Princess Parrots!

                   

Princess Parrots. The name itself is magical to me. They are the parrots Sean Dooley decided not to try for in the Big Twitch because they live “…about as far from anywhere as you can go and still be on Earth.” But as he also said, “they are as beautiful as they are rare.” I have referred to them as ‘pastel parrot porn.’ The subtle shades of blue and pink and green are stunning, heart stopping, breathtaking. They are slender birds with a very long tapering tail that give them an elegant profile. Even seen only in silhouette they are unmistakable. And we saw them! I am still trying to get that into my brain.

The trip had been being planned for a year by Bernie O’Keefe. I became a part of it through my dear friend, Robert Shore. He began suggesting that he and I join this expedition months ago. And I am very, very glad that he did. Sometimes I need a bit of a push. My issues with anxiety are something I have been open about and have dealt with all my life. On occasion, I really have to force myself to do what I ‘know’ I want to do. I am extremely grateful when I am able to do that. I will not let my comfort zones become shackles.
     

Bernie had done a lot of research and planning. He is a teacher and he is organized. I love that. We had itineraries, we had phone numbers, we had permits to transit Aboriginal Lands and we had checklists of supplies and equipment. He had also been in touch with Ian May who was generous with his copious knowledge. He has probably seen more Princess Parrots, more consistently, than any other birder.

 

I spoke with John Weigel about his sightings in that area and got his thoughts on how to pursue these avian treasures. I also spoke with Mark Carter and pretty much they both said the same thing. Look and listen early in the morning along the dunes through which the road passes. If the birds are present, they can be heard and seen moving about and feeding. Seemingly they are only active in the morning, although indeed a flock could fly-by any time of day (more about that later).

The Thunderbird Princess Parrot Expedition team consisted of: Bernie O’Keefe, Glen Pacey, Robert Shore, Bill Twiss and David Adam and me. Bernie had come up with the name Thunderbirds and yes, it’s cool. We were in four vehicles: Robert and I in our troopies, Bernie and Glen in Bernie’s Triton 4WD Ute, and Bill and David in Bill’s Prado.

(photo by Bernie O'Keefe)

I will not go into the details of the trip up or out. On 24 September we left Alice Springs. It is a long drive mostly on an unsealed road that is often very rough, and sometimes has spots with soft sand. It is not an easy drive, but certainly not ‘bad.’ We bush camped just past Papunya and then carried on to Jupiter Well the next day.

   

There are even portions where one can safely roll along at 80+ kph. After our last possible fuel stop in the aboriginal community of Kiwirrkurra, Western Australia we had 136 more kilometres to Jupiter Well. After that, there were some long stretches of soft sand that were better in 4WD. But all in all, I was never uncomfortable about the road. Troopi was definitely in her element.

       

We had a look around John Weigel’s site about 46 kilometres east of the well and then continued on to set up camp. We were there. We were at Jupiter Well. I loved it, really loved it.

Dawn breaking at Jupiter Well. This is life.

The first thing the next morning we decided to check out the areas we had heard about to the west of the well. We did and they were underwhelming in habitat. We headed back to the eastern areas with more desert oak and marbled gum trees. As we rolled slowly along about 17 kilometres east of the camp, Glen and I saw a small flock of parrots flying ahead of us. Robert and Bernie had already stopped and jumped out of the ute. As we caught up to them, we were looking at the small flock as it wheeled and crossed the road up ahead. Bernie had his thumbs up and said, “It’s them! Princess Parrots!” He and Robert had been closer and had gotten better views, but we did indeed see them! The birds were very backlit, but unmistakable. The little flock of 8-10 birds flew south, disappearing into the trees. Bill and David had been further back and had not seen them at all. So the team headed into the bush searching and searching for the flock, but without success. 

Princess Parrots!! (Photo by Bernie O'Keefe)

Glen and my Lifer Selfie for Princess Parrots! But there were more to come...

Back at camp I called and checked in with Lynn as best as I could on the satellite phone (at times the reception was poor). I managed to tell her the parrots had been seen on our first morning! Then the group had a quiet afternoon as the heat had begun building out there. We did a bit of looking for lizards and we found a few.
   

(photo by Robert Shore)

The next day we had Bill and David take the front since they had not seen the parrots yet. We did not see any that morning, but we did check out a large dam where some members of the team decided to stay and sit and watch. Bernie, Glen and I did a bit more driving and checking along the roadsides then headed back to camp about noon as the temperatures began to climb. I had a wondrously refreshing ‘bath’ under the bore pump and then I settled into my camp chair in the shade. 

     

Glen and I were conversing under the desert oaks and then… I looked up and shouted, “What the F***!” (sadly, that is an exact quote). About 25 to 30 Princess Parrots few directly over us at tree top height in formation like a pastel bomber squadron. Glen yelled, “PRINCESS PARROTS!” Bernie popped up from where he was napping in the shade, but missed them. Then another flock of 10 to 15 flew over just behind us only moments later. This was around 1:30pm in the heat of the arvo. They seemed to be on their way somewhere. For the next couple of hours we searched the areas in the direction they were traveling, but we did not refind them.

The next morning we again headed out east. We knew there were parrots around; we just needed for the whole team to see them. About seven kilometres from camp the lead car stopped. There were six Princess Parrots literally posing in a small dead tree on the top of the dune line. YES! 

(Photo by David Adam)

They flew, but they went down behind the dune and we soon relocated them feeding in a small bush. We took photos and we rejoiced. However, Robert had gone over to that large dam and was not with us. Bernie tore down there to tell him. Soon he was back and had excellent views of these birds as well. Brace yourselves, here come the photos...

       

Glen looking at the bush where the parrots had been.

So there you have it! The Thunderbird Princess Parrot Expedition was a complete success. The parrots were seen by some of the team every day and that was beyond our expectations. Bernie O’keefe did a wonderful job planning and organising the expedition. He wrote an excellent trip report which I will add at the end of this blog entry when I can figure out how to do it (no luck yet...).

I write, therefore I am. I share therefore it's real. I love because I need to.

The Year The Book

I wrote a book. Almost two years in the making, it is now available (see links to purchase at the end of the blog).

I love to write. I have created songs, and I have drawn and I have painted, but I love writing best. I love letting words flow from my brain though my fingers into whatever magic they may weave. It does seem like magic to me. They often take their own path and lead me where I am intended to go. Which sometimes is not where I originally thought I was going. That is the magic of writing.

I began blogging several years ago. As we went off for a year of travel and birding from August 2015 to August 2016 I blogged regularly about it. I used those blogs as the framework on which to build the book, The Year. It has been an amazing process.

Planning at our kitchen table in North Carolina (that table, cut smaller, is in the tiny house here in Lara).

 

John Weigel writing out his suggestions on the routing and an itinerary for our year. This was on a table at the Biggest Week in American Birding in May of 2015. 

I started writing The Year in earnest sitting at my table overlooking Croatan Sound in September of 2016. That was in our beautiful (two bedroom, two bath) cottage in coastal North Carolina. If I could have that house transported here, I would literally, be in heaven. But it is there in the USA and I have chosen, gratefully and happily, to be an Australian for the rest of my life. I hope to go back and visit, but I am living full-stop in Oz. No regrets.
 

I am proud of this book. I have put more effort into this than I have put into any single project in my life. It has been a long time coming. The initial plan was to have three versions, and I hope that will be the case in the not too distant future. There will be an eBook as well as an ‘economy’ version without photos. The colour photo version was all ready to print, so I decided to put it out there and refer to it as a prerelease. I have some issues with the printing company and might change that in the future. We will see. For now, I am pleased with the quality of the book they have printed. But I cannot put it onto Amazon yet, which is where I would like to be able to sell it.

The design layout of the book was done by my dear friend Lily Kumpe and I love how it looks. She also did a lot of work on editing and such. There is far more to creating a book than I knew. The continual proofreading was amazing, and not in a good way. 

   

I am worthless as a proofreader. My ADD makes me “see” what words are supposed to be rather than what they are. But I still proofread the whole thing at least three times. Lily proofread it several times. My friend Anne proofread an early version and my friend Carolyn proofread the final(ish) version. Carolyn found mistakes that everyone had missed. Then we printed another proofing copy and yet still found some errors. Such is working on a three hundred and sixty-some page book. By the way, if in reading it anyone finds any mistakes, please just keep them to yourself. Hahaha.

And I should mention that I wrote it (to the best of my ability) using Australian English spellings. There was much debate about this back when I began to edit, and the consensus was to use the spellings of the country where I live and the journey took place. I also included a glossary in the back with some of the Aussie and birding terms explained. Here are a few photos from that wonderful year of travel. I hope with all my heart (as I do) that I was able to capture at least some of the amazingness of that year in my book. I reckon I did.
   

And speaking of The Year, here are the links to purchase it!

Aussies click this to buy the book

In the USA click this to buy the book

I write, therefore I am.
Peace. Love. Birds.

Nullarbor Trip Part Two ~ Letter-winged Kite Twitch

 

Monday morning began without rain or the need to drive west in the dark. We had gotten our Bluebonnet. I took my time, coffeeing at my laptop in Troopi’s downstairs.
 

                                   

Alice Springs birding guru, Mark Carter, had suggested looking for Nullabor Quail-thrush by the airstrip just behind the camping area at the roadhouse. Mark had also given us excellent gen on the Naretha. The Quail-thrush would be a lifer for James, so he walked back to have a look. In less than an hour he had returned and was beaming. He showed me his camera and he had seen and photographed the Quail-thrush! It is well known as a difficult bird of which to get a photo. I did not get one when Lynn and I saw our lifer in 2016. So I walked back with James to have a look. He refound it for me and I even got some photos as it ran across the runway. Sweet.
     

We packed up and left the roadhouse. Troopi’s engine light issue had reared its ugly orange head and this was worrying me somewhat. This issue continued to play-up on and off throughout the rest of the trip. I am taking it into the repair shop later this week. Crossed fingers, we will see.

We made a short detour over to The Head of the Bight and paid a small admission fee to walk down to the viewing areas and look at the whales. There were at least a dozen Southern Right Whales out there. A parent and calf came in close and I took some photos. It is a stunningly beautiful view. It is definitely worth stopping and having a look.

We drove on and stayed in Wudinna again. Then we headed over to Telowie Gorge for James to tick Grey-fronted Honeyeater, and both of us saw our lifer Yellow-footed Rock Wallaby. It is a lovely area in that gorge. After these successes, we went over to Port Germein and stayed at the very cool little caravan park there. In the morning, James saw his lifer Black Falcon right over the town. There were three of the birds, and I followed them in Troopi through the neighborhood streets until James got some great views and photos. 

In the meantime, a Letter-winged Kite had shown up in Rupanyup, Victoria. Yes, there was another LWK in VIC! I was fortunate enough to see the one in April of last year. It had only stayed around for three days. This would be an incredible opportunity for James to add a very special lifer and a cool sighting for me as well. We changed our route and rather than stopping by Adelaide to get James a Barbary Dove (they could wait), we drove to Keith, SA. We did stop on the way to have a quick look at some Silo Art. Keith would put us about two and a half hours from Rupanyup. We spent the night there and in the morning left at first light for the twitch.
       

We arrived in a dense fog. Ugh. After a lovely clear drive over, the kite area was foggy as London in an old film. Our friend, Gary Gale had just arrived as well and the three of us began looking. I decided to ring my friend, Jenn Stephens, who had seen the raptor the day before. She told me that we were searching further east than she had been, and suggested we go back toward town. We did and the fog was lifting.

As we started down Rupanyup-Burrum Road, I glimpsed what looked like a kite shape amongst the foliage at the top of a tall gum. I stopped and said, “I saw something.” Gary stopped behind us and watched us get out. James and I walked to get an angle where we could see more clearly into the leaves and yes, it was the Letter-winged Kite! I think James said, “That’s it!” And it certainly was.

The day before, Black-shouldered Kites had harassed the bird, causing it to fly several times. Our friend, Jenn got some beautiful photos. But no BSK were around bothering it and it just perched there, occasionally shutting one eye or the other as it appeared to be nodding off. Of course we hoped to see that gorgeous under-wing “letter” and we waited to see if anything happened. We stood around for about three hours while it perched there comfortably. We finally just left it as we had found it. It was a glorious ending for Team Troopi’s trip. After taking a Lifer Selfie for James and Gary under the "kite tree," we drove on back to Lara.
        

I am in the Tiny House and yes indeed, I will be continuing to work toward finally getting the book, The Year, out and available to the public. As I have promised, it will only be a couple more weeks or so. I really think y'all are going to like it.

I write, therefore I am.

Love. Peace. Birds.