Here is the brief story of how I struck 24 carat gold on a quiet Sunday morning. I'd gone down to Albany (on the south coast of WA) for a short getaway from the pre-Christmas anxiety that pervades Perth as this time of year. I told myself "no serious birding, just a quiet relaxing few days, ok?"
It was a lovely quiet weekend and I decided to do a bit of seawatching (I just love seawatching, it's 8 parts pure boredom, 1 part insanity and 1 part stupidity). I walked half an hour, in heat with a few thousand flies for company, to a decent vantage point over the Great Southern Ocean, set my scope up and stared out to sea. The birds were very thin on the ground, with a scattering of Flesh-footed Shearwaters flying west and the occasional Indian Yellow-nosed Albatross effortlessly gliding over the waves. It continued in this vein for about two hours, the battle inside your head goes something like this: "What are you doing here, wasting your time, the flies love you but you're insane. Give up, go back to the car and get a nice cold drink" But there is a part of you that says "Just a little longer, something good will turn up, no pain, no gain! You've spent two hours, so why not 3?"
And then, what's this? A bird flying east (all the others had flown west) quick it's brown but it's got a white belly!!!!! Having seen it through the binoculars I scrambled to find it in the scope but when I did, I couldn't believe it. I was looking at an Atlantic Petrel. Dark brown head, thick chunky neck, white belly/chest, dark undertail, upperparts all brown. Underwing dark, though there was a hint of a pale area in the outer wing when the light caught it. I watched the bird for only a couple of minutes but it seemed like hours. When a rarity comes your way saviour it for it can be a long time till lucky smiles on you again.
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| No, this isn't THE bird, this is one I saw in the Atlantic a few years ago |
Now just wish me luck getting it accepted by BARC (Birdlife Australia Rarities Committee)……..
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