Part 1: 21 September to 4 October
Based in Wellington Point, Brisbane
As the title suggests I spent two months in Australia with Life Birds hitting me in the face at every turn (I didn't see too many introduced species).
After the long flight from Edinburgh a very tired old lady landed in Brisbane and was met by BF member Mzungo (Ken Doy) and his lovely wife Judy who had invited me to stay with them for 12 days at their house on Wellington Point, a city suburb on the coast.
The first bird I saw as we left the airport was a Noisy Miner, followed shortly after by a Masked Lapwing feeding on a grass verge. I discovered they were all over the place in Queensland.
Before going to their house we detoured to the promenade at Wellington Point (hereinafter will be reduced to WP, if that's OK with you) to see what was there; the main species was my first ever pelican - Australian Pelican.
Arriving at their house more new birds in Australian Magpie, Rainbow Lorikeet, Grey Butcherbird and Laughing Kookaburra. These were all constant visitors to the garden.
All these before I'd even got into the house and unpacked. Ken and Judy kindly left me alone to recover from the journey; two nights in a plane with not much sleep. I found myself falling asleep at the dinner table that night! Early night called for.
The next morning I did wake early, knowing that Ken planned to walk out onto the beach. But I never heard him moving about and when I went through soon after 7am Judy said he'd gone. So she took me down and spotted him in the far distance - so off I set through the mud to catch up with him.
En route I found a Silver Gull, then some more having a battle with an Australian Ibis taking no notice of them.
Based in Wellington Point, Brisbane
As the title suggests I spent two months in Australia with Life Birds hitting me in the face at every turn (I didn't see too many introduced species).
After the long flight from Edinburgh a very tired old lady landed in Brisbane and was met by BF member Mzungo (Ken Doy) and his lovely wife Judy who had invited me to stay with them for 12 days at their house on Wellington Point, a city suburb on the coast.
The first bird I saw as we left the airport was a Noisy Miner, followed shortly after by a Masked Lapwing feeding on a grass verge. I discovered they were all over the place in Queensland.
Before going to their house we detoured to the promenade at Wellington Point (hereinafter will be reduced to WP, if that's OK with you) to see what was there; the main species was my first ever pelican - Australian Pelican.
Arriving at their house more new birds in Australian Magpie, Rainbow Lorikeet, Grey Butcherbird and Laughing Kookaburra. These were all constant visitors to the garden.
All these before I'd even got into the house and unpacked. Ken and Judy kindly left me alone to recover from the journey; two nights in a plane with not much sleep. I found myself falling asleep at the dinner table that night! Early night called for.
The next morning I did wake early, knowing that Ken planned to walk out onto the beach. But I never heard him moving about and when I went through soon after 7am Judy said he'd gone. So she took me down and spotted him in the far distance - so off I set through the mud to catch up with him.
En route I found a Silver Gull, then some more having a battle with an Australian Ibis taking no notice of them.