Australia & New Zealand 2. Chapter 3. CHAPTER 3 – QUEENSLAND, AUSTRALIADay 2. June 2. 8 – Brisbane (Shari) When you buy cheap airline tickets, you have to put up with some. Our inconvenience is the departure time. Our flight departs. Christchurch at 7 AM. I have to get up at 4: 3. AM. I kind of roll out of. I wash up, dress and close my. Bert says my eyes look bloodshot. I am not surprised since I woke up. I would miss the two alarms I set. I am surprised at the large numbers of people at the airport at this ungodly. We have to wait in line to check in and wait in line to pay our export tax. I grab my empty backpack and stuff it with a coffee mug and a fan. Now I. have two carry- ons that I hope no one sees. Bert sweet talks the clerk into. She does have to get. She told us it would cost. Ridiculous, as that is nearly the price of the airfare. I just. kind of operate in a fog and follow him. We get on the plane and I immediately. We are on the runway, ready for take- off, before first light. I. read a hundred pages in the book Shari just finished and get in a short nap. Brisbane and set back our watches two hours. My luggage is. delayed when the long case where I packed my spotting scope tripod is. The next. delay is the agricultural check where our hiking shoes are declared dirty and. We make up lost. time when a taxi awaits us without delay and we are soon at the RV rental. For those. of you guessing what size camper we get, you probably win. The first one was like a van with a bed, sink and. This one is a Class C camper. Face Flatus Diet marie flores allowed low. Diet Restrictions Before Pet Scan; Greenface Diet. Bird Group shared The Pet Collective's video. Naturalists have reported a growing phenomenon of pet parrots that have been taught to repeat phrases. Buy your own fake ID that scan. No more taking down a table to. Bert will sleep above the cab and I will sleep on the couch. No. more having to remove things from the microwave to use it and then put it back. There is plenty of cabinet space and we even have extra. So even though it costs us more, we will not kill each other. After our. orientation to the 4- berth, we take off and drive 2. Those tasks. accomplished, we unpack: something we can both do at the same time. It still. takes longer than we anticipate and I am bushed at task’s end. The cook decides. By 7 (9 PM New Zealand time) we are both. We have only been up 1. Brisbane is a. busier city than I imagined and I weave through traffic with three women giving. May in our GPS, an unnamed lady in the RV’s GPS and Shari. I. don’t make any wrong turns and we arrive at our campsite for the next few. In late afternoon while adjusting to the new RV, I glance out of the.
Crested Pigeon walking on the ground, a species I didn’t recall. I looked it up in my computer database and see that I. August 1. 98. 7 in the Blue Mountains. Day 2. 5 – June 2. Brisbane (Shari) I cannot believe I slept for 1. We program May and off we go to a number of national forests in. Up the mountain we go, stopping at every scenic. Most times when we get out, we see new birds. For me. everything is new and I suppose the birds I see today are common to an. Australian birder. One of the stops sounds like the jungle with raucous animal. A flock of Sulphur- crested Cockatoos noisily flies by, some landing in a. I find a kookaburra sitting. I stare at it with my binoculars. At. the top of the mountain, Bert finds a half- dozen new birds in a short period of. I program May to take us to our next stop. Amazingly he sees an owl. He just astounds me sometimes. I too saw a dark and light. Bert’s neck cranes left and a few meters. How does he know that? He said he. saw it in a tree looking down at him as we past. How did he know what tree to. It could have been one of. Australian Magpies for all I saw. Stopping at the first available pullout. He points. to an owl called Powerful and says that is what I saw. Just incredible and he. Back in the city, May tells. She recalculated many times but eventually. Unfortunately, we have to go there again. So our. plans are to go back in the morning to log it correctly and then reconnoiter. As we again drive the streets. Bert says that he can. Yesterday, a man at camp told us about a pizza place three. Tuesdays; AU$5. 9. So we walk over there, order two Supremes, one for now and one for. We have large picture windows throughout and a Sacred Ibis. Australian White Ibis) just strutted by. Parrots are calling from the trees and. Noisy Miners are living up to their name. The campground owner told me about. Tawny Frogmouths roosting near one of the new tent sites but I haven’t seen them. After lunch we head to the coastal mountains outside Brisbane, again checking. Shari joins me in a walk around one site and she. I do. She points to a. Laughing Kookaburra perched in a tree and a flock of noisy white birds that I. Sulphur- crested Cockatoos. We watch turkeys tamed by picnickers. They look emaciated compared to our Wild Turkeys and. Australian. Brush- Turkeys. I see a few Spur- winged Plovers and many Australian Magpies. New Zealand I found them daily. A pair of gorgeous pink. Galahs is at the edge of a clearing and I’m sure we will see many of these. Australian travels. We stop at a few other sites, but the best is near the top of the mountains. Later when I sort through the notes. I identify Golden Whistler, Varied Triller, Eastern Yellow Robin and Wonga. Pigeon. A pair of red parrots diverts my attention and this species I’m pretty. I’ve seen before. I mark down “red parrot, black and blue wings, blue. I return to the RV I quickly find it in the book as. Crimson Rosella. On our downhill drive we are still in the dense forest when we see a large. It alights on a horizontal. I get a perfect instant image of a large and. This is the target. I was hoping to find when the caravan visits here and now I’ve already seen. Powerful Owl, Australia’s largest owl and restricted to the southeastern. Day 2. 6 – June 3. Brisbane (Bert) After almost a month of non- stop traveling and sightseeing, we do not. The morning’s rain is one inducement, but the other is our. Bird watching continues, though, through our many tinted glass windows that. Birds perch on a clothes line within a few feet of the. One is a Pied Butcherbird, most easily separated from other. In mid afternoon I venture. For being located in the. I walk. on a sidewalk path beside a creek leading to a park. The Torresian Crows nasal. What is it begging for? I photograph a pair attending a nest mostly hidden in the leaves of a. I also photograph Pacific Black Duck, Little Pied Cormorant, Dusky. Moorhen, Rainbow Lorikeet, Brown Cuckoo- Dove and a confrontation between a. Sacred Ibis and Torresian Crow about who can occupy the tree branch. Day 2. 7 – July 1 – Lamington National Park (Bert) The road narrows as we wiggle, serpentine and zigzag through S- curves. Some are so sharp the horseshoe. The. racecar on my GPS track shows I am hanging off the cliff or skidding into the. I’m following the thin line. One- way signs mark two- way. When the road broadens from one lane, it. Higher up, we are away from the cliff but. On. one side they bear red reflector badges, the other side wears white circular. Many sideswiped trees display wounded bark. The one- hour uphill climb. We see our first marsupial and not just one. The grounds abound in Red- necked. Pademelons, a miniature relative of the kangaroo standing about knee- high, but. They seem to be. everywhere, ignoring our presence unless we get within 8 ft. Gray- brown in. color, I notice a few have bulging white bellies and then we discover each of. One of them is old enough to be out of. Birds are everywhere too. Flocks of gaudy red and blue Crimson Rosellas fly. A see a few. even more splendid parrots, the green and scarlet Australian King- Parrots. Tiny. Red- browed Finches look like birds you would see in specialty pet stores. We. nestle the RV into a tight campsite almost enclosed in dense forest top to. I take out lawn chairs and a table, spread out my bird books and attempt. A brush- turkey is scratching a hole in the soft loam of the forest. Taking advantage of the turkey’s labor, a Yellow Robin and a pair of. Yellow- throated Scrubwrens dart in and out of the hole seeing what insects have. When the temperature drops and darkness ensues, we move inside although it is. Without electricity it may be a cold night, so I keep on my. We spent the day at the world- renowned birding lodge. O’Reillys, in Lamington National Park. Now its 5 PM, almost pitch dark outside. Of course we are without power and since we will. I think we will hit the sack early. We. will see just how good our batteries behave. The next time we come here we will. I am happy about. Most of the 3. 0. The total distance is composed of constant sharp and very sharp. S- curves, or should I say U- curves. This is a road that R- Tent- III definitely. NOT negotiate and the biggest vehicle I see either coming or going is. Bert does fine and we get here by noon to check out the place and eat. Lamington National Park is like birding in Costa Rica: one new bird after. Even the tiny finches display beautiful colors. I finally see the. Bert has talked about: the one that makes its nest of. The prettier female, with its sage. The best. things I see today are pademelons. Sounding like a big fruit of some kind, they. Heads. shaped like an opossum and bodies like a small 2. As. the park worker explains to me, “They are eating machines”. Some of them have. Day 2. 8 – July 2 – Lamington National Park (Bert) I awaken early and lie in bed until first light before crawling out of. My first birds of the morning are a pair of. Satin Bowerbirds, their pretty colors dimmed by forest shadows, overcast skies. I take photos of birds using an extreme ISO. RV for my flash unit. I find many of the same. I saw yesterday, getting even better looks at the Superb Fairy- wrens, the. Tossing leaves like a towhee, I. Another lifer, these are Eastern Whipbirds, a name I practice. I cannot think of a way to associate “whip” with any. Perhaps it is the way they whip up the forest floor. A quick movement across the forest floor reminds me of a mouse, though I. I try to find it with my. I raise the eyepieces. Finally I gather. She tells me it. is a Brown Antechinus, although can’t spell it when I ask. She gets out a mammal.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
November 2017
Categories |