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Birding in Australia

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Birding in Australia Los Angeles Audubon Society VOLUME 38• 1971-72N* 10 JUNE Birding in DRAMATIS Australia PERSONAE by Josephine Vaughn ofus boa TH I DTP CM rded the big 707 jet when we looked as if we had just come • III t\ I CCIN to fly Pan-American to Aus - from "Alice. " (Alice Springs, an oasis tralia on November 6, 1971. We were about two in the outback. ) Bill took a great many hours late leaving Los Angeles, but friends from pictures and filled us in with ecological the Los Angeles Audubon Society had come to bid material. bon Voyage so the waiting period was not too ar- Polly (Margaret) Carpenter from Pacific duous. Palisades, too, added color with her red Jim Huffman, a long-time member of blouses and equally red hat. She does the Los Angeles Audubon, had birded in research for the Rand Company and was Australia before. He was our leader and attempting to forget deadlines by finding is a dedicated birder, like the man who new birds. was asked if he were still interested in Alberta Gail from La Canada, besides birding to which the answer came for- birding and taking pictures, went on to with, "It is as if you had asked me if I New Zealand for some mountain climbing were still breathing. " to keep in trim for her Sierra Club activ- Olga Clarke, an energetic delightful ities with her husband Gene who had to person was the co-leader and as en- stay home to fix fillings and toothaches. thralled with birds as Jim. She is the Laura Fisher of Holtville, and ideal wife of Herb Clarke who is the current roommate. Both of us coming from hot L. A. Audubon president. climates liked the same temperature and George and Lil Venatta from Palos were overjoyed with Mt. Isa and Mildura. Verdes are insatiables. Lil, as her She was a new birder but an enthusiastic husband says, "Is a hell of a good one and knew that bird trips are strenu- spotter. " I am sure that birds appear- ous, having been on one in Hawaii. Un- ed when Lil said they were there. We less one has been a member of a birding suffered with George laden with a cam- group, one does not know what it is like era, lenses, tape recorder, a sighting to rise at 3:30 a.m. and retire at ten 'scope and Robin Hill's large book of o'clock that night or later, filling the Australian Birds. hours between with constant peering for Clyde Bergman, M.D. from Hacienda bird.s. Heights, was trained as a child in the African bush where his father and mother Amy Lou Duncan from Apple Valley had a birthday, too, on the trip the same day were missionaries. If you have seen as Clyde. We celebrated at O'Reilly's "Born Free, " you saw his home in Kenya with a cake and Crimson Rosellas peek- he visits frequently. This early train- ing in through the dining room window ing aided him in finding birds and the coaxing for bites. platypus, the rest of us missed. Bob Prickett from Santa Barbara, an Josephine Vaughn: I am insatiable, too, enigmatic young man, was the equal of and a "naturalist. " Several times I have been "accused" of caring more about any birder and kept meticulous notes. plants than birds. Bill Dow of Eagle Rock, an impeccably groomed gentleman at all times even Story on page tao. NOTICE The last issue of Volume 38, July-August, will be mailed in the middle of July. AUSTRALIA Mrs. Margaret Sanderson and Mr. Arnold we hugged each other. Barry looked as if he had McGill were with us on a birding trip out of Syd- performed a miracle. ney the afternoon of November 8 and immediately The day before, someone mentioned about we began to see birds new to us—a Nankeen Fal- the likelihood of seeing a Tawny Frogmouth — con "hawking" over a paddock; Mudlarks a lap- the Australian relative of poor-wills and other wing type cousin of a Killdeer and in the same goatsuckers. Barry and Joanna smiled myste- habitat; a Shrike; a Thornbill; a Jackie Winter riously and we followed them to another eucalyp- (brown flycatcher); some water birds; Galahs tus bordered road not far away. Two delightful of the parrot family; a black and white Willie young women, also birdos, had a "find" to show Wagtail with the tipped-up tail that was almost us. The husband of one worked for a power ubiquitous throughout Australia, and an assort- company and on his job was climbing a pole and ment of other birds as we climbed over and had made a discovery — a female Frogmouth. under fences to look at in the rain and in weather "There she is, " someone whispered. It so cold we thought it surely couldn't be adver- couldn't be! On a bare limb extending from the tised as spring. trunk of a eucalyptus was a lump that looked From, then on until November 28 when our like a woody growth. It was the Frogmouth sit- trip ended with us again in Sydney (after days of ting on a scantily put-together nest. We expect- saying we couldn't see how another day could be ed her to move her head to look down at us or better) to me it was like a kaleidoscope—of even fly away but she remained motionless — sounds, colors, new faces, plane rides, all kinds the whole 19 inches of her. We could see plainly of airports, bus trips, new trees, deserts the hair-like whiskers around the mouth. Even breath-taking scenery, rain forests. Being when the two tiny morsels of baby Frogmouths difficult to sort them I want to tell about some fidgeted, their mother remained statue-still. special times. She belongs to a family that is nocturnal The DAY OF THE PITTA to me was THE and is rarely found in the daytime. It was as if DAY! I had studied its picture in my World we had seen an unbelievable fantasy. There was Bird Book and wistfully desired to see one some a later murmur, "This is tops ! " time. There are three species in Australia, the But how wrong he was—colors and sounds Buff-breasted or Noisy Pitta being the one we turning and crossing—glossy black Cockatoos hoped to see. He is a brightly colored bird, with reddish tails—staring kangaroos while we about the size of a young fryer, with plumage stared back — calls of Lorikeets and Rosellas — of bright blues and greens. He has the appear- an agile wallaby skipping across a paddock — ance of no neck and a short stumpy tail that has the sound of brakes to avoid hitting a young stripes of blue and yellow across it. His breast Cassowary. A kaleidoscope did I say? What is yellow the same color making a ring around else can I compare it to—a fantastic jumble. the back of what should be a neck and his head But a clear picture comes again into view. is chocolate brown. My impression of him was On the shore of Phillip Island southeast of Mel- a color spectacle. bourne people crowded around barrier ropes Near Brisbane ("Brisbun") we visited looking out toward the waters of Bass Strait. Barry Morgan and his charming wife, Joanna, It was a cold November spring night and we had also their five-year old son, Robin, at their come prepared for this "unusual" weather. A home in the bush. They were to be our guests loud speaker was explaining while we shivered while visiting O'Reilly's in Lamington National that the Little or Fairy Penguins would soon be Park of the Green Mountains. Barry had made coming in from their day's feeding. These tapings of Australian bird calls and songs. We birds—the smallest of the penguin tribe—had walked from the guest house down a road lined gone in during the early morning hours to feed with eucalyptus and impenetrable bush, when on tiny marine life. Their small heads could be Barry said that we were hearing the Noisy bird seen bobbing in the rolling turf. in the distance. We waited while he played a "Here they come, " announced several tape that was a repetition of the sounds off in voices. Slowly at first but determinedly leaning the distant thick brush. The voice came closer. forward in a closely packed wedge-shape group The Pitta is shy and stays in the thickest cover they came across the sand. Several birds look- and will scurry away through the underbrush if ing filled to the brim toppled over but picking approached. themselves up hurried after the now single file Barry pushes his tape button again, the of penguins trudging to the top of the bordering bird was coming nearer. We stood quietly in hillocks where in burrows waited hungry young the middle of the road. There was a slight ones. The parents feed them regurgitated food rustling and we turned our eyes in that direction. and then spend two or three days ashore before Then came a flashing streak of turquoise, em- going back to the sea. erald, and gold and onto a small rock at the edge of the road the Pitta posed as if for a command A searchlight flared for an instant but the performance—a view we had never expected. phosphorescence found at the shore's edge show- I am sure no one took a breath for in the blink ed these sixteen-inch tall "little men" in black of an eye the Pitta had disappeared.
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