Aussie Backyard Bird Count

Did you know that this week you have the opportunity to participate in the Aussie Backyard Bird Count? It is running from the 22nd to the 28th of October and has been organized by BirdLife Australia, a not for profit bird conservation organization. To take part in it you just need to download the app or check out their website, aussiebirdcount.org.au and read the FAQs on the how?, why? and where?, to get full details. You can download the app, put in a location where you are and begin the count straight away.

Basically they want people to put aside 20 minutes of the day to sit and observe what birdlife visits your backyard. You can take part even if you’re holidaying because you can count in a local park, beach, desert or wherever you happen to be.  I wouldn’t call myself a bird watcher by any means but what a great excuse to sit peacefully for 20 minutes on a beautiful sunny day and just notice your surroundings. Sounds like a great exercise in being mindful of your environment to me.

It got me thinking how many times we do notice birdlife when we are on holidays with some areas having an abundance of particular birds. I love visiting places along the Murray River to get my fix of watching pelicans.

These birds are so graceful for something so huge. Watching them soaring high in the sky, passing by in formation or gliding barely inches above the water is so soothing.

Other than pelicans you can always see shags, ducks and little birds of prey too and if you don’t see them you will hear galahs and cockatoos screeching on sunset as they come in to roost in the trees.

Depending on where you live or are travelling you could have some very interesting birds visit your backyard. Believe it or not, emus do wander freely in some places in Australia and make themselves very much at home in the towns.

Good luck counting if you happen to be where a flock of zebra finches darts by.

You may just happen to notice something unexpected too, like an owl during the middle of the day.

And if you’re not sure what you are looking at there is a field guide on the app too.

We have so many beautiful, unusual, raucous, tuneful and unique birds in Australia why not see for yourself.

So wherever you are in Australia why not give yourself 20 minutes to just sit and relax, enjoy the time to yourself and help out a worthwhile cause while you’re at it.

This one doesn’t count but if it did it must surely count for 1,000 don’t you think?

Enjoy the weekend.

Glenys

12 thoughts on “Aussie Backyard Bird Count”

  2. I wouldn’t call myself a bird watcher either but this is a great excuse to just stop and take in what’s around us. We live in a very native treed area and have all sorts of birds visit us at home and often I think I take it for granted. Have a great Sunday Glenys. 🙂

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  3. I too joined a Birdlife Aus class a couple of weeks ago to enhance the caravan experience. But instead solved a genealogical mystery. The bird discussion and walk was great too. To explain, my hubby’s ancestors arrived in Adelaide 1839 and there was another family on that sailing ship with the same name after much digging I assumed that they couldn’t be related and tried to forget about it. In the bird watching class was a descendant of the other family and yes they were related. In fact my brother in law is a dead ringer for his father. And cuz told me that Bool Lagoon in SA is great for birdwatching.

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    1. No way! One side of my ancestors arrived in Adelaide in 1839 too, in fact I’ve just recently received a family history book that one dedicated ‘cousin’ put together. I’m slowly making my way through the book and it’s incredible to read how we are sometimes walking in their footsteps in where we go and what we do. Gives me goosebumps sometimes. It was through this book that I find out that I am related to one of my husband’s workmates on one of the far spreading branches. So of course it’s a great joke now he always tells hubby ‘say hi to my cuz’. Yes I know of Bool Lagoon too but haven’t been there.

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      1. I know how you feel with the footsteps. I often think that too. We were once staying at a friend’s farm in Tarnagulla, in the Goldfields, built by his ancestors. I said that quite possibly my G grandparents would have passed through there. I later found that they had met there when it was little more than a tent town.
        Please don’t tell me that your mob came out on the ship D’Auvergne or this will get way too spooky.

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      2. No my lot came from Cornwall on the ship called Recovery. But spooky is that my daughter works at a place but that an ancestor once owned. We’ve only realised that since reading the family history book.

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      3. That is quite a coincidence and really walking in their footsteps. Hubby’s family were from Cornwall too I wonder if the Cornish best fitted the requirements of the SA Scheme? Or did they actively recruit there?

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      4. According to my family’s history book advertisements were put in the Cornwall Gazette actively encouraging men and their families to the new colony. They wanted farm labourers and skilled tradesmen and portrayed SA as a land of opportunity for hard workers. At the time copper and tin mining in Cornwall was declining so it would have been tempting. And then of course there is the history of Cornish miners in SA’s copper triangle – the towns of Moonta, Wallaroo and Kadina. Brave people to move so far from home and family.

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