Nankeen Kestrel worth a few thousand . . . words!

If one picture's worth a thousand words what price a whizzo series of four? Nankeen Kestrel, sometime acquaintance of mine, on the Town Common, Townsville two mornings ago.

Rare tale of huge rare owls and first captor

Think it's been touch chilly lately? Try birding hundreds of kms north of Vladivostok, sitting in felt-lined tents for hours, -30C outside, waiting for the world's biggest owl to be snagged in a world first live capture. But first spend winter months finding some of the Blakiston's Fish Owls. Come back a year later. Repeat another year later. Finally crack secrets of luring owls with live-fish traps. Finally, live-trapping. Capture, measure, fit trackers to some, release, for, hopefully, recapture the following year. Repeat. And repeat again.

Owls of the Eastern Ice, A Quest to Find and Save the World's Largest Owl, by Jonathan C. Slaght, tells in nitty-gritty detail of mad and bad moments and motley sometimes mad Russian companions of the burly US Peace Corp volunteer's transition from casual birder to Wildlife Conservation Society co-ordination for Russia and Northeast Asia. Maybe too much detail for nonbirders but remarkable for its picture of extraordinary field science and scientist. (The vagaries of libraries today: Lucky find in large print section, Townsville City Council, Flinders St.) 

 

Getting some inside info on Black-throated Finches

Whizzed 50km southwest in chill temps this morning to give Troopy first real run in a while and hoped a Black-throated Finch or two might be sitting around begging to have photos taken. No finches, nor any other species apart from Striated Pardalote (above) obligingly quitting treetops for close-up pose alongside the road.

Why would I not be too unhappy about lack of finches? Because earlier this week I was surrounded by endangered and vulnerable species no more than 2km from my Rowes Bay, Townsville, studio unit. Black-throateds, Stars, Gouldians, young and adult - plus even more threatened Golden-shouldered Parrots. Their only threat on day was clumsy giant on knees inside aviary in the Belgian Gardens State School, permission of Stem teacher-birder Brett Murphy after most birds retreated into heavily shadowed areas as I tried to photograph them through their metal mesh enclosures (a simple technique that, birds willing, works surprisingly well).

Time for commercial break! The school sells some birds. Helps with costs, I imagine. Anyway, knowing nothing whatsoever about bird commerce, seems to me $100 for the rarest down to $15-$35 for others is good value. How that compares with more commercial operations I have no idea. I mention it by way of thanks for the school's generosity of staff and pupils' time and access to a typically self-centred birder turning up on their doorstep tracking possible sources of unexplained sightings of 'outsider' species in nearby birding hotspots.

Meanwhile the Townsville City Council is stepping up its efforts to boost numbers of Black-throated Finches. New revegetation methods and grasses are being tried in Oak Valley Reserve Park. The council is keen to gather current information about sightings of the species in the reserve. This need not be so formal as notifications to the Black-throated Finch Recovery programme.