Living and Birding Gratitude: Serendipity and the Nordmann's Greenshank.

Alexander von Nordmann, I have beheld your Greenshank and it all began with a new shirt.

David and Janet Mead sent me a beautiful polo shirt with their Great Northern Birdwatching Tours logo with a Yellow-billed Kingfisher embroidered on it! I contacted David on Tuesday 9 February to thank him very much. We chatted a bit and then he invited me to come to Cairns and twitch the Nordmann’s Greenshank and then do a day trip up to Cooktown (their old hometown) to try and find me a Black-winged Monarch. I could add that mega-rarity Greenshank and possibly another Lifer. I contacted James, he was keen and I booked flights for us for Thursday morning. I was finally going to go for that extremely rare visiting wader. The total population of Nordmann’s Greenshank is estimated to be only 500 to 1000 total. Rare indeed.

James’ mother generously drove us to the airport. Our direct flight to Cairns was on time and easy (except for non-mask wearing morons and a constantly yelling toddler in the row right beside us. Evidently his young mommy was utterly unaware of the existence of other people). We arrived in Cairns at quarter to noon and David collected us, and took us straight down to the Esplanade to look for Nordy (the twitcher nickname for the Greenshank). The tide was perfect, but despite several hours of careful scanning, we did not find it. It had been seen there the evening before (and every day before that back to early January when Adrian Walsh first found it). We went back and gave it another good try in the later arvo/early evening, but no Nordy.

The next morning, we were back at 6am. We spent the next few hours intently scanning the flats for the bird with no joy. We decided to make the drive up to Cooktown and see if we could find a Black-winged Monarch. They are normally only seen further north in the Iron Range in the wet season. But they can occasionally be found as far south as Cooktown, if you know where to look. David knew where to look (he used to live there).

On the way up, we birded a few spots briefly, bearing in mind that it’s a good eight-hour trip to Cooktown and back. We were able to find James a few Lifers: Crimson Finch, Tawny Grassbird, Northern Fantail and a brief, but unmistakable look at a Pale-vented Bush-hen. So including Black-necked Storks, that made five Lifers for him so far this trip. He had already seen the Black-winged Monarch in the Iron Range a couple years ago on another trip.

We arrived in Cooktown and went to the road where David had seen BW Monarch before. After a few hours of wandering up and down this little dirt road, we were in the shade by a small stream just waiting and watching. Then silently, the bird flew in and landed on a branch just above us! Then it called a couple of times before flying off. I had great views, but my old camera had issues with the intense humidity and would not “fire” so to speak (later in the day, it did function again). Thank the heavens James got a few photos. I have jokingly said that he is becoming the official photographer of our expeditions, but it is not really a joke. He is faster and has much better eyes than I do. He usually gets a photo.

We drove through Cooktown to show James the lovely little village and while we were there, I got one of the Virgin Airlines F-you texts that begins, “VirginAus apologises…” This message said that our Saturday flight “may have changed.” This may or may not have been connected with the new COVID breakout in Victoria. A lockdown had been implemented there from Friday midnight to Wednesday midnight. Scary. Virgin suggested calling their customer service number. I did and I even got through. I asked if VA1294 was cancelled. The person just recited my original itinerary info to me. I said that I had that information, and I was asking if that flight had been canceled. She said (in a very crap tone of voice), “I think I just explained that to you.” I gave up. I later found that the flight was indeed cancelled and again they suggested contacting the service number, but due to high caller volume it was not possible to get through. Short rant coming.

Virgin, you have now lost me. If your service is the same as an ‘economy airline,’ I will merely switch to an actual economy airline. I ‘was’ willing to pay a bit more for quality and service, but that is sorely lacking anymore. Virgin rant over.

Back in Cairns we tried for Nordy again the next morning. After that, David took us to his house so we could say hi to Janet and so that they could wash a couple things for us. I had only brought one pair of shorts. Janet saw my distress and wanted to help. She jumped on her computer was able to figure out some of what was going on and helped to sort it for us. It seemed we were to leave about noon Monday on a flight connecting in Brisbane. I cannot adequately put into words how grateful I was for her calming assistance. My anxiety dropped from close to a ten to a much more manageable 6 or so.

I extended our motel booking for an additional two nights. I highly recommend the Cairns City Palms Motel. The staff could not be more helpful and friendly, and the rooms are very reasonable and very nice. My bed had as good a mattress as I have slept on. We went back for the late arvo tide and again there was a lot of intense looking and no finding.

Sunday, David had some stuff to do and I slept on and off until 6:45am. I got about eight hours. Amazing for me. And I needed it. Later in the arvo, I even took a nap. Then I got a message from David that the Greenshank had been seen way out on the flats well after we had left on Saturday. It had been spotted by a friend of David’s who is known as the Barefoot Bushman. I met him and I did marvel at his feet. He is 70 and never, ever wears shoes. He also has no mobile phone or does any sort of social media. Thank heavens David bumped into him at the market! So we went down there that evening, even though the tide was already too far out. We still gave it a very good looking over.

Monday morning, we were back down there at 6:30 am. The tide was still pretty far out but rising. With at least some hope in our hearts, we began scanning. About 7am, David had a distant Greenshank that he thought was a possibility. Then James said he thought that it looked good too and for what it was worth, so did I.

And it was. We had found Nordy.

I rang a new birder friend there, Dick Jenkin and alerted him. As the tide rose, Nordy and the various other waders came slowly closer as they do. Soon the Nordmann’s Whisperer himself, Adrian Walsh, rocked up. He did not know that the bird was back yet. We got to share that joyous news with the man who originally found this bird. He had thought it was gone for good as well. At this point, it was David, James, me, Dick Jenkin and Martin Cachard and now Adrian too. We were all looking at ‘his’ Greenshank. It was a genuine pleasure meeting him. I took some recording shots, but it was still quite a distance for my old 100-400mm lens to capture anything impressive, but make no mistake, I am extremely happy and very grateful for the shots I got. Here are quite a few of them.

We left Nordy and went to poke around a couple of local birdy places before heading to the airport. And then I got another dreaded text that began, “VirginAus apologises...” This was telling me that our flight departure was being delayed an hour. That would be tricky to say the least, since we had 40 minutes to make our connecting flight in Brisbane. Long story short, there were twenty-seven of us that needed to make that connection, so they just held the plane for us. We went straight from one plane to another and two hours later, we arrived in Melbourne. James and I both had arranged for taxis to collect us. My ride was quite dear because of the distance, but absolutely worth it. I arrived back in Lara at 7:30pm. Phew!

So, on Friday as the flight chaos began, I got pummelled in my most vulnerable anxiety spot. My flight was cancelled, and Victoria was going into lockdown and I had no idea what was going to happen. I had the "trapped away from home" anxiety. It is a very primal fear for me (and the reason I hated The Wizard of Oz as a kid). I was infused with anxiety. Yes, my buttons being pushed to the extreme. But thanks to a bit of personal growth I reckon, and some wonderful friends, especially Janet Mead, things had been mostly sorted.

The amazing serendipity is that we had dipped on the Nordmann's Greenshank on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. The bird had not been seen for three days and everyone (including me) thought it was gone for good. If my original flight had not been cancelled and moved to noon Monday, I would not have seen this very special bird.

Serendipity. How often does this sort of thing happen? It happens very often in my life. The seemingly "bad event" leads to a wonderful event or outcome. I am not saying that it is painless or easy, but I am saying that it is usually worth it. Usually.

The Victorian “Circuit Breaker” lockdown is scheduled to end tonight at midnight. I am at my desk in my study. I am so very grateful. Here I am in a bathroom selfie in Cairns wearing the shirt that started it all.