Living and Birding Gratitude: A Seeker, A Sharer, A 'Collector'

As I have often touched on before, one the best parts of birding is where it leads you. I have been to so very many places and I have seen so much of Australia in pursuit of seeing birds. I love birds, but I am much more of a ‘twitcher’ than a birdwatcher. I am more interested in seeing new birds for my list than merely going out and looking at birds in general.

Me and a Whale Shark Christmas Island on a birding trip. Yes I was led there by birds (photo by WIlliam Betts)

I am a seeker, a hunter/gatherer, a collector if you will. I like looking for stuff and hopefully finding it. I collected ukuleles in the late 1990’s and amassed a collection of over 200. I was a serious saltwater sportfisherman and was awarded thirty-some citations of achievement and awards, including a World Record. I have a beautiful shell collection currently stored at my son’s house. But I do intend to bring it home eventually. I reckon you get my point. I like finding stuff and to find stuff, you need to go out and look for it.

I sold 98% of my collection before moving to Australia

A few of my shells and their display case.

This past January I travelled up to Far North Queensland (FNQ) to Cape York and the Kutini-Payamu National Park birding. I was with dear friends including my often travelling companion James Cornelious. I first met him through birding. You truly do meet the best people birding. I had gone up to FNQ specifically to look for the Papuan Pitta that is only found in Australia during the wet season. In the year that became a book, Lynn and I spent a week in Kutini-Payamu in October of 2015. Not the wet season, so we did not see the Pitta. Last January in the midst of the wet, for the first time in over six years, I returned to the Iron Range. I saw the Pitta, which was the reason for going up there, but of course we also saw other things.

I wrote four blogs about that most excellent week (have a look they are right here for free). It really was wonderful and a part of what made it so wonderful were the snakes. I am not really a herper, but I do love seeing snakes. While it is impossible for me to choose a favourite bird, I do have a favourite snake. It’s the Green Tree Python.

They are most often seen in the wet season and we saw a few of those emerald beauty-noodles. Baby ones are yellow and are considered more difficult to find. But my first Green Tree Python was a young, yellow one that Jasmine Zelený of Faunagrahic tours had found and shared with us.

My Lifer Green Tree Python. It is a baby (thank you Jazz)

The rarest snake sighting of that trip was a Northern Death Adder that was shown to James and me by Doug Herrington of Birdwatching Tropical Australia.