2019 - MY BIRDING YEAR - GILLIE MATTHEW

2019 – my BIG YEAR in Birding.

Gillie Matthew

As birding years go, 2019 was excellent!  The four big-ticket items on my list, three with over 255 species on the list, are more than plenty to inspire my continued birding:  Thailand, Bowra, Cape York and Far North Queensland and ‘The Game’.

In February I travelled to Thailand with Eagle Eye to see the Spoon-billed Sandpiper, Mrs Hume’s Pheasant and 287 of their beautiful feathered friends.  What a trip that was and it was made extra special by our local guide, End, who worked extremely hard to create a complete experience, even buying us absolutely beautiful street foods. From Bangkok we went to Phetchaburi, Kaeng Karachan, Doi An Khan, Doi Inthanon National Park, Khao Doi National Park and back to Bangkok.  I bought a hide from the manufacturer that has been useful at Toorbul.

 

Mrs Hume’s Pheasant and two Mountain Bamboo-Partridges, Doi Ang Khang, Thailand

Black-and-red Broadbills, Kaeng Krachan, Thailand

August was beautiful at Bowra and the shearer’s quarters were comfortable.  Paddy and others from the Sunshine Coast just happened to be there too.  Although the list was more modest (139), for a week-long trip it was spectacular!  The parrots, the honeyeaters, the chats, the babblers, the fairy-wrens: too many fabulous birds to nominate a single highlight.

 

Spotted Quail-thrush, Bowra

Crested Shrike-tit, St George

In October Ken and Steve showed off Far North Queensland’s spectacular residents of which the Golden Bowerbird was my absolute favourite.  As we explored Weipa, Iron Range, Lockhardt River, Mt Lewis, Atherton and afterwards Michaelmas Cay, my list tallied almost the same number to the trip around the Thailand’s environments.  How special does that make our Australian birding? 

 

Golden Bowerbird adds a small fruit to his bower, Atherton Tableland

Golden-shouldered Parrot, Artemis Station

“But you should!” Ken told me when I said I wasn’t interested in playing ‘The Game’.   He was so persuasive, ‘The Game’ became my big-ticket item number three.  That decision jettisoned me into a flurry of racing around the region at every opportunity looking for every variety of locally occurring bird, all the while armed with my camera. 

‘The Game’ has had a huge impact on my life:

·         Carl can now comfort with me with a whole vocabulary of phrases when I come home frustrated about my photos or inability to find a bird, and can identify quite a list of ‘ducks’;

·         My camera just wouldn’t do and was eventually upgraded, thereby negating my need to do weight training at the gym;

·         Having resisted for years, Adobe is now a ‘must-have’ and I don’t know how I ever lived without Lightroom;

·         My lounging about time has vanished;

·         I have made some great friends and increased my network; and

·         Importantly, I have learned so much about where to find birds locally! 

It’s funny how it goes.  Some birds were easy.  They are as familiar as the local landscape - magpies, miners, lorikeets and, because I live near the Maroochy River, cormorants and terns.  Others were really hard requiring travel, new techniques and multiple visits.  Among this lot are the Eastern Ground Parrot and that elusive Pale-vented Bush-hen which I still don’t have this year.  Some required overcoming sea-sickness while focussing on the bird, the sky, the sea, the bird, the sea, the sky and oh I feel crook even thinking about it.  Some have been just plain lucky finds.  For me the best of these are the Australasian Bittern and the Great Bowerbird.

 

Great Bowerbird, Montville

 

Australasian Bittern, Coolum Industrial Estate

I often laugh about the paparazzi when word goes out about an exciting find and we all race out to see it.  Truth is, though, it is so wonderful that we share our knowledge and experience. We are so lucky to have such a group and all hail Ken for his wonderful leadership.  Thank you everyone who has shared with me.  I appreciate it!  Maybe I will play again next year, maybe not.  But whatever I do and wherever I do it, birding will continue to be part of what I do, just as it has since I was 16 when my brother and I rode our bikes out birding on the Townsville Town Common.