2005 Tour Narrative
Right from the start everything seemed to fall into place on this year’s Australia tour. Our local leaders had a whole range of specialities and local rarities staked out for us and these included Australasian Bittern outside Deniliquin, Powerful Owls with chicks in Melbourne, Sooty Owl at point blank range in Healesville, Rufous Fieldwren at Little Desert, Gilbert’s Whistler near Adelaide, Yellow Chat in Darwin, Southern Cassowary at Cassowary House, Gould’s Bronze-Cuckoo on Black Mountain Road, White-eared Monarch at O’Reilly’s, White-chinned Petrel off Sydney and Rock Warbler in the Royal National Park. These all helped to achieve our best total to date for this tour with no less than 455 species recorded.
The list below provides the details and it is impossible to mention all the many highlights in this brief introduction, but a few experiences stand out; the nesting Pink Cockatoos, the Musk Ducks amongst the Coots fighting for bread, watching a flock of Bourke’s Parrots in the day time (despite being covered in bush-flies at the time), the Western Bowerbird in its ornately decorated bower complete with large green fruits, the Rainbow Pitta sitting on a branch just a few feet away, the Brolgas parachuting in at Knuckey’s Lagoon, the Victoria’s Riflebird displaying at the Curtain Fig, the Golden Bowerbird singing to us in the cool rainforest of the Atherton Tablelands, the Asiatic Dowitcher on the waterfront at Cairns — only the second sighting this fall, the Red-footed Booby on Michaelmas Cay — only our second in 21 years, the Fairy Terns also on Michaelmas — possibly a new race for Australia, the Wandering Albatrosses bobbing around like swans behind the boat off Sydney — the list goes on and on.
And then there were the mammals; the bizarre Echidna, the cute Koala, the elusive Platypus, the rock-solid Wombat, thousands of Grey-headed Flying-Foxes, more than ten species of kangaroo, and the Humpback Whales. The wide variety of lizards perhaps made up for the lack of snakes — for most of us at least. And the butterflies delighted — and in some cases amazed — the migration of Caper Whites being an outstanding spectacle.
Everyone we met couldn’t have been friendlier or more helpful, and all the local leaders helped no end by providing a wealth of local knowledge as well as many extra birds. The food was magnificent — though perhaps the portions could have been smaller — did anyone avoid gaining weight? And we experienced so much that epitomises Australia — the Ute Muster, the Penguin Parade, Kookaburras in old gum trees, the mallee, bush-flies, Uluru (Ayer’s Rock), Kakadu, the Great Barrier Reef, and Sydney harbour with its bridge and opera house.
Finally mention must be made of the participants who were a very compatible group that made the whole trip extremely enjoyable for everyone involved. A truly great trip!
David Fisher