Red Centre Bird Festival Twitchathon 2014 - A win all around

On Friday, October 3rd, at 6 pm, the 24 hour Red Centre Bird Festival Twitchathon started. Our team - The Warings - consisted of only 2 this year, my 10 year old son, Moses, and myself.
We started up at Kunoth Bore - target species, Bourke's Parrot. At 5:30, 30 minutes before we were allowed to start, we had our first sighting of the Bourke's Parrot. We both agreed they were very small, and fairly quiet. We knew we couldn't count this on our list, but were really happy to have seen one in the afternoon light.

We sat there counting down until 6 pm, and finally my watch read 6:00 and we started counting bird species. Common Bronzewings, Pallid Cuckoo, Whistling Kite .... we were away. Disappointingly, no more Bourke's Parrots turned up in the next 40 minutes. The light was fading and we were starting to despair that our one and only visitor, despite being very exciting, would not be counted. I told Moses the light was fading so badly so we would have to go soon, and then we heard them calling as they landed, about 10 of them in the fading light.

We left Kunoth Bore with 14 species, pretty excited about our BP experience. A quick stop at home to grab some things for the night and we headed down to Redbank Waterhole on Owen Springs Reserve for the night. Soon after we pulled up, Moses snuggled into the swag, we both heard a Bush Stone Curlew calling off in the distance. 15 species to start with on the Saturday.

The next morning we awoke to a beautiful sunrise and lots of birdsong.

Pied Butcherbirds, Galahs, Zebra Finches, and Budgerigars. A call of nature led me to our next special bird for the day, a Spinifexbird. I rushed back to get Moses and eventually we found it again, although not as close as it had been to me initially. We stayed about 2 hours after sunup at Redbank, Moses having a great time videoing the Budgerigars.

We collected another 25 or so species including a Whistling Kite nest with 2 little chicks.

As we drove off we saw a Black-shouldered Kite hovering above the grasses, then collected a series of birds across the plains of Owen Springs, before seeing our next special bird, a White-browed Treecreeper.

We continued on through Owen Springs Reserve and finally came out onto the Hermannsberg road, and decided to stop at Standley Chasm for a well-earned ice-cream. Here there were a variety of small birds including this Grey-headed Honeyeater

Back in the car and off to the back of the Claypans to find some Painted Finches, which we did. By this stage dad was getting a bit more tired than Moses as we trekked up the path.

We had a short lull in birds as we tried to get some of the supposedly easier ones near town and then headed to the Poo Ponds to get all of the waders and water birds we had missed up to now.

We found the bizarrely long-bill of the Long-billed Corellas with the Little Corellas near the gate

A Yellow-billed Spoonbill trio was a welcome and unexpected addition to the list

and then some gorgeous little Swan Cygnets

We picked up our last few birds on the way to the Alice Springs Desert Park for the finish, and then the counting was over. A grand total of 97 birds. A wonderful effort by a 10 year old and his dad. We sat and waited for the results.

First prize for the 24 hour Twitchathon goes to .... the Warings! We are very grateful to those who ran the event, Alice Sprijngs Desert Park and BirdLife Central Australia, and the sponsors of the event and the prizes, especially the Alice Springs Camera House for their very generous prizes which we will be using in the very near future.

But the best prize of all was spending the 24 hours with my son Moses. I had yet another amazing experience with him, and am constantly amazed by his patience and perserverance in bird watching. What a wonderful son, thank you Moses.

Moses and the Land For Wildlife Photo Competition, Olive Pink, and the Australian Ringneck

Recently my son Moses won a photo competition from Land for Wildlife. The prize he won was a Canon Powershot GX1 camera. (Huge Thank You to both Land For Wildlife Alice Springs Branch and Canon Australia for making a young boy's dream come true, and provide his parents with a smile that lights up his face whenever we mention his new camera.) He loves his new camera. Today, the local newspaper, the Centralian Advocate, came to Olive Pink Botanical Gardens to interview Moses for a story that will be published sometime in the next 10 days (for non-Alice Springs readers, our local newspaper comes out on Tuesdays and Fridays). We arrived at olive Pink a little earlier than the newspaper people. We parked near a large shade structure to the left of the driveway, and sat at the table and chairs under the shade. An Australian Ringneck Parrot was in one of the nearby shrubs and Moses was a little excited as he had previously dipped on a good photo of one of these on our last visit. Again, he was disappointed as the bird climbed through to the back of the shrub and flew off. As he was returning to the table, he exclaimed, "Dad, there is another one down here in the grasses." Sure enough, there was another Ringneck, much closer, and the angle for photos much better. Moses is a very patient bird-watcher, and his patience was well and truly rewarded on this occasion, as the Ringneck came within reaching distance to him - inside the shelter!

Here is one of Moses' photos:

Australian Ringneck Parrot

(by Moses Waring)

But to fully appreciate just what was going on I need to add a few photos of my own. Here is Moses getting his photos

The following photos are also mine 

This Little Crow joined the activities after the interview had finished and the newspaper people had left. First perched on a chair under the shelter, then onto MY CAR!

And we saw this Willie Wagtail while wandering around the gardens at Olive Pink.

Loved the expressive eye-brows!