Big Twitch: One Man, One Continent, a Race Against Time—A True Story about Birdwatching
Language: English
Pages: 320
ISBN: 1741145287
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
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things were back to normal and I was sleeping in the car alone once again, this time camped in the backyard of the ranger’s residence at the Fitzgerald River National Park. On the Perth pelagic back in June, Peter Wilkins, one of the park’s rangers, had told me that he sees Western Whipbirds virtually from his kitchen window and that if ever I was coming through, I should drop by and check them out. Foolish words, really. Wisely Peter and his family had gone to a cricket club function in
with the world, being completely free to go wherever I chose, do whatever I wanted, was intoxicating. I was always way too responsible for such nonsense, however, and those thoughts remained the stuff of musings to drift off to sleep to. Suddenly, there was no impediment to following that dream. No family, no job, no ties. I was in the rare position where I could run away without leaving behind an unresolved mess. The record beckoned. I might never have this sort of opportunity again in my life,
totally parched. The ranger told me that only one waterhole in the entire park still had any water so that was where I’d be searching. If I could get away from the ranger, that is. The last visitor must have come around the same time as the last rain, and with his family seven hundred kilometres away on the coast, man, was this bloke eager for a chinwag. I should have stayed chatting. The waterhole was just a sludgy brown puddle, and apart from a couple of very cautious Common Bronzewings there
April 5, Mt. Nebo, QLD 396 Spotted Harrier, Circus assimilis, April 5, Lake Samsonvale, QLD 397 Square-tailed Kite, Lophoictinia isura, April 5, Kallangur, QLD 398 Black-breasted Button-quail, Turnix melanogaster, April 6, Inskip Point, QLD 399 Large Sand Plover, Charadrius leschenaultii, April 6, Inskip Point, QLD 400 Flame Robin, Petroica phoenicea, April 9, Seaford Swamp, VIC 401 Striated Fieldwren, Calamanthus fuliginosus, April 21, Werribee, VIC 402 Providence Petrel, Pterodroma
foothold on the island, Tasmania is a sensational place for native mammals. Several species that have become extinct on the mainland survive here in good numbers and while looking for the owl I almost had to kick Eastern Barred Bandicoots, Southern Brown Bandicoots and Southern Bettongs, a very cute type of wallaby, out of the way. At one point I heard the distinctive shriek of a Masked Owl and thought I was going to catch up with this species at last. But precisely one minute later the cold