Broad-billed Flycatcher (photo by Gail Bryant)
Many trips were undertaken in 2018 and quite a few new birds were added to the DVDs. It was a busy year with a few medical operations interspersed. I must admit I was a bit slack with blog entries but hope to make up for it now.
The highlight of the year was a trip to Broome in early September. We did three excursions with the staff from the Broome Bird Observatory and spent a few more days in Broome checking out the sites, coffee and pearls. Great place.
In addition to Broad-billed Flycatcher, above, new bird species included:
Mangrove Golden Whistler
Mangrove Grey Fantail
White-breasted Whistler
Oriental Pratincole
Paperbark Flycatcher
Oriental Plover
Yellow White-Eye
Australian Pratincole
Grey Plover and Long-toed Stint. Not bad for a week. The total is now 490. Ten to go!
Another trip to Melbourne in early June gave us the opportunity to visit Healesville Sanctuary. Here we were able to add more video and photos of Scarlet-chested Parrot and video of the rare
Orange-bellied Parrot
A trip to Bali at the beginning of July added 3 new species.
A trip to North Queensland at the end of July added 2 new species.
Cricket is another passion of mine. On the rest day at the National Veterans Cricket carnival at Penrith NSW, in November, I was able to video number 491, a
Red-whiskered Bulbul
Returning from an over 67s cricket carnival in Newcastle, in December, I managed to find a
Little Stint
at Farquhar Inlet. The Aleutian Terns could not be found!!
The total number on video at the end of the year is 492. It looks like 500 can be achieved. A resolution for 2019.