Thursday 13 April 2017

Quite a Few Birds: Update #1

A dollarbird comments on my efforts

I have reached the half way point in my (modest) bid to see 300 species of Australian birds in a year. The current list is at the bottom of this post. It's made up mostly of Far North Queensland species with a few from Tasmania.

One of the few from Tasmania: forty-spotted pardalote

I'm doing this Year of Seeing Quite a Few Birds for several reasons. The most important is that it gets me out and about. For a long while I had been pottering around the house, apparently happily. Then I wandered across the line that separates pottering from stagnating. Unfortunately that line is not clear and I had gone some distance into the wasteland before I looked up and saw where I was. So now I'm heading back again. I intend to stride right over that line, keep going all the way through pottering, and emerge on the other side, which I hope has good metaphors because I've done something awful to this one. Send a compass. Help.

Anyway, I have a number of bird watching trips lined up over the next four months. No point mentioning them in advance because 'I'm going to [location]' is not as interesting as 'I'm at [location] and here's what I've seen' followed by fuzzy photos of something in a tree. (See image above.)

If I clock up 300 species in 2017, that'll be great. It means I've been to some interesting places. If I don't...well...I've still been to those interesting places. The key to this is not the seeing, but the looking.

Difficult to miss this golden whistler

The list so far:
  1. Australian Brush-turkey
  2. Orange-footed Scrubfowl
  3. Magpie Goose
  4. Plumed Whistling-duck
  5. Wandering Whistling-duck
  6. Cape Barren Goose
  7. Black Swan
  8. Radjah Shelduck
  9. Chestnut Teal
  10. Pacific Black Duck
  11. Hardhead
  12. Australian Grebe
  13. Great Crested Grebe
  14. Rock Dove
  15. White-headed Pigeon
  16. Spotted Dove
  17. Brown Cuckoo-dove
  18. Emerald Dove
  19. Peaceful Dove
  20. Bar-shouldered Dove
  21. Wompoo Fruit-dove
  22. Torresian Imperial-pigeon
  23. White-rumped Swiftlet
  24. Australasian Gannet
  25. Little Pied Cormorant
  26. Great Cormorant
  27. Little Black Cormorant
  28. Black-faced Cormorant
  29. Australian Pelican
  30. Intermediate Egret
  31. Cattle Egret
  32. White-faced Heron
  33. Australia White Ibis
  34. Straw-necked Ibis
  35. Osprey
  36. Black-shouldered Kite
  37. White-bellied Sea-eagle
  38. Whistling Kite
  39. Black Kite
  40. Grey Goshawk (white phase)
  41. Wedge-tailed Eagle
  42. Brown Falcon
  43. Purple Swamphen
  44. Buff-banded Rail
  45. Tasmanian Native Hen
  46. Dusky Moorhen
  47. Eurasian Coot
  48. Bush Stone-curlew
  49. Australian Pied Oystercatcher
  50. Sooty Oystercatcher
  51. Masked Lapwing
  52. Comb-crested Jacana
  53. Crested Tern
  54. Pacific Gull
  55. Kelp Gull
  56. Silver Gull
  57. Sulphur-crested Cockatoo
  58. Red-tailed Black Cockatoo
  59. Yellow-tailed Black Cockatoo
  60. Galah
  61. Rainbow Lorikeet
  62. Scaly-breasted Lorikeet
  63. Australian King-parrot
  64. Green Rosella
  65. Crimson Rosella
  66. Eastern Rosella
  67. Pale-headed Rosella
  68. Channel-billed Cuckoo
  69. Fan-tailed Cuckoo
  70. Barking Owl
  71. (Red) Boobook
  72. Sooty Owl
  73. Laughing Kookaburra
  74. Forest Kingfisher
  75. Dollarbird
  76. White-throated Treecreeper
  77. Spotted Catbird
  78. Tooth-billed Bowerbird
  79. Superb Fairy-wren
  80. Atherton Scrubwren
  81. Large-billed Scrubwren
  82. Brown Gerygone
  83. Yellow-rumped Thornbill
  84. Tasmanian Thornbill
  85. Forty-spotted Pardalote
  86. Eastern Spinebill
  87. Lewin's Honeyeater
  88. Yellow-faced Honeyeater
  89. 'Herberton' Honeyeater
  90. Noisy Miner
  91. Yellow Wattlebird
  92. Bridled Honeyeater
  93. Dusky Honeyeater
  94. Scarlet Honeyeater
  95. Brown Honeyeater
  96. New Holland Honeyeater
  97. White-cheeked Honeyeater
  98. Strong-billed Honeyeater
  99. Black-headed Honeyeater
  100. Blue-faced Honeyeater
  101. Helmeted Friarbird
  102. Noisy Friarbird
  103. Macleay's Honeyeater
  104. Eastern Whipbird
  105. Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike
  106. White-bellied Cuckoo-shrike
  107. Cicadabird
  108. Golden Whistler
  109. Rufous Whistler
  110. Little Shrike-thrush
  111. Bower's Shrike-thrush
  112. Grey Shrike-thrush
  113. Australasian Figbird
  114. Yellow Oriole
  115. White-breasted Woodswallow
  116. Pied Butcherbird
  117. Black Butcherbird
  118. Grey Butcherbird
  119. Australian Magpie
  120. Pied Currawong
  121. Spangled Drongo
  122.  Rufous Fantail
  123. Grey Fantail
  124. Willie Wagtail
  125. Forest Raven
  126. Torresian Crow
  127. Leaden Flycatcher
  128. Black-faced Monarch
  129. Spectacled Monarch
  130. Magpie-lark
  131. Pied Monarch
  132. Yellow-breasted Boatbill
  133. Victoria's Riflebird
  134. Scarlet Robin
  135. Pink Robin
  136. Dusky Robin
  137. Grey-headed Robin
  138. Pale-yellow Robin
  139. Silvereye
  140. Welcome Swallow
  141. Bassian Thrush
  142. Common Blackbird
  143. Metallic Starling
  144. Common Starling
  145. Common Myna
  146. Red-browed Finch
  147. Beautiful Firetail
  148. Chestnut-breasted Mannikin
  149. House Sparrow
  150. Australasian Pipit
  151. European Goldfinch