Hi, I'd like to add my congratulations to Jack. I've birded and done wader
surveys with Jack, and Bill, and am past being amazed at his knowledge.
Which means I've been able to twitch both the Greater and Lesser Moorheads
:)
Cheers, Nev Capell
On Tue, Jan 12, 2010 at 8:34 AM, Peter Marsh <> wrote:
> Dear Birders,
> It is with great pleasure that I joined Bill Moorhead his 13 year old son,
> Jack, and friend Karen Blake on an attempt to find Scarlet-chested Parrot in
> mallee country north of Ceduna S. A.. The search was unsuccessful but during
> the trip young Jack caught up with his 700th Australian bird. It was a great
> achievement for Jack and achieved only after a pretty hard week of birding
> when the daytime maximum each day was in the mid 40's with a high on at
> least 2 days of 47 degrees.
>
> When I joined the others in Port Augusta Jack was on 699 - they had been
> birding for 10 days during which time Jack had seen 10 new birds.We all
> hoped that the Scarlet-chested Parrot would be Jack's 700th but it was not
> to be. We saw a good suite of birds in Yumbarra Conservation Park including
> a number of Western Yellow Robin and Pied Honeyeater. Unfortunately after 3
> days of intensive birding we saw no signs of SCP. On our return we spent a
> few very hot hours in Lake Gilies Conservation Park looking for
> Slender-billed Thornbill that would have been a new bird for Jack. Again it
> was not to be. It appeared that the birding gods were determined that Jack
> would have to suffer the indignity of recording Barbary Dove as his 700th,
> in penance for his precociousness! In an attempt to avoid this indignity we
> drove to Stokes Hill Lookout in the Flinders Ranges to look for Short-tailed
> Grasswren. A few hours of early morning birding produced nothing.
>
> With few other options we drove to Salisbury Downs just north of Adelaide
> where after a few minutes of wandering around a Barbary Dove was found
> sitting on a power pole. The birding gods had delivered their "sucker punch"
> and Jack was 700!
>
> The mere quantum of birds is to my perspective less significant than the
> very impressive birding skills that Jack has acquired along the way. He has
> been lucky to have had dad, Bill (an keen and talented twitcher), helping
> but in the last few years Jack has developed an incredibly keen eye and an
> enviable knowledge of bird calls. I was privileged to see this young man
> exhibit all of these skills and more as he very maturely waited for the
> 700th to come along. He accepted the judgement of the birding gods with
> equanimity - no doubt appreciative of the fact that he has many years ahead
> of him in which to find the SCP et al.
>
> Congratulations Jack.
>
> Regards
> Peter Marsh
> www.birding-aus.org
> birding-aus.blogspot.com
>
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