A long absence from birding
I have been absent from posting new photos and articles on this site for several months.
Sorry about that. Life got in the way.
Earlier this year my wife and I went to Sydney to look after our two very energetic grandchildren during the school holidays. That was fun but also very tiring. On our return, we had many visits to stay with our daughter in Clare in the mid-north of South Australia. Over the period of several months, we helped her to pack up all of her belongings. They are now in storage in a shipping container on our property.
She recently flew to Ethiopia to take up a two-year teaching position at an international school in Ethiopia. Although she hasn’t updated in in a while, you can follow her adventures on her site called Rose’s Travel Jottings.
During all this travelling, packing and cleaning I had very few opportunities to go birding. I had even less time to take photos and to write about the birds I was seeing. On top of all that I had computer problems (aaarrrgh) and then another trip to Sydney to care for the grandchildren. We love them dearly, so that is not a hardship, though opportunities to go birding and to do much writing are limited when we are with them.
Life is nearly back to normal, so you can expect more regular posts here in the coming months. I am also planning on publishing regular monthly newsletters with extra articles and information not appearing here on this blog. You can subscribe to this newsletter below.
Good birding.
Trevor
PS My computer is now back and running okay.
I came across your postings. I am visiting Australia next October to do some bird watching and enjoy the Gold Coast. I hope to see some of your great birds and mostly the parakeets and lorikeets. We are staying in Daintree Rain Forest, Atherton Table land and Lamington Nature Parkand Heron Island. What are some of the birds that I can expect to see. We also want to buy a book showing birds in these areas, but you have so many birds not sure what to buy. Can you suggest a book. Also do you know a good bird guide in Atherton or Daintree?
Hi Linda,
Thanks for visiting my site about Australian birds. Sadly, I have not yet had the opportunity to go birding in Queensland, something I must rectify soon. You are wise to plan ahead and start to study the birds you could potentially see on your visit. A good starting place would be to subscribe to Birding-Aus at http://birding-aus.org/ . This is a forum where birders share what they are seeing. Once you subscribe and have been approved, you can ask these questions of other subscribers. It is a very helpful group.
As for the field guides, Australians are blessed with having quite a range of very good books, some of which also come as an app – very handy in the field, especially in helping to identify birds via the call. Two particular guides stand out for me (though I have more than that): the one by Michael Morcombe and the guide by Graham Pizzey. Both should be available to you locally, either through a local bookshop, or from places online like Book Depository. (Just do a search for Australian bird guides.)
I hope this helps.