Awakening of the Gonzo Birder

I wrote the “creation of the Gonzo Birder” first, but Gonzo is not created. It just is or it isn't. For me, it was always there. I was born Gonzo. It just remained more subdued, or more accurately, suppressed in some periods of my life. 

Well, I am no longer suppressing it. 

WTP May 2009 already Gonzo and awakening the Birder

The “Birder” part came later. I officially became a birder in May 2009 in Australia and at the age of 56. I peaked, physically, in my 50s and early 60s. I wrote about how I began birding in the first book, “An Australian Birding Year”. Although Australian bird centric, this book will be more broad. It will cover my Gonzo awakening and my new birding adventures since the second book “More Australian Birding Tales. It will be an enjoyable read (I promise). I will definitely make it an enjoyable write (thank you HST I hope you are watching this process from the other side). I do enjoy the process.

First visit to Kakadu, NP in the NT I was photographing Chestnut-quilled Rock Pigeons, in August of 2012

Why would I think anyone else would care to read a book about the birding-life of an (as I write this) 70-something Australian Permanent resident who’s not exactly famous or admirable? This guy is writing a book about himself (again)? Yeah, the first two books were personal and a lot about my journey. But quite a few people liked them and I like those people. Some even loved them and I love those people. Of course, there are those did not read them and I don’t know those people.

Hoopoes (top) and a Little Owl both in Spain May 2011, Yes I birded in Spain

Over the years, quite a few readers have let me know that my openly sharing my personal struggles with depression/anxiety, alcoholism, self-esteem, ADHD and Autism (I am certainly on the spectrum as are many, probably most, of my friends) has been of benefit to them. So this is the official (a word I often use), beginning of my third book. Its working title is, “The Awakening of the Gonzo Birder” or just “Gonzo Birder”, or “Gonzo Birder in Oz” or something. Working titles are working titles because they might change while you are working. 

Me now 70 and unapologetically Gonzo

40 Spotted Pardalote smiling on N. Bruny, Tassie 30 November 2012

Very cool. A Black Vulture and Crested Caracara allopreening in South Texas 2015

Wood Stork, possibly my favourite bird full-stop, 18 June 2013 South Carolina, USA

Painted Bunting, one of my favourite birds in the US, also in South Carolina

In the coming months and years, I will be plodding toward seeing 800 species of birds in Australia. As I write these words on 21 June 2024 (my parent's anniversary), I have seen 784 species. I reckon to make it to 800. I’ve set that as my 'end' goal and will not turn this into a ‘book’ unless I reach it. So spoiler alert, if you are reading this in a book, I have seen over 800 birds in Australia. If you are reading this in my blog, well, we will see.

So, these tales won’t be set in a year’s time, nor any other sort of time constraint. I will include accounts of Gonzo birding from the past, before my first two books, and for the first time, I may also write a little bit about birding in countries other than Australia. Today with this blog post, I begin this process in earnest. Yes, I have begun, but it will take a while.

"Do something weird today. There are fewer rules than you think."

Stay weird my friends ❤️

Connections With Heroes: Parts One - Three

Hero one: Gary Larson. 

I have seen very few photos of the brilliant cartoonist. This was the first I had come across and low and behold, sitting to his right on his drawing table is a coffee mug. I own a coffee mug exactly like it. It has sperm whales on it. I have it in my study. 

I no longer have a drawing table. I had three before the last move to Oz and into the 'trailer park' sized home. It was deemed that there was not room for a drawing table. So, I have no drawing table, (nor do I draw anymore. Kind of sad, but I don't).

   

Hero two: Jane Goodall.

Perfection

I am using internet photos in this post because I have no pictures of Jane Goodall of my own. She is the subject of this part of my “connections with heroes” writing.

First, I will state that Jane Goodall is an international treasure. I am literally in awe of her. She is one of the most admirable, valuable, brilliant, beautiful humans the planet has ever produced. And as I have written before, she was also my first celebrity crush.

I was barely beginning adolescence when I originally saw her in the pages of National Geographic. I did not understand the depth, nor meanings of the feelings that face, and hair, and yes those khaki shorts stirred in me. I suppose I imprinted on that look. To this day, a young Jane Goodall remains the centre, the essence of what I find physically beautiful. Other young men of my generation had their Marilyn Monroes, or Sophia Lorens, or Raquel Welshs. I had Jane. 

And! She lived in the jungle with chimpanzees! Possibly part of my Gonzo Birder core had its embryonic origins with Jane in the jungle. Here in my senior years, as I drove Troopi through the rainforests, rivers and outback of Australia, I suppose I felt some sort of connection to that lithe, blonde, adventurous beauty in those images from my youth. Some impressions do last a lifetime.

Here I am driving Troopi across the King Edward River in the Kimberley.

Hero Three: Joni Mitchell

I decided to include a short part three here, because it fits. Joni Mitchell is not only a deity in the world of music, she also had that look that I had ‘imprinted’ on in my early adolescence. My connection with her comes from her concert in Austin Texas on 27 January 1976. During the encore, Bob Dylan had joined her on stage and sang with her. Afterwards, I ended up back stage where I briefly met them both.

The night I met them both

To Joni I said, “That was beautiful” referring to her whole performance that night. I remember how she smiled and said, “Thank you” in a very genuine way. Then she leaned in and offered me her cheek to kiss. Yes, my lips have touched that perfect cheek just under that perfect cheekbone. 

Cheekbone perfection

After kissing Joni Mitchell, I found myself next to Bob Dylan and asked, “Mr. Dylan, may I shake your hand?" To which he replied, “Call me Bob” and extended his hand. I did call him Bob and I shook it. So I guess I could make Bob Dylan the fourth Hero in this writing although there is much more that I would like to write about him and I will. Later. 

Stay weird my friends ❤️

Early Gonzo ~ Austin

It was about Hunter S Thompson before I knew it was about Hunter S Thompson. 

In the early 70’s, I first heard the word, “Gonzo”. It was in relation to the Lost Gonzo Band. They were Jerry Jeff Walker’s back-up band and an excellent band in their own right. I learned the origin of the band name this morning from an interview with Jerry Jeff.

Below is a quote from that interview:

“I introduced the band and I'd come up with a different name every night, like “Jerry Jeff Walker and the Unborn Calves.” I was reading Hunter S. Thompson's Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas—it was gonzo this, and gonzo that, gonzo states of being. So, I introduced the band one night as the Lost Gonzo Band.”

   

At a great club in 1975 in Austin Texas, called Castle Creek, I opened for the Lost Gonzo Band. Jerry Jeff as there. He went up onstage during their song, “Dead Armadillo” and brought me up as well. He and I sang the chorus into the same microphone. I have a very mediocre black and white photo somewhere of us singing together. Somewhere. Too many things have gotten away from me, but I will never lose that memory until all is lost.

No, I will never forget that night and the Lost Gonzo Band. Gary P. Nunn, the leader of the band, asked me over to his house to record a few of my songs. He called me from Austin a few years later and said that he wanted to pitch my song, “Play and Sing” to Jerry Jeff. He needed me to do ‘something’. I honestly do not remember what exactly, but I never got around to doing it. 

It could have been the biggest thing in my career but horribly sadly, I did not follow up on it. I have never talked about this, much less written about it, but there you go. I was drunk (as I always was) and it just ‘got away’ from me. Back then of course, I had no idea about my neurodivergent brain, my ADHD and Autism. The very brain that made it possible to be so creative, also sometimes sabotaged me. I certainly cannot dwell on that, but I reckon I needed to acknowledge it.

So now almost fifty years later, on the other side of the world from Texas, I am embracing the Gonzo again. I was twenty-two in Austin and I will be seventy-one in a couple of months. I am not writing songs these days. I have written two books, both of which I am very proud. I am now moving into being a Gonzo birding writer, whatever that means. If I knew what it meant, it would not really be Gonzo. Yes, there is one last book left in me. It’s going to be different. But somehow it will be ‘out there’ for those who care to read me.

Gonzo Birder Christmas Island 2022

God knows I never fit the profile of a stereotypical birder, but most birders don’t. Many birders are a lot more weird than non-birders imagine. Birders are some of the very coolest people I know and very Gonzo. In case you haven’t figured it out, Gonzo can also mean cool, full-stop.

You can proclaim your own weird. There is now a GONZO BRDR t-shirt from the brilliance of Paul Riss and BRDR MRCH You can wear one yourself. I highly recommend Redbubble.

I just sat here and listened to a YouTube of “Dead Armadillo” from the Lost Gonzo’s album, Thrills. I used to have that album, but it’s gone too. It’s not on Spotify. Fuck Spotify. God I miss my vinyl.

I stopped by Luckenbach in the late 90's while I was on tour.

I have no idea what photos I can include with this post. I’ll see what I can dig up from my Texas year. It is hard to believe that I only lived in Austin for a year, , but I was only twenty-two and years were much longer then. God I wish I had known then what I know now. 

Stay Gonzo my friends 💙