The next morning as I was coffeeing, I heard the unmistakable calls of Gang Gang Cockatoos and sure enough there were two in a tree beside Troopi. I got the camera out yet again, unusual for me. They are very cool birds.
After enjoying the cockatoos, I headed north with an unmemorable stop-over for the night in Bargo. The next afternoon I rolled into South West Rocks, NSW and checked into my nice little studio cabin (I prefer a cabin or room before going on a pelagic). About 9:30pm, I applied my Scopolamine patch behind my ear and soon after went to sleep.
The next morning I awoke at 4:30am feeling crap as I do when I wear the patch, BUT I do not get seasick. It is worth it. I was at the boat by 6:30 and we were underway by 7am. Liam Murphy had organised this pelagic. I had first met him at “his” Aleutian Terns in December of 2017 when those terns were very new. I had dashed straight up there. As it turned out they remained for months. I could have walked up from Victoria and not dipped.
The wind was light and we chugged out to the deep waters beyond the shelf and by 9:30 we began to drift and berley. We had Providence Petrels and a few other of the usual suspects. I was mostly watching for a certain white bellied beauty and it soon appeared. Tahiti Petrel! Distant at first but then it hung around for an hour or more and everyone got cracking views. It is a stunning and easily recognised pelagic bird. I took some photos. Tick!
The birding slacked off and we headed in a little early. I was knackered. I was more tired than I thought I should be. I will readily admit that I have gotten into real crap shape. Migraines, battling the twins (depression and anxiety), using food for comfort and being way too sedentary has taken its toll. I was tired as. I went back to my cabin, showered and had a quiet evening. I would be meeting Liam in Beechwood at 7am and I needed to leave at 5:30am to be sure I was on time. I was up by 3:30am. I was excited. I was going after the Rufous Scrub-bird with someone in their home patch.
A couple of times a year, Liam goes into the rain forest of Werrikimbe National Park (about two hours inland from where he lives in Port Macquarie) and has a look for Rufous Scrub-birds. He had given Robert and me the gen on where to look when we went there in October of 2017. We heard them very well and in a few spots, but did not see them. That is usual for these exceptionally elusive, skulking birds. Liam has only seen them three times out of perhaps a dozen attempts.
We rumbled up the rough logging track through the majestic towering trees of the rainforest eventually arriving at the beautiful Brushy Mountain Campground. Robert and I had stayed the night there on our 2017 visit. It truly is lovely. I was prepared to stay over if we did not have success that day, although Liam needed to return to Port Macquarie. We parked behind the shelter and hiked on up the Loop Walk.
The path slopes up gently, but in my state of utter non-fitness I was out of breath in minutes. About six-hundred metres in, Liam heard the bird. I heard it too. It was imitating a very loud version of an Eastern Yellow Robin. The bird then did a few more odd calls. Then it settled in on its own call. It was not far from us, but not exactly close either. Liam suggested we just stand there where we had a bit of a view in through the tangles of brush and trees. There were a few logs and deadwood lying amongst the various flora that covers the rainforest floor. There were also leeches. I flicked a large one off my calf and applied a bit of Liam’s bug spray. We stood listening and watching. It sounded further off. Then a few minutes later it sounded closer again. We decided to move in just a little. We only went four or five metres in, but it gave us a bit more elevated view of the area from which we reckoned the bird was calling. And we stood there quietly listening and peering intensely into the underbrush. After maybe ten more minutes of this Liam whispered, “On the log at the base of the tree.”
In that area there were numerous ‘logs at the base of trees,’ but we were looking in the same spot and before Liam had finished half of that sentence I had the Rufous Scrub-bird in focus in my bins. JOY. Amazing, heart-filling Joy! The bird looked left, then turned as if to jump off the small log, but stopped, turned to the right and stood for a second and then looked again and disappeared off the log into the brush. We had had approximately four full glorious seconds (one-thousand, two-thousand, three-thousand, four-thousand) viewing the bird. This was the best look Liam had ever gotten. We high-fived, fist-bumped and then hugged. Glory. It will remain as one of my all-time top birding moments. I had beheld the Rufous Scrub-bird (yes, there will be ink).
As we stepped back down on the path, Liam said something I have often said after getting a single good view of a target bird. He said, “That bird owes me nothing more.” Indeed. And we just left it be. We walked joyously back to the campground and sat around the shelter. I even picked up a lifer mammal in a cute and busy little Brown Antechinus.
In that area there were numerous ‘logs at the base of trees,’ but we were looking in the same spot and before Liam had finished half of that sentence I had the Rufous Scrub-bird in focus in my bins. JOY. Amazing, heart-filling Joy! The bird looked left, then turned as if to jump off the small log, but stopped, turned to the right and stood for a second and then looked again and disappeared off the log into the brush. We had had approximately four full glorious seconds (one-thousand, two-thousand, three-thousand, four-thousand) viewing the bird. This was the best look Liam had ever gotten. We high-fived, fist-bumped and then hugged. Glory. It will remain as one of my all-time top birding moments. I had beheld the Rufous Scrub-bird (yes, there will be ink).
 |
| My friend and brilliant photographer David Stowe has successfully photographed the bird. My buddy Robert Shore got a good recording shot of it as well. I am borrowing David's for this blog entry. |
Eventually we left and drove back down to Beechwood and the café there. After a Lifer Selfie and more rejoicing, Liam went home and I drove on to stay the night in a motel in Bulahdelah, NSW. It was called the Mount View Motel. I highly recommend it. It was inexpensive, clean and had large Hieronymus Bosch pictures on the wall! My room had The Garden of Earthly Delights. I have always found Bosch’s work wonderfully weird and brilliant. I slept well.
The next day I stayed in Gundagai before driving on to Lara on Monday. I had been gone only seven days and I had two lifers (and a mammal). Joy.
I write therefore I am. I share therefore it’s real. I love, although I often do not understand this world.
The next day I stayed in Gundagai before driving on to Lara on Monday. I had been gone only seven days and I had two lifers (and a mammal). Joy.
 |
| The route there and back again |
