Friday 18 October 2019

We stood there in awe



Many years ago my wife and I went on a weekend away to learn about birdwatching in Australia. Needless to say with wifey all enthused I too had got roped in to identify birds see on our travels from the guidebooks and to tick off our lists for the year, the state, and the whole of Australia in one all time list.

Binoculars at the ready, searching for birds not yet ticked we took roads less travelled, on tracks with snakes basking on paths, on deserted beaches with cross sea lions and at sewerage farms stinking!

We rose early in the mornings and searched woods and forests by day and night to find owls and pipits, wrens and whistlers, pardalotes and penguins plus an eagle or two.

Once when we were driving a road by the Murray river we thought we'd take a break at the next town but before we did we found a sewerage farm just out of town with plenty of birds there to check out.

Unfenced, in we went holding our noses to start with and we spied on coots and galahs, a cockatoo or two and then some ducks on the water that we had never seen before. Thumbing through our field guides we found they were Australian Freckled Ducks, the rarest ducks in Australia. It was amazing that a retired couple could get so much pleasure seeing them in such a stinky environment.



Image 1 found at www.Freckled-Ducks.jpg
Image 2 found at www.Freckled-duck-female.jpg

8 comments:

  1. What a wonderful travelogue - almost worth the smell i should think!

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  2. Freckled ducks! How wonderful. I had not heard of them and am happy to know they exist. We have bird migrations going on here all the time. It is wonderful to see them. I love our little puffin, orange of beak, looking like he is wearing a black suitcoat, bobbing atop the waves. And our blue heron, so lovely. Loved your piece, Robin.

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  3. O the wild and odorific places awe is reserved in!

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  4. I love this. Amazing that they could live under such circumstances. Freckled ducks...oh the wonder of them

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  5. enjoyable. I always found it funny when it is a beautiful and I find he horses laying on the manure pile.

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  6. I agree with Jae, this is an awesome travelogue, Robin! I have enjoyed birdwatching in Norfolk, but I imagine the birds in Australia are fantastic. I've been duck, swan and pheasant watching with my grandson this week - great fun!

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  7. It is something so special to find a rare bird... and in such an unsuspecting setting... I have never been birdwatching like that... but once by accident we came upon a little auk just beside the path when we were walking... a quite rare visitor to Sweden.

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  8. Years ago living in Florida, an owl made his home in one of our trees .... we never tired of watching him. Fascinating.

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