Australia is a magnificent place for birds! If you go, you should
not miss going to O'Reillys Guesthouse, in the Lamington National Park.
This is located about 50 miles SW of Brisbane, on the Queensland/New South
Wales border, at about 3000 feet, in a wonderful subtropical rainforest.
The trees and hikes are great, but the birds are even better. Both
Regents and Satin Bowerbirds come to feeding stations, and one Satin,
"Jock", has located his bower on their property each year for many years.
It was decorated with precisely-located blue objects. Our guide moved a
couple, and Jock quickly restored the original order. It is also the
place to see the Albert's Lyrebird (the rarer and more localized of the
two lyrebirds. Glen Threlfo, who has photographed them extensively, leads
nature walks, and let us see "Albert" strut its stuff.
O'Reillys also has a resident python in the garden - ca 12-14 feet
long (I declined to measure it) - with a huge bulge in the middle where a
meal of possum resided.
This wasn't a birdwatching trip, but I still saw 125 different
birds in Australia. What a place!

************************
Robert Cleland

Professor, Botany Dept. Box 355325
Univ. of Washington
Seattle, WA 98195-5325
Phone (206) 543-6105; FAX (206) 685-1728