Thanks Sean for putting the current fate of the OBP's top of mind where it
belongs.
As a kid in the 1970's I was lucky to see these fantastic little parrots
when living in Victoria. It wasn't until last year that Geoff Jones, Karen
Blake , Jack and myself saw 5 at the WTP. We had made several trips in
previous years without seeing OBP's but meeting up with Chris T, Dean I and
Sean D on previous trips. I understand that we may have been the only
birders to see OBP's there last year (?). It was the most amazing birding
experience......... A birding Top 10 anywhere in the world that I have
been....The contact call like a light bulb about to give up the ghost; a
tight little flock of neophemas dropping into their feeding ground; taking
what seemed like forever to locate them with binos and the sheer
exhilaration when we got them in the scope and confirmed their ID's. So 40
years had come and gone between sightings and I can honestly say that this
second time was the most satisfactory. Some of you may remember me ringing
you whilst I was looking at them for over an hour. I just had to tell
others!
Back here is Bundaberg I am looking at a great photo of those 5 OBP's on my
wall at work. Bundaberg is the epicentre of our other parrot extinction in
Australia (Paradise Parrot) and the impending extinction of Coxen's race of
Double-eyed Fig-Parrot. Jack ,myself and others have spend 100's of hours
searching for the fig-parrot. It's numbers are probably even lower than the
50 or so wild OBP's.
Sean's kids and Jack's kids for that matter ,must have the same opportunity
to experience what we saw last winter. So, if there is anything we, as the
Australian birding community can do, we must do it. Climate change or not,
this wild population has to be preserved at all costs.
Cheers,
Bill
PS Just saw a Square-tailed Kite circle out the window as I typed this!
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