CONGRATULATIONS JACK!
That's quite an accomplishment! After having had the pleasure of guiding
Bill and Jack Moorhead and Karen Blake around the WTP (and helping Jack tick
the Little Stint, Australasian Bittern and White-winged Black Tern) I can
honestly say that Jack's milestone is thoroughly well-deserved. With Jack's
birding career just started, I cannot imagine what he may go on to
accomplish. Good on you, Jack!
Paul Dodd
Docklands, Victoria
-----Original Message-----
From:
On Behalf Of Peter Marsh
Sent: Tuesday, 12 January 2010 9:35 AM
To: birding-aus
Subject: Congratulations to Jack Moorhead on reaching 700
Australian birds
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
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