I don't know if anyone has ever kept a record, but it is highly likely
that Jack is the youngest person by many years to see 700 species of
birds in Australian territory. I wasn't expecting him to reach that
figure before his fifteenth birthday.
In the longer term, a decision for Jack will be whether he wants to
chase a world bird list. Psychologically, world bird listing is a
"different league". There are also some species that require travel
into significantly more hazardous locations than one might find in
Australia [e.g. violent locals].
Has any Australian cracked the 7000 species mark [to pluck a figure
out of the air]?
Regards, Laurie.
On 12/01/2010, at 12:43 PM, jenny spry wrote:
And my congratulations too. The great thing about it is, he is a
really nice
person as well. And it is not just the birds, he also knows his
butterflies,
moths and reptiles (even the rare ones that turn up only on small
Torres
Strait islands) just about as well.
Congratulations to the GM too who now passed 750. I wonder though,
how long
before the Lesser becomes greater than the Greater? Now wont that be a
tussle to watch (smile).
Jenny
On Tue, Jan 12, 2010 at 9:45 AM, Nev Capell <> wrote:
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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