It sounds like a fantastic trip and good on you for getting out after
one of Australia's hardest ticks.
Would you mind giving a couple more details about planning? I've got a
crackpot plan to search for Princesses on the back of a camel at some
stage and want to know how feasible it is. I've figured that sitting
on a camel the birds might not be so wary and we might get better
views. Who knows? It's also fun to take something 'relatively' simple
and make it hard.
Thanks again for the report, inspiring stuff.
EB
On 9/10/08, Donald Kimball <> wrote:
> After much planning my trip to Australia to see Princess Parrot has come to
> completion.
> I joined with Greg Little of Newcastle, NSW and traveled to Jupiter Well,
> 1000 KM west of Alice Springs. While the expedition itself took 11 days we
> remained in the Jupiter Well area searching for Princess for a total of 4
> full days.
>
> To say that this lifelong dream of a trip was a success would be an
> understatement! Thanks to the expert guidance of Greg and some patient
> searching we not only saw Princess but my life dream of filming this rare
> species came true as well. Intimately familiar with it as an aviary bird I
> honestly held out little hope I would ever see it in the wild.
>
> This all came to fruition on September 5th with our first sighting of
> approximately 10 individuals rapidly passing by within a mere 20 meters to our
> left at aproximately 9 AM. What struck me was the uniformity of coordinated
> flight and field marks such as pink throat and long tail, immediately
> evident. Having studied my own birds in my aviary in Canada extensively I
> knew this bird was a swift flyer and these wild birds were no exception. The
> view was excellent but brief. Probably only totalling about 5 seconds.
>
> The next sighting recorded by Greg happened about one hour later with 12
> birds flying over the road. To say that I was a bit exasperated at not
> seeing these might have been a bit of an understatment but I was overjoyed at
> the sighting none the less.
>
> On September 7th Greg once again saw four individuals flying over at a
> similar time (aprox 9 AM) and a similar brief view. Though brief Greg's view
> was excellent allowing views of the major field marks, pink throat, green
> wing patches etc.
>
> At approximately 5 PM again on September 7 we combed the same area but moved
> deeper into the sand dunes a good distance from the road. Suddenly Greg's
> sharp ears detected the calls of the parrots and I raced after him to find a
> total of 6 Princess resting calmly about 11 meters high in a casuarina tree.
> Fortunately I had my video camera and then easily became lost in the joyful
> task of filming a segment I had dreamed about for many many years. I was
> struck how similar these birds were to my aviary birds but yet the calls had
> a distinct reedey quality that my PP's never exhibited. When the birds
> finally took off their flight was absolutely remarkable. Like being shot out
> of a gun rather than flying, those long tails trailing behind. Fortunately
> they only flew about 300 meters distant and lighted again. This provided
> another shorter but no less exciting chance to film them.
>
> I cannot thank Greg Little enough for his fantastic birding skills and
> assisting me on the filming expedition of a lifetime!
>
> Don Kimball
>
>
>
>
> www.birding-aus.org
> birding-aus.blogspot.com
>
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--
Evan Beaver
Lapstone, Blue Mountains, NSW
lat=-33.77, lon=150.64
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