Three month birding Odyssey Asia and Australia (3 Viewers)

[Vectis Birder]

Durians!!

Off to a flying start there VB! There's several species on that list that are common in Cairns too, but at least I know you won't 'need' them.

Yeah, I'm reasonably pleased so far Chowchilla.

Durians: I tracked some down and I ate a bit. It is REVOLTING!!!! They taste absolutely vile and smell worse and have to easily be one of the worst things I have ever tasted. But at least I have tried one. The trouble is now, the damned stuff is repeating on me so I am having to relive it every so often, but at least I have some indigestion stuff handy and that seems to have stopped it.
The only way I can describe the taste and smell of durians is rotten brie cheese mixed with gorgonzola and vomit. The appearance is pretty gruesome as well, it's yellow and lumpy but somehow looks worse than just badly made custard.
Someone walked past me earlier with one and I am not surprised that they are banned from public transport, they are awesomely bad smelling. :eek!:

 

[Vectis Birder]

I've just arrived in Australia and the fact that Melbourne is less than warm is a nice change after the sauna of Singapore!
It's 0644 and I've not gone to bed yet, probably won't until bedtime now, not that tired and the birds are out there waiting! Or until it gets light enough to see what I am doing, it's a crowded hostel room, I didn't want to wake anyone so I opened the door, slung my rucksack in and came down to the computers instead.
Did make one mistake though - I've not been to Melbourne before and jumped into a taxi at Tullamarine Airport thinking it won't cost more than $25 'cos it can't be that far surely...an appalling $63 later I was wishing I'd waited another hour for the airport bus! I'm pretty pissed off but, you live and learn.
There are penguins here in St Kilda, down at the breakwater, so I'm going on a penguin hunt later. :t:

Just realised what a bloody pretentious title I've given this thread - 'odyssey' indeed! Just goes to show how bad I am at thinking of snappy titles!

 

[chowchilla]

I've just arrived in Australia and the fact that Melbourne is less than warm is a nice change after the sauna of Singapore!
It's 0644 and I've not gone to bed yet, probably won't until bedtime now, not that tired and the birds are out there waiting! Or until it gets light enough to see what I am doing, it's a crowded hostel room, I didn't want to wake anyone so I opened the door, slung my rucksack in and came down to the computers instead.
Did make one mistake though - I've not been to Melbourne before and jumped into a taxi at Tullamarine Airport thinking it won't cost more than $25 'cos it can't be that far surely...an appalling $63 later I was wishing I'd waited another hour for the airport bus! I'm pretty pissed off but, you live and learn.
There are penguins here in St Kilda, down at the breakwater, so I'm going on a penguin hunt later. :t:

Just realised what a bloody pretentious title I've given this thread - 'odyssey' indeed! Just goes to show how bad I am at thinking of snappy titles!

Welcome to Australia VB!:t:

Yep, Melb'n is a huge city and taxis are a rip off here... I was wondering about those penguins; would they be around during the day or out at sea feeding? I'll be interested to find out when you see them.

 

[Gill Osborne]

Sounds like you're having a fantastic time VB :t: I'm soooooo jealous - I think I'lll tell Neil that I'm off for a couple of months next year I'm sure he'll cope as long as I leave clean clothes in the wardrobe and fill the freezer for him 3

Wow - penguins in Australia :t: Cool! I never knew they had them there - need to get myself a few more books and get reading

Anyway, must rush....off to work now *booohoo not fair!* Look forward to reading about the rest of your travels :t:

 

[chowchilla]

Wow - penguins in Australia :t: Cool! I never knew they had them there - need to get myself a few more books and get reading

We have Little Blue Penguins here, a very small species. And they really are tiny: I saw them up close on Phillip Island last year and I reckon that you could fit three of them into a shoebox! Not that I've tried of course...:king:

 

[Vectis Birder]

I did go for a short birding sesh this morning and the lifers came thick and fast. I went for a walk through St Kilda and down to the waters edge. There were
Silver Gull
Laughing Gull
Pacific Gull
Pied Cormorant
Black Cormorant
Crested Tern
Black Swan (at last - tickable non-ornamental Black Swans! For a European, or indeed any non-Aussies, it was strange seeing black swans instead of white ones)
Rainbow Lorikeets in the trees
Australian Magpies
Common Myna (introduced species, I think)

I have also never seen so many fitness fanatics in one place either - I know we have our share in UK but runners, swimmers, cyclists, etc, were out in force.

I went back to the hostel for a 'quick nap' at 10am - the 'quick nap' lasted until 4.30pm!

 

[chowchilla]

I did go for a short birding sesh this morning and the lifers came thick and fast. I went for a walk through St Kilda and down to the waters edge. There were
Silver Gull
Laughing Gull
Pacific Gull
Pied Cormorant
Black Cormorant
Crested Tern
Black Swan (at last - tickable non-ornamental Black Swans! For a European, or indeed any non-Aussies, it was strange seeing black swans instead of white ones)
Rainbow Lorikeets in the trees
Australian Magpies
Common Myna (introduced species, I think)

I have also never seen so many fitness fanatics in one place either - I know we have our share in UK but runners, swimmers, cyclists, etc, were out in force.

I went back to the hostel for a 'quick nap' at 10am - the 'quick nap' lasted until 4.30pm!

Laughing Gull! Wow, that's a North American species. Was there one about? There was one up here recently.

Funny what you said about the fitness fanatics. Australia is now officially the world's fattest nation. It's a weird paradox that a nation so in love with sport also has so many overweight people too. Actually I suspect most of them live in Cairns...

 

[Vectis Birder]

Laughing Gull! Wow, that's a North American species. Was there one about? There was one up here recently.

And South American, too.

Actually I think I might have cocked up the Laughing Gull id!

I have something written down but I didn't have my list in the internet cafe. I'll blame the lack of proper sleep. o

I'm going back to the harbour tomorrow for more. In any case I'll re-check the id.

Funny what you said about the fitness fanatics. Australia is now officially the world's fattest nation. It's a weird paradox that a nation so in love with sport also has so many overweight people too. Actually I suspect most of them live in Cairns...

There are quite a lot of persons of 'comfortable build' here, too.

 

[Vectis Birder]

The trip list is coming on well. Today I took a tram - the tram network round Melbourne is excellent - from St Kilda to the Botanic Gardens and added a whole load of new birds, think I got around 20 new species. I haven't got the list to hand, it's upstairs (it's 0237 in the morning and I can't sleep - it's been like this for the past week, since I arrived in S'pore) but I'll post it next time I go online, probably in a few days time. The birds(s) of the day though was Yellow-tailed Black-cockatoo of which 12 were feeding in a tall tree, there were also plenty of Sulphur-crested Cockatoos around as well. This is how you should be seeing parrots - in the wild, not in some poxy horrible cage. That goes for all birds.
The fitness fanatics were out in force in the Botanic Gardens too, seriously I have never seen so many joggers, cyclists or power walkers in one place in my life. I suppose that's part of the Aussie dedication to sports and, because they are so sport mad, I still find it hard to get my head around the fact that Australia is the world's fattest nation (up there with us and the USA?).

I didn't see the penguins in the end, I was going to go this evening (they live under the breakwater here and emerge at dawn to go to sea and return at dusk) but the weather was appalling, torrential rain, and I didn't fancy a 15-20 minute walk in those conditions. I am hoping that I might catch penguins on the Wollongong pelagic trip next month, and I think there's a population of them in or around Sydney somewhere, too.
If I fail to see any penguins this time, it's an excuse for a return to Australia one day...

I should be on my way to Cairns via Sydney and Brisbane tomorrow night - all being well, that is. You are supposed to reconfirm your Greyhound bus reservation 24 hours beforehand and I forgot, for the Melbourne-Sydney part of the journey. Ooops. I'll phone them when the office opens at 8am and hopefully it won't be an issue. If it is an issue it'll be a waste of $60 which I paid when making the booking a few weeks ago and, worse, will bugger up my schedule a bit! I did check online and you can still book that journey, so fingers crossed Greyhound are flexible in this respect...

Sorry there's no photos yet, but none of the public computers at the hostel or anywhere seem to have any image editing software so I can't resize them or anything.

 

[Vectis Birder]

As I have got half an hour to kill, here's the Royal Botanic Gardens, Melbourne, bird list from yesterday:

Black Swan
Australian Pelican
Sulphur-crested Cockatoo
Bell Miner
Australian Magpie
Dusky Moorhen
Coot
White-browed Scrub-wren
Common Myna
Purple Swamphen
Pacific Black Duck
Magpie Lark
Chestnut Teal
Little Pied Cormorant
Spotted Turtle Dove
Little Raven
Willy Wagtail
Grey Fantail
Hardhead
Australasian Grebe
Yellow-tailed Black-cockatoo
Red Wattlebird

Out of that list of 22 birds, that's 17 new ones making 49 lifers so far. :t:

It's only been a week and I am already sick of hostels, with their faux matiness, crappy bunkbeds and 20-somethings who have been on the piss all night, come in at 3am making noise like elephants in clogs and then have the cheek to moan when you get up at 8am! Luckily the next few places I am in a single room. At least in Asia I'll be able to afford proper hotel rooms, something I can't do here in Australia.

Phoned Greyhound Aus, and what they don't tell you is that you don't need to reconfirm your journey unless you are getting the bus from a request stop. They could have mentioned that on the ticket and website.

 

[Larry Sweetland]

Glad you got to see and hear the Bell Miners in Melbourne VB. I thought they were awesome.

 

[pandachris]

Well done for trying the durians, VB. We found a great place near the Petronas Towers on our 1st night in KL earlier this month that did durian juice. We'd read about the horrors of durians so we gave it a try. Foul.

Shame you didn't get to Pulau Ubin for the Straw-headed Bulbuls. If you get to Taman Negara in Malaysia, we saw another from the boat on the popular trip to Lata Berkoh (sp) where you can have a lovely swim in the river just near the signs that say things like "now swimming, dangerous currents and whirlpools". It was in a bush over-hanging the river and sitting right out in the open. We actually got better views than we'd had in Singapore.

Yet another thread for me to watch. Three months! I'm jealous.

 

[Birdingcraft]

Your odyssey is great reading. Wish I were there! Keep us posted please!

 

[tjbirdofprey]

great thread Vectis Birder:t: Durains are one thing i have got to try one day,are they really that bad3

 

[Vectis Birder]

great thread Vectis Birder:t: Durains are one thing i have got to try one day,are they really that bad3

They are awesomely bad. I think that only those folks brought up eating them like them; apparently Asians who moved away to other parts of the world and who go home to visit Asia find them horrible, too, or so I'm told. A bit like Brussels sprouts - at last I have found something as revolting as sprouts and swede! Maybe worse, in fact... :eek!:

I'm at Sydney killing time between buses. I came up from Melbourne overnight and am now waiting for a bus to Brisbane. I will be visiting Sydney properly in a few weeks, on the bus in, between the airport and the central coach station I saw some promising looking wetland areas.
I also decided to do away with my rucksack, as it is doing my shoulders serious damage, and I am sick of hauling it onto my shoulders so I bought a holdall on wheels (wish I'd brought mine from home rather than using a rucksack) but my stuff only *just* fits in it. Fortunately it's expandable! God knows what I'm going to do with the rucksack though, I am loathe to just bin it, so wasteful, so I'll find a charity shop somewhere who might like it.

I had a last birding session in Melbourne yesterday, a return to the Botanic Gardens and a walk along the Yarra River adding some new birds to my list. Unfortunately the weather was iffy, with squally showers (this was after a night of torrential rain, which, let's face it, the region badly needs - they are in the middle of a severe drought with water levels down 36%, partly drought and partly problems with the Murray-Darling River system) so not conducive to much birding. Did manage to add Wood Duck, Brush Wattlebird, Crimson Rosella, Eastern Rosella, Pied Currawong, Noisy Miner, Grey Butcherbird, Little Black Cormorant and Australian Darter to the list.

Larry: yes, I loved the Bell Miners. It did take me a minute or two to track down the source of the loud 'TINK's I kept hearing but what great little birds, very pretty, dressed all in green with orange/yellow bills and legs.

Pandachris: I have to confess that the heat and humidity of Singapore defeated me! I only just managed a bit of Bukit Timah and the Botanic Gardens - I'm hoping that I'll fare better in Malaysia and Thailand.

I had a quick count and so far I am on 61 trip species, 55 of which are lifers.

I liked Melbourne a lot. It's a pretty city and full of lovely green spaces. A bit like Singapore without the overbearing heat and humidity. I was actually quite sorry to get on the Greyhound and leave.

 

[chowchilla]

Hi VB,

I've just got back from 2 nights at Cassowary House; I think you're going to like it there!

I'll type up a little report and stick it on this forum somewhere.

Glad to see your trip progressing nicely whilst I've been away. It's a funny thing about Bell Miners: nice birds to look at and listen to but they over the top aggressive to other species of birds which actively avoid the trees they live in. The only Bell Miners I've seen were in those Botanical Gardens, you don't have them up here.

Hope you get your sleep pattern sorted soon!:t:

Take care.

 

[Vectis Birder]

I'm now in Brisbane at this absolute shitehole of a backpackers near the station. It's 0730 in the morning, it's taken me two nights on buses to get here and I can't check in until bloody 2pm! Not good when all I want to do is go to sleep. Not only that, the place looks a run down dive, with McDonald's trash everywhere around the computers and chips on the floor. I did consider saying bugger it and going to the Holiday Inn at the coach station - until I saw that it was $239 a night and the check-in time was not a lot better at 1pm. Still at least it's only for a night. :C

Did add to the list on the way from Sydney overnight - Cattle Egret, White-necked Heron and, this morning in the park just up from the coach station, Australian White Ibis. That's now 64 species seen, 55 lifers (I've seen Cattle Egrets at home, and elsewhere, and the Ibises last time I came to Aus).

 

[Vectis Birder]

Hi VB,

I've just got back from 2 nights at Cassowary House; I think you're going to like it there!

I'll type up a little report and stick it on this forum somewhere.

Glad to see your trip progressing nicely whilst I've been away. It's a funny thing about Bell Miners: nice birds to look at and listen to but they over the top aggressive to other species of birds which actively avoid the trees they live in. The only Bell Miners I've seen were in those Botanical Gardens, you don't have them up here.

Hope you get your sleep pattern sorted soon!:t:

Take care.

Interesting about the Bell Miners. I was told they were quite aggressive little monsters!

I'm looking forward to getting to Cass House, it'll make a change from these backpackers places, although the one I stayed in down in Melbourne was a really nice place. This one, the Palace (ha! ha!) in Brisbane could do with a major tart up. Staff aren't great either, on initial impressions.

I have nowhere else booked after Cass House, so I might look for some cheaper B&Bs that aren't full of 20-something piss-heads! There's economising and there's roughing it - this is borderline roughing it! Or am I just being a grumpy git? No, don't answer that one!

 

[pandachris]

I'm a great believer in roughing it, VB, as long as it's somebody else doing it.

 

[Chlidonias]

there's a backpackers in Kuranda that's cheap as chips and practically deserted most of the time. Its not flash (pretty run-down actually) but I liked it a lot, and the river and forest aren't far away. You can easily see all the species at Cassowary House in the forest at Kuranda (although you'd need to be very lucky to get the cassowary).