2013 Wrap Up - Part 1 (Cram!)

 Okies... well to start off, blogger, feathers and photos and various other crucial sites for my existence were giving me a lot of trouble throughout the second half of 2013 so I couldn't post any trip reports. Due to this, I've nicknamed this report 'Cram!'
I'll pick up where I left off and run through the highlights of the year.

Through Facebook, I got in contact with Jillian Nolan, a birder and photographer based in Sydney. She kindly offered to take me out to Western Sydney for my first Western Sydney run on the 23rd August!

On this trip I saw my first Banded Lapwings at the Windsor Turf Farms albeit a bit distant, my first Great Crested Grebes at Castlereagh, male and female Scarlet Robins and Swift Parrots at Mulgoa Nature Reserve!!! Along with these birds we also observed Rose Robin, Peaceful Dove and Little Lorikeet.

Scarlet Robin (Male)

Banded Lapwing (Windsor Turf Farms)

Great Crested Grebe (Castlereagh)

Little Lorikeet

Peaceful Dove

Rose Robin

We also saw a Camel and a Donkey which was quite amusing.

Following this, on the 14th September I got my first good look at a Little Grassbird at Eastlakes Golf Course with my dad as well as observing some Brown Quail, a Fan-tailed Cuckoo and some other nice birds.

Little Grassbird

Brown Quail

Fan-tailed Cuckoo

After Eastlakes, a quick drive to the airport ponds produced a Peregrine Falcon, a Striated Heron and some Yellow-rumped Thornbill along with the usual suspects.

Striated Heron... wasn't too friendly!

After that it was off to Orchestra after which I briefly dropped in to the Botanical Gardens and found myself a Powerful Owl and a Peregrine Falcon with a Rock Dove.

Peregrine silhouette

Powerful Owl preening

On the 16th September I got a tip off from Andrew Taylor, a local birder, about some Buff-banded Rail in my suburb!!! I went to the site and sure enough, there they were! So far I've seen 3 there.

Glebe Buff-banded Rail

On the 17th September I went out to Western Sydney with Katy Wilkins on a survey. As well as a Fox, we observed a young Pacific Baza, a Black Kite, some Double-barred Finch, a Brown Falcon

Fox

The Baza

Black Kite silhouette

Double-barred Finches

From the 19th through to the 21st of September I went banding out at Munghorn Gap with Graham Fry. Banding has always been fascinating to me and although this was only my second trip, I really felt like I was getting the hang of it! Aside from the fun of extracting birds from nets and handling and banding them, the birding around Munghorn Gap was fantastic!

On the way out of Sydney, I was thinking to myself, 'Ooh, I'll take some pictures of crossing the harbour bridge for the blog, that'll be fun!' So... I took them and when I got back I remembered that the blog wasn't exactly working for me. Nonetheless, here is the image!

Dashboard shot of the Harbour Bridge... I dunno :-P

After crossing the Blue Mountains without any pit-stops, we arrived at the Lithgow Poo Ponds where a few Pink-eared Ducks and Australian Shoveler greeted us along with the usual suspects and some Hoary-headed Grebe.

Pink-eared Duck, Shoveler and some other photobombing Teal, PBD and Hardhead

Hoary-headed Grebe

After Lithgow, we drove through the Capertee Valley stopping here and there. A White-eared Honeyeater was nice to see along Glen Davis Road, a bird that I first saw earlier this year on a hike! Further down the road a light morph Little Eagle flew over the car.

Underexposed Little Eagle (Light Morph)

After a few other stops picking up a few honeyeaters and the other more common birds we (Dad and I) came down into the farmland where we were greeted by the usual dramatic views as well as a few Zebra Finch, Wedge-tailed Eagle, Black-fronted Dotterel and other nice birds:

Just the usual sandstone cliffs

Black-fronted Dotterel

Wedge-tailed Eagle

Zebra Finch

We continued onto Glen Alice Road and after the right hand turn a little way up we pulled over at some trees. Good choice! We could hear some Diamond Firetail making their brown quail imitation and also scored a lifer, a Striped Honeyeater with a nest! Sadly my honeyeater shots didn't really come out well.

Diamond Firetail

Striped Honeyeater

A little further on we found a Spotted Harrier gliding low over the long grass of some farmland nearby. After a brief stop to photograph it, on went Beethoven and we were off to Munghorn Gap to make camp before the sun went down!

Spotted Harrier

Nothing much turned up of interest on the drive to Munghorn Gap. One Brown Goshawk and a couple of hundred Straw-necked Ibis flew over the car. We made it to Honeyeater Flat, Munghorn Gap, greeted Graham (who told us about some Painted Honeyeater calling in the area...) and set up tents just before the sun went down, in time to look at the sunset through the trees.... Straya!

Our tents

Sunset

Boobooks and Australian Owlet Nightjars kept me awake most of the night, at one point I even tried to find one! Bad idea... I walked about a kilometre and a half chasing a Boobook and managed to observe a kangaroo and get my feet nice and wet.

The next morning I didn't tell anyone about my little 1am excursion. Rising at around 5:30, I headed out to try and find the Painted Honeyeater. None heard or seen, but I did find some White-winged Chough on nests, another Striped Honeyeater, Jacky Winter, Brown Treecreeper, Pied Butcherbird, Rufous Whistler and some others around the camping area.

Striped Honeyeater

Walking down the main road a bit, I found some Eastern Yellow Robin, Noisy Friarbird, Thornbills and a lifer for me, a group of Brown-headed Honeyeater!

Brown-headed Honeyeater

To make the first banding run, I ran back to the camp, quickly hunked down some breakfast and got in the car with dad to go to the spring, our banding spot for the day. As we arrive, Graham and another bander, Martin were settling down for the first batch. After greeting them, we went off to extract some birds from the mist-nets. White-naped Honeyeater, Red-browed Finch, Yellow-tufted Honeyeater, Brown Thornbill and others were retrieved from the nets and dad quickly put them into the bags and took them back to Graham and Martin.

Red-browed Finch (right) and White-naped Honeyeater (left)

Daddy-O with birds in bags... hasn't quite woken up :-)

At this point, many of you readers may be wondering if this is ethical birding practice; to catch birds in nets, handle then, put them in bags, stick thin metal bands on their legs and then measure them with all sorts of tools. Well, many people have their reservations about this form of research, but personally I feel that banding is a critical form of study that needs to be undertaken to fully understand the health of an ecosystem, specifically the birdlife. When a bird has a band, if it is re-trapped in a net, it can provide valuable information on the specific bird and also the habitat that the bird is banded in. From the band, an ornithologist can determine the approximate age of a bird, depending on when it was last banded, the sex of the bird and also the weight and moulting patterns the specific species has. These are just a few ways that banding helps ornithologist learn about specific species. If birds are banded in the same spot numerous times, it shows that the birds are happy to live in the area which then provides valuable information about what sort of habitat specific species prefer. This is particularly helpful for threatened species for which habitat regeneration is one method of boosting the population. When a bird is banded in one area, the band has imprinted upon it, a unique number or colour which identifies the individual bird. If this individual bird is re-trapped at another location, banders are then able to determine possible migration patterns that birds have, as well as other movements that are influenced by food availability or weather. This is just a basic description of the immense benefits that banding provides to ornithology.

Back on track however.... below I've attached a few more shots of birds being banded.

Graham with a Brown Thornbill, about to weigh it

White-browed Scrubwren, retrap 

Graham measuring the wing-length of a Yellow-tufted Honeyeater

At around 10:30 a whole lot of alarm calls rang out around the banding site. Looking up a dark raptor glided low over the trees above us and started circling upwards. After a quick squizz through the bins it was decided the bird was a dark morph Little Eagle. It was later harrassed by a female Brown Goshawk and chased away.

Dark Morph Little Eagle

More banding entailed:

Me with a Yellow-faced Honeyeater

Banding a White-naped Honeyeater

Yellow Thornbill in the hand

Soon the call of a White-throated Gerygone came from above us and Martin and Graham commented they may have a nest. It was embarrassing to admit that I had not yet seen a White-throated Gerygone. They quickly relieved me of my banding duties and told me to find it, which I did.

White-throated Gerygone

After that, a few Superb Fairywren, Eastern Spinebill, other assorted honeyeaters and thornbills and a single Spotted Pardalote were banded, which called an end to the day's banding.

Martin with the Pardalote

After we had packed up the banding set-up, Dad and I headed back to camp for lunch. Following lunch at which a Weebill was observed at close quarters, I went off for a walk to try find the reported Painted Honeyeater. I could hear one calling distantly as I bush bashed my way towards Moolarben Road. Looking up just before I crossed a small empty creek bed, a Little Eagle, presumeably the same bird, was observed sitting in a tree around 10 - 15m away.

Dark Morph Little Eagle perched

Soon after a loud warning call went up from all the honeyeaters and miners in the area and a Wedge-tailed Eagle flew low over the threes the Little Eagle was perched on, causing it to take flight as well!

(The light was pretty atrocious)

A Painted Honeyeater was briefly heard a long way down Moolarben Road, so I set about walking towards the call. On the way numerous other birds were encountered including some White-browed Babbler, Eastern Yellow Robin, a male Rufous Whistler, Mistletoebird, Yellow-tufted and other honeyeaters... so on.

White-browed Babbler

Eastern Yellow Robin

Mistletoebird

Rufous Whistler

Sadly I couldn't find my target, the Painted Honeyeater, so I headed back to camp. As I came to the campsite, Dad came up to me asking if I'd found the honeyeater. I told him I hadn't. Naturally I was then made aware that Graham, whilst walking back from the banding site, had happened across a male feeding in some mistletoe beside the road! Gripped!!!!

We went about setting up the nets for the next day's banding, rolling them up so we didn't catch any night critters. A few groups of Straw-necked Ibis flew over and Dad and I discovered emu poo for the first time!

Straw-necked Ibis flock

Dad with the bag of nets

Dad (right) and Graham (left) pulling out the nets

Off to camp

Emu poo!

That night, Dad offered to take me out looking for Barn Owls. We asked Graham where the best spot would be to find them and he told us to go for the lower, wetter areas. Naturally we decided a drive higher up would be productive. Bad move, we saw nothing and almost froze. We then decided to listen to what Graham had said and we headed towards Mudgee. Not far along the road, Dad asked, 'what's that on the signpost?' Sure enough we had a Barn Owl. We both went to bed contented with our spotlighting effort.

Not an award winning shot... but a Barn Owl nonetheless

The next morning I woke nice and early.... I needed to find this Painted Honeyeater. Perhaps I woke a little too early...

A very early start.....

I decided as I could hear a few Eastern Yellow Robins and Superb Fairywren starting up I would persist anyway, and it got lighter quite quickly. I went straight down to the gate and started walking along the road to where Graham had seen his Painted Honeyeater the day before. No Painted, but I found some more Brown-headed Honeyeaters as well as some Little Lorikeets and a bird I wasn't expecting, 4 Musk Lorikeet! Not rare birds, just unexpected.

Musk Lorikeet... the light was hard to photograph in!

Same Musk Lorikeet

Some other nice birds seen and heard were White-naped Honeyeater, Yellow-faced and Yellow-tufted Honeyeaters, Sulphur-crested Cockatoo, White-throated Treecreeper, Brown Treecreeper, Jacky Winter and the other usual suspects.

Jacky Winter

As I was walking back to the camp, I heard a Painted Honeyeater call. I whistled back and we had a little conversation! The conversation went on for about 5 minutes, it gets really tiring whistling for such a long period of time, but eventually it paid off. The Painted Honeyeater flew into a tree right in front of me.

My first views of a Painted Honeyeater

Singing

Singing some more

Sitting around

Still sitting around

Overall I got to look at it for about 3 minutes sitting openly on a branch, before it flew off to find some mistletoe to nibble. I headed back to camp, passing a few kangaroos and wallabies on the way, feeling pleased with myself, a good morning's birding was had!

Eastern Grey Kangaroo with joey

Red-necked Wallaby

As I reached the camp, Graham was already up and banding the first batch for the day. A White-throated Treecreeper amongst others was banded, it was great to get close to one of these rather jumpy birds. Various other birds were banded including a pair of Speckled Warbler, some Mistletoebirds and various other woodland birds.

Me with a Mistletoebird - bill-length measurements

Speckled Warbler wing length measurements

Male Mistletoebird in the hand

Speckled Warbler in the hand

A pair of Brown Goshawks and the Little Eagle were seen again on a net run as the day started to heat up. Not too much else turned up except for a beautiful male Rufous Whistler.

Brown Goshawk

Graham with a Rufous Whistler

That was the end of the banding trip for September 2013 and we packed up, said our goodbyes and were on the road again! Numerous Little Eagle, at least 5 individual birds were seen between Mudgee and the town of Capertee which was great to see. Other than that the odd Nankeen Kestrel, Brown Falcon, Black-shouldered Kite and Whistling Kite were seen along the road. A quick stop at Lithgow Poo Ponds produced a few Pink-eared Ducks and Shovelers amongst the usual waterfowl.

Pink-eared Duck yawning

We ascended into the mountains but briefly stopped at Pierces Pass picnic area to see if we could find the apparently abundant and relatively tame Pilotbirds that reside there. (Cheers for the tip off Ashwin!) As I got out of the car, I could hear their distinctive call and it didn't take us long to find one jumping around on the ground. Not long after, looking up into a tree nearby, I noticed a large finch with a bright red bill. A Beautiful Firetail!! Two lifers in under a minute, fantastic!

Pilotbird

Beautiful Firetail

From there we went straight home and that was the end of a fantastic trip... and so it happens, the end of Part 1 of the 2013 Wrap Up!

Thanks specifically to Graham Fry, Jillian Nolan, Katy Wilkins, Andrew Taylor, Ashwin Rudder for allowing me to get out and about, banding, surveying, birding and to see new things! Most importantly however, thank you very much Dad for taking me to and from various sites, especially driving to and from Munghorn Gap and just generally being a good dad!

A Fortunate Error...

In my last post, I wrote about how I was quite upset by missing out on 400 Australia list by just two species.

As it happens, I'm an idiot who can't count!

I discovered an error in my lists - and I rebuilt my entire life-list to make sure. It seems that I actually ticked over onto the number 400 on Masked Owl, when I was with Simon and David Stowe On New Year's Eve!!!!

That may sound a little suspicious, but I swear it's true. My Australian life list is 400!

Just thought I'd correct my mistake on here :)

Julian

2013 - Year In Review

Geez, a new year already??

Where did October through to December go?

It's been some time since I posted about anything more recent than mid-September, so I figured while I'm doing a catch-up post for the second half of the year, I might as well make it the whole year.

By the way - this is going to be a text wall, simply because blogger is slow and I can't be bothered uploading photos! :D

Please have a go at reading it anyway though :P

This year has been a big one for me - all my life so far, I've been home-educated. 2013 marked the last year of my fairly secluded life, as in 2014 I will be attending year 11 (College, as we call years 11 and 12 in Canberra) at an actual school!!

With that in mind, I wanted to spend the year doing as much birding as possible! I had my parent's sympathy, and through them and the generosity of numerous friends, I was able to travel extensively through Australia.

My big goal for 2013 was to hit the big number: 400 Australian Life-list. As planning for the year progressed, I felt sure I would make it - so sure, in fact, that I made it even more challenging, and upped my goal to getting to 400 species for my Australian Year-list!!

I got off to a fairly slow start, but that didn't last long! In early January, I went to visit Simon in Sydney, in fact our first face-to-face meeting. Birding with him and Ashwin Rudder, another of our Young Birders Group, was entertaining as well as productive. On the first evening I was with Simon, we went out to twitch a Barking Owl that had turned up at Warriewood Wetlands, and had been seen by Ashwin the day before. We saw the owl, and a few mornings later I finally added a few waders to my list, including Whimbrel, Eastern Curlew, Bar-tailed Godwit, Ruddy Turnstone and Red-necked Stints. 

I returned home, and for a while my year-ticks almost dropped off entirely - with the exception of some excitement in late January, when I got my 100th Year-tick with the spectacular arrival of an Australian Painted Snipe pair at a wetland not far from home!

However that all changed when I had a conversation with a friend who lives in Alice Springs - he suggested I might like to do work experience at the Alice Springs Desert Park, where he works, when I turned 15. 

I'm a keen aviculturist as well as a birdwatcher, so I jumped at the chance not only for the birding opportunities, but also for the chance to learn something of zoo-style birdkeeping! On the day of my 15th birthday in late February, I boarded the plane to Alice.

During two weeks of massive (for a Canberra boy) heat and awesome fun, I got a taste of birding inland. After my daily work shift at the Desert Park and on the weekends, Jim and I birded quite extensively in the Alice area. Out of 103 species, I got more than 30 lifers!! Highlights for that trip were Dusky Grasswren, Spinifexbird, Crimson and Orange chats, Spinifex Pigeons virtually feeding from the hand, Golden-backed Honeyeater and Ground Cuckoo-shrike. 

Repeated visits to the Alice Springs Water-treatment Plant also gave me what was essentially my first insight into the trying world of wader identification - a skill that proved very useful during 2013, and is sure to remain useful for... well, forever!

Trips to Charcoal Tank Nature Reserve in western NSW with the bird-banding crew piled on the species, including Shining Bronze-cuckoo, Shy Heathwren, Black Honeyeater and Western Gerygone, although my nemeses Australian Owlet Nightjar and Painted Button Quail did, and still continue, to elude me!

Another visit to Simon in April, and another spate of year and life ticks. We tried spotlighting for Sooty Owls, but ended up dipping. Some nice shots of Tawny Frogmouth to compensate!

My next major trip was to Brisbane in the first week of July, where I had been invited to give a talk at the monthly meeting of the Queensland Finch Society. With Gary and Cheryl from the QFS, I added a lot more year ticks, as well as obtaining my first ever views of Red-backed Fairy Wren, with good shots to boot!

Ashwin and Nathan Ruser came to stay for a weekend, intending to join one of the Charcoal Tank banding trips - which was then cancelled almost as soon as they got off the bus. Disappointed, we decided to go camping in the Namadgi National Park, which was nice, even without mist nets! Spotted Quail-thrush near camp was a particularly good moment.

On the 25th of August, I set out for Wollongong for my first ever pelagic trip. Being my first, almost everything was a life tick, which is a thoroughly enjoyable feeling! Smooth waters were nice for my first go, and I wasn't sick (much to my relief), but it also meant no Pterodroma petrels. After the trip, my Life-list sat on 305, having ticked onto 300 with a truly majestic species - the Northern Royal Albatross. Along with the Royal, some of the best species we saw on that trip for me were Fairy Prion, Wandering Albatross, Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross, Northern Giant Petrel, and both Fluttering and Hutton's Shearwaters.

And then, on the 27th of August, I set out on my biggest ever trip. The three-week adventure into the Kimberley and Top-end, and I think anyone who reads this blog will know all about that by now!!!
Highlights for the Top-end trip were Gouldian Finch, Yellow-rumped Mannikin, Hooded Parrot, Northern Rosella, Varied Lorikeet, Bar-breasted Honeyeater, Brolga.... the list goes on, and on, and on!

Top-end was really my last proper trip for 2013, and by the end of it my Life-list was on the way to 400! It looked as though my goal would be attained!

Since that trip, my time has been primarily occupied with small-time twitches around home, and bird-banding. A second pelagic trip off the coast of Eden NSW turned up some exceptional birds, only this time the water was too rough to get to the continental shelf to see the Pterodroma Petrels! Grey-backed Storm Petrel, White-faced Storm Petrel, Common Diving Petrel, lots of Fairy Prions and plenty of Short-tailed Shearwaters made a brilliant day. I also saw the last of the Australian Cormorants for 2013, the Black-faced.
The day after the pelagic, I was able to do some birding around Eden and Bega, which was great, and I saw a few interesting birds including Brush Bronzewing, Curlew Sandpiper and White-fronted Chat.

A trip to Moruya in October caught me up on some of the coastal species such as Little Lorikeet, White-headed Pigeon, White-cheeked Honeyeater, and I finally got Noisy Friarbird. This common species had eluded me in the summer, and I was getting worried! I'd never hear the end of it if I missed that bird... so thank god I didn't!!

During this latter part of the year, the inland birds decided to invade Canberra. White-browed and Masked Woodswallows and White-winged Trillers hung around Campbell Park. I went out there early one morning and saw over 300 Woodswallows!

When the Black Honeyeaters turned up at a small urban pond only 20 minutes away from home on the bike, I shot off to see them, despite them being 'not even a year-tick'! 

On the November banding trip to Charcoal, we were all shock-and-awed by the capture of an adult Black-eared Cuckoo, a first banding on the site! Excitement was further raised with the sighting of a second, immature, bird hanging around the area. Southern Whiteface was also caught on that trip, the first since 2006, and Diamond Doves were present - another inland anomaly.

Another Painted Snipe, another successful twitch! Painted Snipes are starting to become my favourite wader… 

In the last week of November, I was lucky enough to do another week of zoo work-experience, this time at the beautiful Healesville Sanctuary in Victoria. More year ticks, more good times! Working with the endangered Helmeted Honeyeater was truly an experience, and Glen Holland took me out to Werribee Treatment Plant on my last day!
Crested Shrike-tit, Pectoral Sandpiper, Blue-billed Duck and Eurasian Tree Sparrow were some of my favourite birds from that trip.

The last banding trip of the year attracted the attention of a birder and photographer friend of mine, Stanley Tang from Townsville. He flew all the way down to come banding with us, as he wanted to acquire more experience for his own PhD-related banding endeavours. We visited the usual Canberra sites, and once at Charcoal we started to get the good stuff!

Black-eared Cuckoos were once again present - this time with THREE individual birds caught, including the adult and juvenile from the November trip. Hopefully they stick around until the January trip, when Stanley and Nathan Ruser will be around.

The other major highlights of that trip were my first sightings of Major Mitchell's Cockatoo, and first-for-site-for-me catches of Diamond Firetail and Horsfield's Bronze Cuckoo.

We arrived home, and I looked up eremaea. The first words on the page for Birdline ACT were "Purple-crowned Lorikeets"!!!!

We raced out to the site as quickly as possible, and after several infuriating minutes of tense searching, got great views of a pair of Purple-crowns (the first ACT record since 1986), and some Musk Lorikeets. Suddenly, everything was lining up for me to be able to see all 7 Lorikeet species in one year!!

By this time, it had become clear that my goal of 400 for the year of 2013 would be impossible. I was gutted, and had only myself to blame for not trying hard enough at some of the places I'd been!! However, I still had the goal of 400 Life-list to aim for...

Christmas passed. With a great sense of excitement, on the 29th of December I hit the road for the last time, in a last-ditch effort to reach my goal. And who better to do it with than my host for my first trip of the year?

Simon picked me up at the Broadmeadow train-station in mid-NSW, and, joined by Nick Weigner, a young birder from Newcastle, we drove to Hexham Swamp.

Hexham was just the beginning. After ticking Black-tailed Godwit at Stockton Sandspit, we drove up to Simon's holiday home in Hawk's Nest, near Port Stephens, where I would be staying until a few days into the New Year.

Frantic birding got me ever closer to the magic number. Ospreys nesting on top of a telecom tower. Scaly-breasted Lorikeet, my last Australian lorikeet, seen and photographed. Common Tern on the beach. I finally got a look at a White-throated Needletail.

We ran into David Stowe, master photographer and birdwatcher, on the beach in Hawk's Nest on the morning of New Year's Eve. We arranged to go spotlighting that night, in the Myall Lakes National Park....

... And we were successful! For me, the view of Masked Owl was brief and only barely tickable. But a Masked Owl it was, with no doubt at all. Simon even got a look down the binoculars before it flew off.

Masked Owl was to be my last lifer, and my last year tick, for 2013. When we got back, around 11pm, I did the list tally.

Year list: 370.

Life list: 

Three hundred.

And Ninety.

Eight.

*sigh*

While I suppose my little attempt at a big year was pretty insignificant really, I was still devastated to have missed out by just TWO species. 

In all honesty though, I don't really care. Two Thousand and Thirteen was easily the best birding year, and possibly even the best all-round year of my entire life. I travelled more and experienced more in 2013 than in the past 5 years combined, and I had a hell of a fantastic time doing so!

So with that, I'd like to extent the biggest thanks of ALL TIME to Mark and Simon Gorta, Sharon Zwi, Ashwin Rudder, Jim Oatley, Gary Fitt, Cheryl Mares, Anthony Overs, Mark Clayton, Richard Jackson, Matt Mullaney, The crew and passengers of the 'Sandra K ' on August 25th, The crew and passengers of the Eden pelagic, Harvey Perkins, Glen Holland, Stanley Tang, David Stowe, and of course my wonderful parents!!!!!

I'd also like to say thanks to everyone who has helped me with bird IDs, camera tech support and a myriad of other issues during 2013 - the members of the facebook group Australian Birds and the bird-photography forum Feathers and Photos rate special mention!

Happy New Year, everyone, even if it is a bit late. I'll make a post about the 2014 part of my Hawk's Nest trip soon, but for now that's it! Happy birding this year!

Julian.