Duesbury Beach, Dalmeny, NSW south coast
Duesbury Beach, Dalmeny, south coast of NSW
After leaving Bateman’s Bay on our holiday last month we travelled down along the south coast of New South Wales. I navigated us along the coast rather than following the main highway south. I was hoping to get some good views of the coast and also find some useful birding spots.
Duesbury Beach, Dalmeny, south coast of NSW
After only a short drive we came to a lovely beach called Duesbury Beach at the small town of Dalmeny. There were a few people swimming and surfing or walking on the beach, but very few birds.
Duesbury Beach, Dalmeny, south coast of NSW
In fact, we were there for only a few minutes and I made only a short lists of birds: Black Swans and Masked Lapwing on or near a lagoon in the town, several Silver Gulls patrolling the beach, several Australian Magpies in gardens and some Welcome Swallows in several parts of the locality. Not an impressive list, but made up for by the beautiful spot. We then drove on along the coast line.
Click on the photos to enlarge the image.
Duesbury Beach, Dalmeny, south coast of NSW
Duesbury Beach, Dalmeny, south coast of NSW
Bird brain podcast #1 with comedian Steve Abbott
Now for something completely different.
Australian radio network ABC has produced a series of podcasts about bird watching. The commentary is provided by comedian Steve Abbott (aka The Sandman) and is the first on 10 episodes.
To listen click here: Bird Brain episode 1
Here is the press release I received about the series:
STEVE ABBOTT’s BIRDBRAIN
A definitive list of other people’s bird sightings.
Steve Abbott, aka Sandman, returns to the ABC under the guise of Steve, a middle aged man, who feels lost and dishevelled in life. He comes to the conclusion he needs a hobby to occupy his less than satisfactory life.
Birdbrain, a 10 part podcast series exclusive to abc.net.au/local, will follow Steve as he takes on bird watching, after all he can already tell the difference between the Spotted and the Striated Pardalote.
Like many of us, there is a little bit of a bird watcher in Steve, but after researching a failed TV project several years ago he already has more knowledge than the average person, but less than real bird watchers.
Sadly, for a variety of reasons, Steve finds it hard to go the extra few yards and actually go bird watching very often, so he decides to create a bird list not only from his own sightings, but of other people’s.
Birdbrain is an excuse to talk to Birdwatchers about their lists and then cunningly relate their experiences to one man’s mid life crises, said Abbott.
Most people’s bird lists read more like a diary; where they saw a bird, what they were doing when they saw it; what characteristics this bird has; is it threatened or flourishing, and if so why.
The core of each podcast is Steve’s internal monologue or the diary of Steve’s life, punctuated by his recordings of bird sightings and other birdwatchers sightings. They all go together to form Steve’s list, which may cover every bird in Australia.
It’s a very simple idea that is partly a reflection on Steve’s life, partly about birds, partly about birdwatchers and it has a strong underlying environmental message – birds are a clear and quantifiable barometer for the health of our eco systems.
Other diversions include information on binoculars, footwear, where’s the best place to see particular birds and what to tell your partner when you can’t go to her sister’s birthday party because you have a once in a life time raptor field trip.
The first Birdbrain podcast will be available on Monday 16 February. To subscribe, downloaded or listen on demand go to at abc.net.au/local/podcasts.
Tragedy in Victoria
My condolences to all those families who have lost family members in the tragic wildfires that have devastated the Australian state of Victoria over the last 48 hours.
For the benefit of my overseas readers, the major fires have been about an hour’s drive north, north east and south east of Melbourne, Victoria. Some are still raging out of control after record high temperatures and wild winds swept the firestorm through many rural communities.
As I sat down to write this the number of deaths has risen over the last half hour from 65 to 74 and now stands at 76. Many more are still missing, and as destroyed homes and burnt out vehicles are searched, the death toll is sure to rise, some predict over 100. It is already the most deaths due to fires in Australia’s history.
At least four towns have been severely devastated with most homes destroyed. One town has only one building unburnt. Over 700 homes have been lost.
I have no idea what effect these fires have had on the birdlife of the areas burnt, or of the wildlife in general. I can only imagine the worst. I know of at least one wildlife rescue centre that has been destroyed, together with the loss of all animals in care.
Healesville Wildlife Sanctuary to the north east of Melbourne has evacuated all of the endangered species, including the rare Orange-bellied Parrots, to Melbourne Zoo.
Update: Later in the evening the death toll stood at 84 and the number of homes lost at 750.
Update late Monday: The death toll now stands at 135 and is expected to rise further. It is now easily Australia’s worst natural disaster.
Update Thursday 19th Feb: The death toll has now reached 200 plus one fire fighter who lost his life during the cleanup. About 1830 homes were lost and 7000 people are now homeless.
White-winged Choughs in the heat
Yesterday I wrote about Magpies in the hot weather we are having. So far we have had a rather mild summer, but the last few days has brought in the hot weather we’ve been expecting for some weeks. More hot days are forecast for the coming week.
During warm weather our bird baths are well used by the resident birds in our garden. When it is hot there is a constant stream of birds of many different species taking advantage of the water for both drinking and bathing. It is great entertainment for us as well as providing a much needed resource for the birds.
At one stage yesterday I was amused by the family of eight White-winged Choughs who all came to have a drink. All at once. I am so pleased that they did not decide to have a bath as well. A single Magpie can almost empty the bird bath in minutes; I’d hate to think how little water would have been left after eight WW Choughs had finished bathing!
Apologies
Apologies to my regular readers.
I have been a little slow at responding to comments over the last week or so. This is because I was on a road trip with my family and had limited (or no) internet access on some days. Over the next day or so I should catch up with all comments.
We travelled from home in Murray Bridge in South Australia for two days so that we could be in Sydney for Christmas with family. After New Year we travelled to Canberra and then along the south coast of NSW and Victoria, staying with friends for a few days just north of Melbourne. Over the coming weeks I will share my birding experiences while on this trip. You can also read about non-birding experiences on Trevor’s Travels.
Late last week we also had a problem with this blog, with no posts since April 2008 showing. Sorry if this confused you. My son Simon maintains my blogs and was doing an upgrade and inadvertently configured this blog to point to an older database. That’s why you couldn’t read all those recent posts for a few hours.
Sorry if this caused you any inconvenience. All is now fixed, thanks to my son.
