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In November of 2005
we were fortunate enough to spend 3 weeks in Australia. We planned our trip
itinerary to combine birding, dramatic scenery, and variations of habitat.
We started our trip with 3 days in the Brisbane area traveling to
O’Reillys guest house and the Lamington National Park area to bird, hike and
walk through the surrounding forests. From
Brisbane we traveled to the Cairns area to take advantage of the tropical rain
forest as well as to be able to snorkel and bird the Great Barrier Reef.
Leaving Cairns we went to the Great Ocean Road section of Melbourne to
see the dramatic ocean cliffs. Then
on to Grampian National Park and ultimately the open plains of Denniliquin.
From Melbourne we went to Tasmania to see the Tasmanian Devil Kayak
Frechinet National Park. Our last
location was the Sydney area. This
was planned to be a combination of seeing the city hightlughts such as the
Sydney Opera House, Sydney Bridge and then ultimately lead us to the Blue
Mountain region and explore the Three Sisters Monument.
Brisbane:
The first segment of
our trip had us arriving in Brisbane on Sunday, November 13th for 3
days of birding with Roy Sonnenberg. Our trip itinerary was planned as follows:
Day
1
- Arrive Brisbane on QF176 from LA at 7.55 am and met by Roy at Airport.
Depart for O'Reilly's in Lamington National Park.
Stop at a few spots en route including wetlands at Tamborine.
Arrive O'Reilly's late morning and spend the afternoon birding along
trails in the area. Target
species include King Parrot, Satin and Regent Bowerbirds, Green Catbird,
Paradise Riflebird, Logrunner, Bassian Thrush and Albert's Lyrebird.
Spotlight at night for Marbled Frogmouth and Southern Boobook.
Overnight
at O'Reilly's Guesthouse.
Day
2
- Up early for walk to look for Albert's Lyrebird etc before departing along
Duck Creek Road.
Target species include Spotted Quail-thrush and Glossy Black-Cockatoo,
Spotted Pardalote and Red-browed Treecreeper.
Leave area along Kerry Valley to Boonah where we will look for Zebra
and Plum-headed Finches, then west across the Great Dividing Range.
South west to Stanthorpe and possibly Girraween National Park.
We will be looking for Speckled Warbler, Red-rumped Parrot, Cockatiel,
Diamond Firetail and a number of honeyeater species.
More spotlighting at night.
Overnight
Top of the Town Cabins - Stanthorpe.
Day
3
- Another early start as we will head west along Springdale Road looking for
various bush birds, more finches and lorikeets to name a few species.
Then north to Coolmunda Dam near Inglewood where we will look for
various waterfowl, Emus, Bluebonnets and Blue-winged Fairy-wrens and more
honeyeaters. Then back east with
a brief stop at Durikai State Forest. Then
a late 200 km drive back to Brisbane looking for owls etc along the way. Late dinner at Sonnenburg's Birderwatchers' B&B.
Overnight
at Sonnenburgs B&B
Day
4
- Up for an early breakfast and local birdwatching before an early flight to
Cairns.
Overall we totaled
160 species of which 148 were life birds. Personal
favorites were the Rufous Fantail with his animated and proud displaying and the
Logrunners diligently working and vocalizing along the canopy floor.
A lunchtime hilltop
stop on our drive to O’Reillys gave our first views of the black and yellow
Regent Bowerbirds and the purple eyed Satin Bowerbirds.
Upon arriving at
O’Reillys, we were greeted by Brush Turkeys wandering the grounds, as well
as Crimson Rosellas and Australian King Parrots being hand fed by tourists. The
trails around O’Reilly’s rainforest were filled with Rufous fantails, White
Browed and Yellow Throated Scrubwrens, the calls of the elusive Lyrebirds (yet
to be seen), the Eastern Whipbird, and the child like cries of the Green
Catbird. An after dinner excursion allowed us to call in and spotlight the
Marbled Frogmouth.
As we were leaving
O’Reillys we finally got our previously elusive Paradise Riflebird.
The drive out along Duck Creek Road brought us through an enchanted
forest with intermixed tallgrass fields that yielded the Southern Boobook Owl,
and ultimately to open grazing lands presided over by Brown Falcons.
We crossed the Great
Divide that brought us more fabulous scenic vistas.
Our cabin in
Stanthrope had us greeted by a flock of Galahs that were roosting for the night.
The houses throughout Stanthrope had Zebra Finches, Plum headed Finches
and Silvereye upon there feeders and trees.
The mixed flock of
birds at the sheep shearing pens outside of Stanthrope with Double Barred
Finch, Diamond Firetail, Rufous Whistler singing, Tourquoise Parrot,
Stumbling upon a family of Wedge-Tailed Eagles perched in the fields
outside of Coolmunda Dam. The Coolmunda Dam area was filled with Black Swans and
White winged and Superb Fairy-wren.
Upon the return to
Brisbane we made a quick stop at Tinchi Tamba Mangroove Reserve
as the sun was setting. The White-breasted wood swallows huddled together
to hunker down for the night.
Other highlight
birds included the Black Falcon, Little Eagles. The most colorful of birds the
Rainbow Lorikeets.
Cairns:
The
second segment of our trip had us arriving in Cairns on Wednesday, November 16th
for 6 days of birding with Phil Gregory utilizing Cassowary House as our home
base. Our trip itinerary was planned as follows:
Day 1:
Pick up
Cairns airport, bird Cairns local area visiting the Esplanade for waders and
other local sites. Arrive Cassowary house and bird local environs for low to
mid altitude rainforest birds such as Cassowary. Red-necked Crake, Victoria's
Riflebird etc
Day 2:
Bird the southern Tablelands visiting Hasties
Swamp for ducks and other water birds, and the Crater Lakes and Curtain Fig
for mid altitude rainforest birdssuch as Tooth-billed Catbird, Chowchilla and
perhaps mammals such as platypus
Day 3:
The dry country around Mareeba for Apostle
birds, Squatter Pigeons, black-throated Finch etc possibly visit Mareeba
Wetlands for water birds
Day 4:
Bird the northern dry country visiting Lake
Mitchell, Mt Carbine, Mary Farms, Kingfisher Park for dry country birds for
Bustards, White-browed Robin etc.
Day 5:
Bird the southern Tablelands high level
rainforest around Mt Hypipamee for Golden Bowerbird etc. Possibly visit
Bromfield Swamp for Brolgas.
Day 6:
A mop up day the venue depending on what you
are missing and what time you have to be at the airport
Day 7:
Michaelmas CayeGreat
Barrier Reef Trip aboard the Ocean Spirit
Overall we totaled
239 species of which 122 were life birds. Personal
favorites were the Rufous Fantail with his animated and proud displaying and the
Logrunners diligently working and vocalizing along the canopy floor.
Upon arrival from
the airport we went to the Cairns esplanade for shorebirds.
The esplanade had a wide variety of plovers, sandpipers, herons, ibis and
spoonbill. Standing out among these
many birds was our first look at Black-fronted Dotterel, and watching the
mudskipper fish spit mud. A quick
stop at the cemetary yielded Rainbow Bee-eaters, the Bush Stone-curlew and a
first time sighting in Cairns for Phil of a Blue-winged Kookaburras.
From Cairns we
proceeded to Cassowary House in Kuranda. We
stayed in the cabin which had once been the original dwelling for the property.
Cassawary House immediately lived up to its reputation as the female Southern
Cassowary “Missy” was enjoying her afternoon fruit below the balcony.
Cassowarys are the only known to bird that has killed people. They stand
about 6 feet tall and can be very aggressive, particularly the males with
chicks. “Missy” is very docile however, and we have yet to meet “Dad”
with his 3 week old chicks. This was immediately followed by a visit from a
Paradise Riflebird.
The next day we had
to leave Cassowary House at 4 AM in order to get to our river boat cruise with
Chris Dahlberg up in Daintree. We had a scenic drive along the coast by
moonlight – although we really couldn’t see too much, but it looked like it
could have been beautiful. This was essentially the Great Barrier Reef. The 2
hour River cruise was quite pleasant and yielded many nice sightings including:
Black Bittern, Great Billed Heron, male and female Shining Flycatchers, Azure
Kingfishers as well as a Salt water Crocodile. Chris was disappointed that all
the nesting sites of the Papuan Frogmouth seemed to have been parasitized by the
Butcherbirds, therefore no Frogmouths there. However our next stop at Kingfisher
Park did provide us with great views of one nesting and asleep during the day.
The next few days
were spent searching Atherton Tablelands, the surrounding wetlands and Lakes.
Highlights included: a Rufous Owl holding a possum in his talons, Square Tailed
Kite fledgling, Black-necked Stork, Pink-Eared Duck, Freckled Duck, Pacific Baza,
awesome and surprising sighting of the Southern Boobook Owl being harassed by
the Yellow Honeyeaters, Sarus and Brolga Cranes, Buff Banded Rails, Red kneed
Dotterels, Red-tailed Black Cockatoos, Shining Bronze-Cuckoo, beautiful visions
of the bright blue “Buff breasted Paradise Kingfisher” with his long white
tail, and the displaying male Australian Bustard with a puffed out long white
neck. Paul spotted a Green Ring Tail Possum sleeping up in the Tree at the
Curtain Fig Tree park (the tree was over 500 years old and truly remarkable with
its many vines reaching the ground forming what appeared
like a curtain around the bottom of the tree).
Another amazing find
was a roost with a large group of Spectacled Flying Foxes (Fruit bats) that had
about a 6 foot wing span. Some had babies tucked into their wings and the hung
upside down by their feet, some with their capes wrapped around their bodies.
On day 5 at
Cassowary House, we finally had a visit from “Dad” Cassowary with 2 chicks.
They had been visiting the previous days, but we were never around when he came
to eat the fruit that Sue Gregory provided them. At about the same time, we had
a visit by Sue’s favorite, the Red-necked Crake. He comes to the balcony area
very cautiously, to Sue’s calls of “cheeeese”. The Brush-Turkeys like to
get the cheese too so they tend to chase the shyer crake away.
On our last day with
Phil, while searching Yorkies Knob we happened upon a stray German Sheppard mix
that showed obvious signs of malnutrition and heat stress. The moment we parked
the car, he ran up to it and sat in the shade of the car. He had a tattered rope
leash or tie which at this point had weathered away to next to nothing making it
appear as though he had gotten loose from his tie out.
He was a very sweet and well mannered dog. We loaded him up in the truck
and brought him out to YAPS, the local animal shelter, where we hope by now he
has been reunited with his family.
Great Barrier Reef
One of the draws to
Australia has always been the chance to snorkel the Great Barrier Reef. Thus our
trip itinerary was planned to give us a day at Michaelmas Cay aboard the Ocean
Spirit, a 52 foot Catamaran. Michaelmas
Cay is about a 2 hour boat ride from Cairns.
We started with a 30 minute ride within a semisubmersable submarine that
meandered through the coral reefs. We had the opportunity to see 3 different
types of turtles - hawksbill, green, the fish cleaning assasoe fish, and other
species such as Parrot Fish.
Approximately 20,000
birds inhabit the Cay, mostly a mixture of Sooty Tern, Crested Tern, Lesser
Crested Tern, Common (Brown) Noddy, with an occasional Brown Booby. Witnessing
the activity of this island was quite a sight with the visual, audible and
olfactory sensations reaching an overload.
Snorkeling the area
around the Cay one can’t help but notice the abundance of giant clams that
decorate the sea floor with their blue or green trimmed shells. The reef itself
was not as colorful as we expected but this could be due to that 58% of the reef
has died in the last 2 years due to global warming and cyclones.
We also managed to pick one of only 4 days per year where the reef is
spawning making the water a bit cloudy.
Cairns Esplanade
Our hotel in Cairns,
the Acacia Court, afforded us the opportunity to spend time along the esplanade
in search of waders and shore birds. Some
highlights included a rare Asian Dowitcher (sighted only once or twice
annually), Striated (Mangrove) Heron, and an Oriental Plover. One unforgettable
sight was these two muscular Pitbull dogs running back and forth along the beach
tirelessly and into the water. They loved to chase the birds, which made us
cringe. They would swim out, almost to the point of being over their heads and
also run into the mangrove forest that ran along the shore. The warning signs
for “crocodiles in the area – beware” made us have visions of the dogs
never returning from the mangroves…
Great
Ocean Road
We arrived in
Melbourne on Wednesday, Nov 23 in the afternoon and started our adventure of
Paul driving on the left hand side of the road for the first time ever. Luckily
we had been with guides for over a week now so we had some exposure to it
already. We immediately headed to the Great Ocean Road looking forward to great
scenic views of the coastline. We stopped at Pt. Addis to look for the Rufous
Bristlebird, but only managed a quick glimpse as he scurried under a scrub bush.
But we did manage a look at the Blue Winged Parrot (another target for this
area). The views were spectacular with limestone and red rock cliffs with
surfer’s waves crashing into the structures, but we knew better views were yet
to come once we got to the 12 Apostles. We hoped to make it there (Port Campbell
NP) for the night, but only made it as far as Apollo Bay where we stayed at the
Coastal Motel, a very nice place with even a loft and kitchen. Immediately
across from this was a small park area where we got great looks at the New
Holland Honeyeater, Common Blackbird and European Goldfinch.
The next day we
spent stopping at all the famous and scenic stops, like the 12 Apostles, London
Bridge, and Loch Ard Gorge to name a few. We picked up a few more life birds,
like the Black Faced Cormorant sitting out on one of the spires. The scenery was
gorgeous with all the spires sitting out in the water waiting to crumble just as
one of the 12 Apostles did this past July.
But we knew we were now running behind schedule and had to get to the
Grampians before night fall.
Grampian
National Park:
As we entered the
outskirts of the Park the scenery changed dramatically. The mountains reminded
us of the Grand Tetons, the flat fields lay in front with oceans of land before
them. Then we entered the area where the trees were smaller and close to the
road. It reminded me of the twisted trees in the Wizard of Oz. Signs for
kangaroos and koala bears warned us to drive carefully. As we got closer to the
lodge, The Best Western’s Colonial Inn at Halls Gap, we saw lots of kangaroos
frolicking in the grass as they became more active for the night.
Friday we spent most
of the day trying to hike some shorter trails to take advantage of the perfect
weather and also to tally some more life birds. We hit the Silverband Falls,
Reed Lookout walk to the Balconies, MacKenzie Falls and drove up as far as
Wartook when we knew it was time to turn around and make the 5.5 hour drive to
Deniliquin in preparation for our Plains Wanderer weekend with Phil Maher. The
drive took us across the Great Dividing Range again with the Pyrenees Mtn Range
to our left. The amount of open land with cattle and sheep continues to amaze
me.
Between the Great
Ocean Rd and the Grampians, we added 18 more lifebirds.
Deniliquin:
A late afternoon
departure from Grampian National Park brought us to the town of Deniliquin
(Deni) mid evening on Friday, November 25th for 2 days of
birding with Philip Mayer as part of his Plains-wanderer Weekend.
Overall we totaled
139 species of which 39 were new life birds.
The Plains-wanderer weekend was an extensive birding program that began
at 6:00 AM and had us return to our motel at midnight.
The habitat in Deni
was arid scrubland, that has been under drought conditions for the last 10 years
or so. Many of the trees in the area are dying as they require these
periodic flood conditions in order to stimulate the new growth activity.
Our days were spent searching these open plains and surrounding Red Gum
Forests.
The late night
portion of the trip entailed searching the open plains area for those secretive
species that do not present themselves easily during the daylight hours when
raptures are searching from above. Our
search of the fields via aid of a vehicle spotlight netted us a Stubble Quail,
Little Button Quail with a chick hiding beneath, Banded Lapwing, Tawney
Frogmouth, 2 Barn Owls and the sought after Plains-wanderer.
This presented a
great feeling of expanse in that the plains were open as far as you could see in
all directions, the skies where illuminated with a sea of stars with no man made
light pollution. Kangaroos scurried about in a processional line crossing in
front of our vehicles as the sun was setting.
Other highlight
birds included the early evening illuminated Crimson Chat, Painted Honeyeater, a
brilliant male Red-capped Robin, large flocks of Straw-necked Ibis feasting on
grasshoppers in the rice fields, Australian Owlet Nightjar, and the White-browed
Woodswallow.
On our Plains
Wanderer weekend, we added 39 more lifebirds.
Tasmania:
At midafternoon we
departed Deni for an early evening flight out of Melbourne to Launceston in
Tasmania on Sunday, November 27th.
Overall we totaled
39 species of which 23 were new life birds.
After a bit of delay
out of Melbourne, we arrived at Tamar House, a delightful B&B located in
Launceston. Diana was, and still is envious of the intricate garden
detail located on the grounds of this B & B that overlooks the ocean.
After chatting with
our hosts Mary and Tom we set out for Lemonthyme Lodge just outside of Cradle
Mountain National Park. Lemonthyme
Lodge is an ecolodge with well appointed spacious accommodations located at the
end of a 10km dirt road. We finally
arrived at a destination at a reasonable time that allowed us to do some hiking
and not just fall into bed!!!! We chose the Bridal Veil and Champagne Falls walk
that runs up the old logging road just off the lodge entrance. The hike itself
was slightly uphill and not overly dramatic, with a few species seen and others
just taunting us (Yellow Tailed Black Cockatoo) with sound as it fled. We did come across our first of quite a few Echidnas, a
pointy noised grub and termite digger reminiscent of our porcupine.
However, each of the falls offered different, but equally spectacular
scenic shots. The lichen covered forest floors and tree ferns delivered
thoughts out of Lord of the Rings.
Upon returning to
the lodge, we quickly did the Fernglade walk that runs along the back of the
lodge. The Fernglade walk is a
lovely walk through gullies of ferns and forest trees that runs along Bull
Creek. After these walks we cleaned up and got ready for a night time feeding
outside the back veranda. This brought out Paddy Melons in quite a large number with an
especially good look at a joey still in pouch, as well as a Tawney Frogmouth,
insect catching along the back trees. A
short night drive up the entrance to the lodge brought us our first and only
look at the Tasmanian Devil. While
we got a good view of the Devil, it was confusing as it was a young one that had
not grown into its normal coloration yet.
After a hearty
breakfast we made our way to Cradle Mountain National Park.
Our trip into Cradle mountain was about a ½ day during which we
undertook 3 separate and distinct walks. The
first of these was located at the Visitors Center and was called Enchanted Walk
– although it should be called FERN ALLEY.
It was a short, easy hike that traversed past a waterfall and entered
into a lichen covered rain forest. We
can only hope that our pictures capture the true beauty of this area, it was
amazing how peaceful and magical it felt.
We then proceeded to
the Dove Lake Circuit, easily the most popular hike in the region.
This short hike is a 2 hour hike around Dove Lake with Cradle Mountain
lurking in the background, passing through various habitats with flowering
shrubs and wildflowers.
We then left Cradle
Mountain for a 4 hour trek across Tasmania in order to reach our destination of
Freycinet National Park. This brought us through high mountain forest, open
pastureland and many small towns ultimately reaching the estuaries of Coles Bay. After this long trip we were greeted in our Iluka Holiday
Center Caravan by what we believe was a possum.
At about 8:00 PM we could hear a scratching in the paneled walls, and
then the paneling began to bulge as the possum awoke and made his way out. It
was quite a racket, but not to be outdone, his return at 5:30 AM was equally as
loud and made for an eventful alarm wake up call……
We spent all of the
next day in the park discovering the different scenic spots along the rocky
coastline: Richardsons Beach near the Visitors Center, the multiple coves of
Sleepy Bay, the lighthouse at Cape Tourville where the coast was unfortunately
fogged, the hike to Wineglass Bay lookout – again fogged out, and lastly a
stop at Honeymoon Bay where we watched the white faced heron fishing along the
rocky outcrops.
After a quick lunch,
we headed to Friendly Beaches where we discovered the endangered Hooded Plovers
as well as our first look at Pied Oystercatcher. Luckily
as we got to the Beach the clouds began to lift and turned quite pleasant.
On the way back to our motel, we stopped at Moulting Lagoon Game Reserve
where we got our first look at the Yellow Tailed Black Cockatoo along the road.
The reserve itself was filled with Black Swan, Pied Oystercatcher,
Australasian Shellduck, White fronted Chat, Pelicans, and other assorted
species. Another one of those walks
where the mud collects along your boots and begins to creep up and over the
tops.
That evening we had
a wonderful dinner with Margaret and Alan Morgan who run Sheoaks B&B.
Diana had corresponded with Margaret through Birding Pals over the
internet. While Margaret didn’t
have time to bird with us, she graciously offered to have us over for dinner. She
prepared a lovely meal with fresh meats from the local butcher, a delicious
potato salad and fresh fruit sorbet for dessert.
After dinner we made
our way to Bicheno for a penguin viewing. We
watched the Little (Fairy) Penguins as they exited the ocean surf, climbed over
the rocky shoreline and made their way up to the burrows in the fields to feed
their young. The penguins have
truly adapted to the change in surroundings that has come with human
inhabitants. They will use any
object natural or man made to set up their burrows.
Males will always return to their birth site burrows upon finding they
inhabited by their fathers, they will seek new residence as close as possible.
They will return to these burrows for the rest of their life……
Our last day in Tasi,
started with a 3 hour morning sea kayaking tour that hugged the coastline bays
we had visited the day before. This
gave us a much different perspective viewing them from the water side and also
allowed us to view other coves not accessible via pathways from the park.
On our way to Hobart
for our flight to Sydney, we stopped along the road for Blue Billed Duck, Kelp
Gull, and ultimately made our way to Waterworks Reserve and then to the Royal
Botanical Gardens. It is said that
in Waterworks one can see 11 of the 12 endemic species of Tasi.
However, for us we found it to be quiet at that moment. (Time of day???)
The day rounded out with a Green Rosella at the Botanical gardens and Musk
Lorikeets buzzing us at the airport. Paul also learned how Diana was trying to
understand and appreciate bird life - as she unintentionally practiced the art
of insect catching…..
Sydney:
Our first morning we
did a 3 hour Sydney city tour with Great Sights. We viewed the Opera House and
the Harbour Bridge, went to a few overlooks of the city (Arabanoo) and then to
Manly Beach to watch the surfers. Our final stop was Circular Quay where we took
a few photos and then caught the train back to the hotel to get our luggage and
then to catch the 1:03 Train from Central to Katoomba in the Blue Mountains,
where Carol Probets picked us up for our final 2 days of birding. We only added
12 more lifebirds during this time, but this was understandable considering we
had already seen so many species.
We went to Evan’s
Lookout and then headed through BlackHeath and Lithgow on our way to the
Capertee Valley. Unfortunately some heavy rained moved in so we didn’t get
much birding in that afternoon. We stayed at April’s house, an associate of
Carol’s, in the Valley which was set in a lovely setting surrounded by cliffs
with open grasslands. The morning sight of the kangaroos bouncing through the
tall grass was like a scene out of a movie… so peaceful. We saw 3 types of
kangaroo: Red-necked Wallaby, Wallaroo and Eastern Grey Kangaroo.
Saturday proved to
be a rather windy day, which kept the bird species down, but we managed to get
the RockWarbler scurring in the rocks at the top of a very narrow long lookout
in the Blue Mountains. We also walked around some property that Carol had
purchased and got the Yellow-tufted, Black-chinned
and White-eared Honeyeaters. Later in the day we stopped in a woodsy area
and finally got the Varied Sitella, which had been eluding us the entire trip
who was foraging with the Red Browed Treecreeper and another stop at the Lithgow
sewage ponds produced the Hoary-headed grebe and the Australasian Shoveler (more
new trip birds), as well as better looks at the Blue-Billed Duck, and Pink-eared
Ducks.
Our last stop for
Saturday brought us to the overlook of the 3 sisters where we got some scenic
pictures in late afternoon light, and a bit further down the road brought us
Pilot Bird,Variegated Fairywren, Glossy Black Cockatoo and some wonderful view
of Peregrine Falcon. By the time we got back to the motel, all the cute shops in
Katoomba had closed, except for the restaurants, but we were not really hungry
again.
The final excitement
for the trip occurred as we went into our last day of the trip.
The plan had been to get an early start on the day and continue to bird
as we made our way to Windsor where Diana’s friend Wendy had planned to meet
us and take us to the airport. Diana
had met Wendy 20 years earlier during a 6 week Contiki tour of Europe, and while
they had exchanged letters over the years this would be their first meeting
since.
The first morning
stop was McMahon Overlook which is a 27 km drive out to an overlook of the
Sydney Water Storage, with the last 20 km being a dirt road. We got great looks
at Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo, but failed to locate the Rose Robin or the
Spotted Quail Thrush. On our return from the overlook we came upon a downed
tree. The tree of course had not been down on our way to the overlook, but in
the hour or so that had passed, the tree had come down and blocked the road.
The smaller debris and branches were easy enough to move, but the tree
itself was about 30” in diameter with no hope of moving it and also no hope of
4 wheeling around as there was substantial undergrowth.
This left us stranded 3 hours from where we were to meet Wendy with at
least an hour drive to get there, on a 20 km dirt road at 8:00 on a Sunday
morning…… Luckily Diana’s
cellphone had reception and we were able to call the New South Wales Fire
Department who arrived in time to chainsaw and remove the tree and still allow
us to only be a ½ hour late to meet Wendy.
As it turns out none of the fire department had cell reception nor did
Diana when she checked it an hour later. On
a sadder note however, one of the firemen had found a mother Eastern Pygmy
Possum with a tiny baby the size of an eraser on her breast.
The mother had perished during the fall of the tree, but the baby had
survived, at least for now. Carol
agreed to bring the possum to WIRS to see if there was any hope of bringing the
baby along.
It was nice to
finally see Wendy after all these years and made me wonder where did the time
go….. the same of which could be said for our vacation which had now come to
its conclusion as well……
388 bird species
tallied in 3 weeks of which only 26 species we had seen before giving us a total
of 362 lifebirds!
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