Over A MIllion Birds Counted – 2015 Aussie Backyard Bird Count

Posted on December 3, 2015 by Tara

Just a few weeks ago, I was one of the participants in the 2015 Aussie Backyard Bird Count. The results are in and they are amazing!

I got 7 out of the Top Ten birds Australia wide and all of the 1st three!

Rainbow Lorikeet
Noisy Miner
Australian Magpie Find out who made the list on the Aussie Backyard Bird Count site and see if your favourites are there!

Mark your calendars for next year – 17-23 October 2016.

You can download the 2015 results here

You can download species list for Australia here

How I Planned A Birding Cruise

Posted on August 21, 2015 by Tara

The cruise I will be blogging about in this series took place in 2011 on the beautiful Coral Princess by Princess Cruises. It remains to this day as the best cruise we have ever taken out of about 6 so far. It was the perfect itinerary – birding at almost every port and not too many sea days. Unfortunately Princess no longer does this itinerary, probably due to American passengers being afraid to travel to Acapulco and the cruise was only just over half full. Good for us, not so good for Princess!

GETTING THERE

This cruise was done during what I call the Golden Age of Miles & Points – when there were lucrative promos and fewer people who had the expertise to exploit them. I did the US Airways Grand Slam promo on both mine and my husband’s accounts to get over 120k miles in each our accounts. The whole itinerary was in business class!

SINGAPORE AIRLINES: BNE-SIN

ASIANA: SIN-ICN-LAX

US AIRWAYS: LAX-PHX-MEX

Open jaw for cruise, then drive to Orlando to see friend. Fly to LAX and drive to see family using separate ticket on AA.

ASIANA: LAX-ICN-SIN

SINGAPORE AIRLINES: SIN-BNE

As I stated in the previous post, we arrived in Mexico 3 days prior to the cruise and spent 1 day in Mexico City at the Hampton Inn Centro Historico, saw the pyramids, took a bus to Acapulco and spent 2 nights at the Crowne Plaza on points and were upgraded to a corner suite. We had a great view and even saw our ship the Coral Princess come in!

THE CRUISE ITINERARY

This map shows the ground transport (red) and cruise (blue).

Here we have the cruise itinerary with timings. Timings are always important as you see way more birds in the early morning. We were really good about being downstairs ready to dis-embark the minute they started allowing people off.

OUR SPECIFIC PLANS FOR EACH PORT

Huatulco – Princess actually had a bird-watching shore excursion so we did that.

San Juan del Sur – I couldn’t find anything for birding at the time so we did a Masaya Volcano/Granada shore excursion hoping to see birds incidentally.

Puntarenas – I booked a private day trip to visit Carara National Park and a bird sanctuary

Panama Canal – The ship provided commentary throughout the transit of the canal. When we reached Colon, they only gave us a few hours to see the shopping centre at the port.

Ocho Rios – I booked a private birding tour.

FUN FACT: I got to watch the Royal Wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton on the big screen at the swimming pool during the cruise even though I had to get up at 4am to do it!

Amazing Footage Of Extremely Endangered Night Parrot

Posted on August 11, 2015 by Tara

They’ve been called the “Holy Grail” of Australian birders and I have to agree! I am dying to see a Night Parrot in the wild but this may be a far distant dream for now. The elusive bird has only been seen 3 times by expert researchers in the last 2 years and the exact location is top secret to protect the birds while researchers hunt for more. From the interview aired by ABC TV:

Ecologist Dr Steve Murphy is researching the night parrot population and said if more are found, the public would then have the opportunity to visit them.

“But without finding those other populations the risks are still really too great,” he said.

The newly designated Bush Reserve is somewhere west of Longreach. To put it into perspective, I have done a Google map showing the route from my home town of Brisbane to Longreach and circled the area which is “west of Longreach” so that’s a lot of area!

For now, we all have to be content with this footage (click on links below) of the diminutive Night Parrot. I can’t get over how small and fragile he looks! I am really glad they have those baits for feral cats as they could easily wipe out what’s left of the population. You can be sure that if birders are ever allowed to see the bird, I will be jumping in my car within minutes to take the drive out there!

ABC STORY AND VIDEO

THE AUSTRALIAN

THE GUARDIAN

Help Conservation By Joining Surveys For Regent Honeyeaters & Swift Parrots

Posted on July 24, 2015 by Tara

Next weekend – August 1 & 2, Birdlife Australia is conducting surveys to locate populations of Regent Honeyeaters and Swift Parrots. There are lots of potential survey locations on their website throughout Victoria, NSW, ACT and QLD (see the Excel spreadsheet towards the bottom – Suggested survey locations for Swift Parrot and Regent Honeyeater surveys). There are also forms to fill out after the survey and send to Birdlife.

For more information about the surveys see our webpage or contact Dean Ingwersen (Regent Honeyeaters), Mick Roderick (Swift Parrots in NSW, ACT and Qld) or Caroline Wilson (Swift Parrots in Victoria).

I will be out there surveying in Greater Brisbane, probably with my husband. We didn’t have any luck in May so really hopeful for this one! The weather reports for next week show another cold snap coming in so I hope the birds are enjoying our relatively warm winter in QLD by now!

These photos are from Wikipedia to show the birds we are looking for.

Regent Honeyeater

Swift Parrot

Exciting Volunteer Opportunities – Echo Bonaire

Posted on June 6, 2015 by Tara

Does living on a beautiful island in the Caribbean and helping to conserve rare parrots appeal to you? Echo Bonaire has several vacancies on their website.

The most regular flights are via the US (Houston, Atlanta, Newark and Miami) or via Amsterdam. You can use your miles to get there, the Caribbean area is the same as the zone used for Puerto Rico.

New E-Book To Support Golden Conure Conservation!

Posted on May 26, 2015 by Tara

As regular readers know, I am passionate about birds and the Golden Conure is one of my all-time favourite species. In 2012, I was lucky enough to see them in the wild in their natural habitat in Brazil. Recently, I was invited by Pompom – the leader of the Golden Conures International Facebook group to contribute an article about my trip to this wonderful project. She assembled a dedicated group of writers from all over the world – all of whom donated their chapters so that all the proceeds from this book could go to the World Parrot Trust’s Golden Conure Survival Fund. Mine is Chapter 16: Goldens at the End of the Rainbow.

The e-book is being sold by Pocketmags which goes by several other names depending on where in the world you are located.

Pocketmags.com

MagazineCloner.com – UK & Europe

GGADigital.com.au – Australia

Magamall.com – Canada & USA

You will need to create an account with Pocketmags before ordering. Once you pay for the book via credit card or Paypal, the book will be stored in your account and you will need to access it via the account. This protects the copyright of the book.

Link to order this e-book

Don’t be confused by the Avizandrum 12 issues per year thing. The book is being published by the same folks in South Africa who publish this monthly avicultural magazine. You will only get one e-book, it’s not a monthly thing. The currency will probably default to your home country’s currency, I was charged in AUD.

HOW TO ACCESS YOUR E-BOOK

This was the confusing part as I was not familiar with this online publishing company. In some ways, it is kind of like the Kindle for PC app.

The book will appear in your account. When you click on the “READ” button, you can choose which online e-reader you want to use. They have a Silverlight or a Flash reader but you must be online to use them.

If you are using an iPad or other tablet, there are several apps available.

Lastly, most people will want to be able to read the book offline. This works similar to Kindle for PC. You download their reader here.

Once you install the program, you log into it with your Pocketmags details and it will prompt you to download the e-book. This will take awhile as it’s a large file. You will then be able to read the book offline at your convenience.

Enjoy the book and please tell your friends. You can learn more about Golden Conures and support them in the wild at the same time!

Why We Need To Protect These Birds

Posted on March 27, 2015 by Tara

As we were driving to the airport on the last day, I was dismayed to see a man sitting in the street median selling endemic birds, obviously wild-caught. I was sitting in a taxi and trying to take pics through the traffic so these aren’t great shots but you can clearly see the little green birds on the left which are Grey-headed Lovebirds and there is at least one Vasa Parrot on the right. I don’t know what the laws are in Madagascar are, I tend to think it must be illegal otherwise I would have seen more such sellers. It’s so heartbreaking to see them like this when I just got back from seeing their cousins in the wild. These birds are probably being captured outside of parks that cater to birders that don’t have park rangers and tourists tramping through each day.

If anyone knows what authority I can send these pics to to help catch these people, please comment below. Unfortunately, I didn’t get the seller in the pics but a local Malagasy may recognize this location.

Volunteer At The Ara Project, Costa Rica

Posted on March 25, 2015 by Tara

Do you love working with parrots? If so, we need your help! Join us for a rewarding experience working with large macaws in Costa Rica.

At the Ara Project’s breeding and release center you will see wildlife, visit a beautiful country and learn about a different culture, and meet new people. Best of all, you will make a difference in the lives of endangered macaws.

Full details are on their website.

Read about my visit to the Ara Project (prior to relocation).

Use miles to get to Costa Rica for free and hotel points just after you arrive to get your bearing, then transfer to the project.

Conservation Of Mauritius’ Echo Parakeet – A Species Saved From Extinction

Posted on February 14, 2015 by Tara

While I was in Mauritius, I was very fortunate to have been invited to visit the Echo Parakeet monitoring station in Black River Gorges National Park. This came about when I met the program’s chief scientist Prof. Carl Jones at Loro Parque’s World Parrot Conference in Sept 2014. Just one more good reason to attend these conferences! I had mentioned to him that I am a travel blogger with a specialty in eco-tourism and birding and would like to see the Echo Parakeets. He gave me his card and after some emails, he told me he had gotten permission for my husband and I to visit.

We met him at the Petrin entrance and he took us around 5 km inside the park to the gated facility where the Echo Parakeets and Pink Pigeons are given nutritional supplements and studied. You can read the story of how Prof. Jones saved the species from extinction and brought the population of Echo Parakeets from a scant 10 to roughly 350 birds and learn more about the project here and here.

We entered the park with Prof. Jones and drove to the project grounds.

Once there, Prof. Jones and a visiting veterinarian went for a consultation leaving us to enjoy the up close and personal views of the birds. There are several of these feeders scattered around the grounds for the parakeets. They have to use their beaks to lift a lid and scoop out a pellet.

Pink Pigeons also frequent the facility and have their own food.

This type of feeder is meant for the pigeons but the naughty parakeets come and steal their food.

This is a close up of the pellet they are eating. This is only a supplement to their natural food.

This is a different feeder but basically the same principle.

SHOW THE BIRDS SOME LOVE!

I just happen to be posting this on Valentine’s Day but this is valid any time and they always need more funds. If you would like to help Prof. Jones and his team conserve the Echo Parakeet and Pink Pigeon, they have a donation button on their website. You can also symbolically adopt one of 5 Mauritian animals. The Echo Parakeet isn’t one of the 5 but the Pink Pigeon is and they inhabit the same area so help one and help them all!

This Needs To Stop – NOW! How You Can Help

Posted on December 9, 2014 by Tara

I’m getting a bit ahead of myself as I usually blog a trip in chronological order but this is more important. This happened in Antananarivo, Madagascar. When we were in the taxi going from the hotel to the airport, I noticed a bunch of cages on the street. We were on the opposite side of the road so I didn’t get a good look but having an 18 megapixel camera was enough to get the real scoop.

I can identify Grey-headed Lovebirds and Vasa Parrots in a few of the cages which would clearly be captured from the wild. One green bird I can’t identify appears to be dead (lying on its side on the floor).

THIS IS WHAT NEEDS TO STOP!

The World Parrot Trust has the experience to help these birds. Right now they are doing their annual campaign in which everyone’s donations are matched by an anonymous donor. So give $25 and it becomes $50, give $100 and it becomes $200 and so on.

Click for donation page

Online fundraising for WORLD PARROT TRUST USA INC at Razoo

As my blog about Africa progresses, you will see a lot of photos of wild Lovebirds, Vasa Parrots and more flying where they belong. Help the World Parrot Trust keep them free!

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Category Archives: Conservation