So we are back from Australia and New Zealand. It has taken me a couple of days to sort through my notes and record into Bird Journal what we have seen, it has been amazing! Considering this was not a birding holiday we amassed quite a few species along the way.
As David Lindo says, look up! In this case is it was look up, down and sideways. We ultimately did a lot of urban birding in our free time, the botanical gardens of Adelaide, Melbourne and Cairns were very productive, plus we did a wetlands wildlife trip near Darwin which was awesome and of course a trip out to the Great Barrier Reef (only a handful of birds seen there, but loads of fish!)
New Zealand was less productive, UK birds everywhere, Blackbird, Song Thrush, Greenfinch, Starling, Goldfinch, Redpoll and House Sparrow (we could do with importing some from there, but not to our garden, we have quite enough already) But the wildlife trip we did in Dunedin was brilliant, Penguins, Albatross, Spoonbill and so many different species of Shag/Cormorant were to be seen it was stunning.
So no photos in this post as I have nearly 6000 to sort out, plus video, it may take me a while. Then I will do a post with the highlights, of which there were many!
But as for numbers we clocked up 206 species of birds, of which as you might guess a lot were lifers, 153 in fact. Perhaps the NZ indigenous birds were up there with the best, Kea, Tui, Bellbird, Fantail, Brown Kiwi, NZ Pigeon and Weka. From Australia the Laughing Kookaburra, Parrots galore, Spotted Catbird and the gorgeous Superb Fairy Wren stood out. Impossible to pick really.
In addition to birds, there were Crocs, Dolphin, Seals and Sea Lion and fantastic Flora too.
So more to follow..... eventually!
Update 18/11
As I go through the photos, found a bird I missed in Oz, so that makes 207 birds and 154 lifers.
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