuck Plains and
> finding Asian Dowitchers amongst cowpats.
>
> 4. A flock of 200 White-winged Black Terns in near perfect breeding plumage.
>
> 5. Watching an immature Sea-eagle with a live sea-snake trying to work out
> how to enjoy the delicacy safely.
>
> 6. Watching a single pair of Variegated Fairy Wrens diligently feeding and
> guarding TWO young Horsefields Bronze Cuckoos for 10 days - just outside the
> BBO office.
>
> 7. Seeing Roebuck Plains covered with an estimated thousands of Brolga,
> Swamphens, Magpie Geese, Glossy Ibis, Black-winged Stilt and Whiskered Tern.
>
> 8. After a couple of hours of traipsing up and down hills finally finding a
> Chestnut -breasted Whiteface at Mt Lyndhurst.
>
> 9. Going from never having seen one in Victoria to having seen a total of 4
> separate Powerful Owls in the space of two days between Xmas and New Year.
>
> 10. But of course, there is nothing to compare with the adrenaline rush
> caused by finding the first Australian record of a Rose-coloured Starling.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Joy Tansey
> Altona Meadows
>
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