BirdForum is the net's largest birding community dedicated to wild birds and birding, and is absolutely FREE!

Register for an account to take part in lively discussions in the forum, post your pictures in the gallery and more.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Larry Sweetland" data-source="post: 1294208" data-attributes="member: 27337">Happy B BBB!Since my last post the birding has unfortunately been more soul-destroyingly unproductive than I've experienced anywhere since the day I first borrowed my dad's bins in order to look at my first ever Dunnock on the garden fence and identify it as a Grasshopper Warbler. I've only managed to find 1 out of about 40 possible lifers who's range we've been in! It's been hard work just finding common species in small numbers, even though I've birded at most of the hotspots I've found out about, as well as a variety of habitats generally, around Alice Springs and Uluru. Stop laughing. Check your badselves , (as Will Bowell would say, if he's still with us), it's NOT funny, and the cocky sod doesn't have it coming to him for being so jammy so far! I eventually found a couple of Banded Whiteface about 20km north of Erldunda, c100m west of the road. And very pretty they were too. This is at a spot where cyborgs detect sounds made by Chiming Wedgebills and Cinnamon Quail-Thrushes with their audio receptors, lock onto their positions, locate the targets, and assimilate them. We on the other hand found the level of early morning bird sounds here to be an extremely good match for that which you would hear on a cold night on Titan. In winter. This is not somewhere to bring someone who is not a fanatical birder who would rather be asleep. They will tell you you have lost the plot completely and that there are obviously no birds here. Two points that you may well find difficult to disprove.We also found a pair of Banded Whiteface, and amazingly their nest, at the start of a track leading south to the eastern edge of the last salt pan you can see from the road east of Curtin Springs.The only other notable species have been a few Red-necked Avocets at Alice SF, 10+ Pink Cockatoos, and 3 White-backed Swallows.I'm totally in awe of the people who found heaps of good birds here. Where are they all?Last night we crossed the border into South Australia. Again the dawn chorus where we awoke was utter silence. We have now made it to Cooba Pedy having passed through some interesting habitat, including some very barren stony landscape, and some waterholes with actual water. Unfortunately as soon as we started breakfast the wind picked up to a level that has made birding impossible all day, and driving dangerous. Have I died and gone to hell? I could almost wish I was back home getting worked up over buntings that don't even have enough vowels in their name, or contemplating the deeper meaning behind the wavelength(s) of light detectable in the distal 26% of the outer web of median covert #3 on the wing of a one-cal Half-sided Flycatcher, or whatever it is the admirers of our feathered friends are getting out of our strange hobby in the UK these days.1151 Red-necked Avocet1152 Pink Cockatoo1153 BANDED WHITEFACEHere's to a brighter future <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite2" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=";)" /></blockquote>

Verification