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Taveuni in Fiji: Silktail & Orange Dove
Taveuni Silktail A 6-day stay on the delightful island of Taveuni in Fiji was the first cab off the rank for our recent overseas tour. I’d been to Fiji before but not to Taveuni, famed for two...
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Lesser Antilles Cruise Part 1 – Antigua to Martinique
Martinique OrioleWe opted for an 11-day cruise of the Lesser Antilles with a schedule giving options for the highest number of potential bird specialties and endemics in that timeframe. I’d previously...
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Lesser Antilles Cruise Part 2: St Lucia
White-breasted ThrasherFollowing our visit to Martinique (next post) we sailed south to the island state of St Lucia in the southern Lesser Antilles. St Lucia has something of a mixed reputation. Fine...
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Lesser Antilles Cruise Part 3: Dominica to Grand Turk
Red-necked ParrotAfter a successful clean-up of targets on St Lucia, our cruise vessel headed north to Roseau, the capital of the island state of Dominica (often confused with the Dominican Republic...
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Canada & United States – a month of mountains, critters, friends and snow
Northern Pygmy-OwlFollowing a week-long visit to the island of Taveuni in Fiji and an 11-day cruise through the Lesser Antilles, we had almost a month in the United States and Canada. First off was a...
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Itinerary for a Planned Birding Tour of Papua in 2025 - A Feast of Avian Gems
Red Bird-of-ParadiseA 22-day birding tour of Papua – the Indonesian-owned western half of the island of New Guinea – is planned for June 2025, with November 2025 being a second option. Papua is...
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Hudsonian Godwit Twitch
Hudsonian GodwitTwo days ago, May 25, birding gun Andy Jensen found a Hudsonian Godwit at a high tide roost off the end of Gregory Road, Mango Hill, in the northern suburbs of Brisbane (within the...
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The endangered Black-breasted Buttonquail and the dilemma that is the exotic...
Black-breasted Buttonquail femaleHere is a dilemma in need of urgent attention. For 20+ years I have been observing a healthy population of Black-breasted Buttonquail near Imbil, in the Sunshine Coast...
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Australia Road Trip 2024 - Part 1: Queensland
Carpentarian Grasswren We embarked on June 22 this year on a 78-day journey with the caravan through outback Queensland, much of the Northern Territory, bits of South Australia, and southern and...
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AUSTRALIAN ROAD TRIP 2024 - Northern Territory Top End
Chestnut RailAfter crossing the Queensland-Northern Territory border we overnighted at the Barkly Homestead campground heading west, where birds included large numbers of Diamond Dove, Masked...
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AUSTRALIA ROAD TRIP 2024 – Part 3: Southern Northern Territory & South...
Western GrasswrenHeading further south through the Northern Territory, we left behind the savannah woodlands of the Top End for more arid environs, camping at the Tennant Creek Caravan Park overnight....
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AUSTRALIA ROAD TRIP 2024 -Part 4: New South Wales
Spotted-tailed QuollCrossing the South Australia border into Victoria and then NSW, we had 3 nights at the Euston Club RV Camp on the banks of the Murray River, catching up with our friend Kathy...
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Biting off more than you can chew – Noisy Miner & Carpet Python
I was distracted in my Nambour garden in the Sunshine Coast hinterland this morning by a cacophany of alarm calls from Noisy Miners, Blue-faced Honeyeaters and assorted others. That usually indicates...
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Solomon Islands 2024: Part 1 - Kolombangara Island
Solomons CockatooOur vehicle bumped along a rough track through a palm forest swamp near the village of Ringii on the coast of Kolombangara Island. We were on the lookout for a special bird. The...
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Solomon Islands 2024: Part 2 - Rennell Island
Bare-eyed White-eyeAfter visiting Kolombangara during our October trip to Solomon Islands (See this link) as a guest of Tourism Solomons, we flew from Honiara to Rennell, the country’s most easterly...
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Solomon Islands 2024: Part 3 - Guadalcanal Island
Blyth's HornbillThe bustling Solomon Islands capital of Honiara on Guadalcanal - best-known as the site for some of the most significant naval battles of World War II - was the base for our visits to...
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Paradise Parrot - lost, found, lost again: observations by Cyril Jerrard and...
The following is a transcript of my story published in The Weekend Australia of 22-23 Deceember, 2024The young grazier and wildlife enthusiast suspected he was on to something special. In December...
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The lost Paradise Parrot - More bits and pieces
Further to my article in The Weekend Australian about a new book on the Paradise Parrot by Tony Pridham and historic accounts by naturalists Cyril Jerrard and Eric Zillmann, further scribblings are...
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CHRISTMAS ISLAND 2025
Christmas Island BoobookI was last on Christmas Island as a working journalist in 2007 in May – the wrong time of year for summer vagrants from south-east Asia, as well as the endemic Christmas Island...
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COCOS & KEELING ISLANDS 2025
White TernFollowing our visit to Christmas Island we flew to West Island in the Cocos-Keeling group for a 5-day stay. This was reduced from the planned 7 days due to our flight from Christmas Island...
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Transformation of Yandina Creek Wetland (+ Australian Little Bittern influx)
Australian Little BitternThis morning at Yandina Creek Wetland on the Sunshine Coast, I recorded three Australian Little Bitterns at widely separated sites. Two birds were heard only, while an adult...
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NSW Road Trip 2025 Part 1: Snowy Mountains to Kandos
Mainland Dusky AntechinusWe headed off for a 19-day autumn road trip through eastern NSW on March 5, 2025. Kicked off with the first night in Grafton as Cyclone Alfred threatened to flatten our...
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NSW Road Trip 2025, Part 2: New England National Park Region
Eastern Pygmy-PossumFollowing our visit to the Snowy Mountains and other southern NSW sites, we headed north to the New England National Park area. We had originally planned to stay at the National...
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Plumed Frogmouth – Lost and found
Marbled Frogmouth male, Booloumba CreekThis is the transcript of my article published in current (Autumn 2025) edition of the Australian BirdLife magazine. The evening of October 28, 1976 was...
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Night Parrot man in jail after bush bolthole bid
John Young during a visit to the Sunshine CoastHere is the transcript of my story in today’s edition of The Australian newspaper.One of Australia’s best-known naturalists hid in dense rainforest in...
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