Our members love birds and love to travel! We love to feature stories and photos from our members throughout the year so you can “Travel with SIB.” Let us know if you have a story you’d like to share about your travels! Recently, Jennifer Jerome returned to Australia. Her trip was so packed with good experiences, we’ve made it into two posts.
Travels Down Under – Part 1 was recently posted. Now her adventure continues.
Arriving back in the tablelands we did a little more exploring of the area, traveling the backroads through Grandma Tuckwell’s property we found an old Ford Truck, and ID’d some additional birds, that turned out to be a juvenile Butcherbird and the female Bower Bird, more Fairy Wrens, Willy Wagtails, and a Red Browed Finch, moving to Michaels property I finally caught a glimpse of the Yellow-Tailed Cockatoos I’d been hearing.
The properties were full of Wombat holes, I wasn’t lucky enough to see one, except for the sign and the holes.
During my last week we made a trip to the Australian Capital Territory, Canberra to visit with a relative and visit the National Museum and Botanic Gardens. I was hoping to see some new birds, and I wasn’t disappointed. There weren’t many, but they were beautiful. I added the Red Wattle Bird, an Eastern Spinebill, an Eastern Yellow Robin, a Pied Currawong and a Silvereye to my list.
The National Museum was interesting, but no birds, lol! There was this cool 1950’s Holden and caravan on exhibit, something I grew up with is now in a museum!!!
On the ride back from Canberra, I saw a Crested Pigeon sitting on a telephone line. I’d been wanting a better photo of one, so asked Michael to stop. When he did, I heard lots of noise and commotion in the air. Flying across the road appeared to be dozens of Cockatoos and Corellas. Grabbing my camera, I scurried down the road to try and capture some of the action. If you look closely at the picture of me near the road, the white specs are some of the Cockatoos crossing overhead. It was quite the adrenalin rush!
The infux of noisy Cockatoos even caused some peaceful Australian Ibis and Cormorant to take flight together! I did get the Crested Pigeon picture before it flew off in fright! I did get the pigeon picture before it flew off in fright! That was the grand finale to my birding and to my Australian visit.
It was a an appropriate end to a trip that began and ended with Sulphur Crested Cockatoos. In all, given that this trip was not totally dedicated to birding, I was able to add 56 species to my life list, and added some to the SIB Big Year. It has left me wanting for more! Can’t wait until the next adventure!
Submitted and Photography: Jennifer Jerome
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