Interesting websites?

[pdg]

Hi,

I'm Patrick. I'm a gouldian breeder living in Belgium, but will move to Australia (Cairns) in September. I would like to share a few interesting websites with you from Belgium/ The Netherlands. Most of you will probably not be able to read Dutch. But there are some really nice pictures and if you'd have any questions concerning translation, feel free to ask.

http://www.lomulder.nl

http://www.sngn.nl

On this last site there are links to other sites.

Hope you enjoy!

Cheers,

Patrick

[GregH]

Welcome to AFF Patrick. I hope that when you move to Cairns you can get to see the Gouldian finch in the wild - there are just a few left in FNQ. You Dutch are pretty damned good when it comes to aviculture so we hope you will divulge all your national secrets once you arrive! Just think of AFF as a platform for a sort of avian Wikileaks.

[pdg]

Welcome to AFF Patrick. I hope that when you move to Cairns you can get to see the Gouldian finch in the wild - there are just a few left in FNQ. You Dutch are pretty damned good when it comes to aviculture so we hope you will divulge all your national secrets once you arrive! Just think of AFF as a platform for a sort of avian Wikileaks.

Hi Greg,

Thanks for the compliment. We'll see what we can make of it; breeding gouldians I mean. I'll try to share as much information as I can.

I'm a lucky guy Greg. I have already seen gouldians in the wild; near Timber Creek, NT - a dream come true. I have lived in Cairns for one year. When we returned to Belgium we decided to tour a part of NT for 2 weeks in a van. It was the last two weeks of April 2011. It was amazing to see them in the wild. I have pictures of them too, but they are not the best of pictures.

I haven't seen any in QLD, but as far as I know and according to other bird breeders in Cairns, there aren't any around anymore. Where do you think they can be spotted in FNQ?

Cheers,

Patrick

[GregH]

Distribution map from Department of Environment.

Hi Patrick. I'd love the Gouldian distribution once more look like the one shown above but it doesn't, however the relect populations still fall with in the boundaries. The one you saw at Timber Creek is one of them. I've only seen them in Wyndham over in the Kimberly district of WA. Here in Queensland the southern population around Ethabuka in south-west of the state pops up in surveys and despite what your friends in Cairns told you there are birds that seem to have been reintroduced to the Mereeba district on the Atherton Tablelands to the west of Cairns but they are a rare sight. I hope that you get to see them and post the proof here on AFF that population recovery is underway.

[kenny66]

Hi,

I'm Patrick. I'm a gouldian breeder living in Belgium, but will move to Australia (Cairns) in September. I would like to share a few interesting websites with you from Belgium/ The Netherlands. Most of you will probably not be able to read Dutch. But there are some really nice pictures and if you'd have any questions concerning translation, feel free to ask.

http://www.lomulder.nl

http://www.sngn.nl

On this last site there are links to other sites.

Hope you enjoy!

Cheers,

Patrick

Hi Patrick

I live in Cairns on the Northern Beaches-If you need any local information, please let me know

[pdg]

Hi,

I'm Patrick. I'm a gouldian breeder living in Belgium, but will move to Australia (Cairns) in September. I would like to share a few interesting websites with you from Belgium/ The Netherlands. Most of you will probably not be able to read Dutch. But there are some really nice pictures and if you'd have any questions concerning translation, feel free to ask.

http://www.lomulder.nl

http://www.sngn.nl

On this last site there are links to other sites.

Hope you enjoy!

Cheers,

Patrick

Hi Patrick

I live in Cairns on the Northern Beaches-If you need any local information, please let me know

Hi Kenny,

Thanks for responding!

Are you a member of the Far Northern Bird Breeders Club? I was a member of the club when we lived in Cairns (April 2010 - April 2011).

I would be nice to meet you and see your birds and aviaries. What kind of birds do you breed?
I'll surely get back to you when we are back in Cairns.

Cheers,

Patrick

[pdg]

Distribution map from Department of Environment.

Hi Patrick. I'd love the Gouldian distribution once more look like the one shown above but it doesn't, however the relect populations still fall with in the boundaries. The one you saw at Timber Creek is one of them. I've only seen them in Wyndham over in the Kimberly district of WA. Here in Queensland the southern population around Ethabuka in south-west of the state pops up in surveys and despite what your friends in Cairns told you there are birds that seem to have been reintroduced to the Mereeba district on the Atherton Tablelands to the west of Cairns but they are a rare sight. I hope that you get to see them and post the proof here on AFF that population recovery is underway.

Hi Greg,

I've visited The Mareeba wetlands several times. The only goudians I've seen are the ones in the aviary they've got there. Like you, I hope that the gouldians will once again claim their territory as mapped out by the image you posted. Now I'm going back to Australia permanently I'll be looking for them that's for sure. And if I see any, I should be able to take pictures.

Here are some pictures of the gouldians I've seen near Timber Creek. The first gouldian I ever saw in the wild was a BH hen. I had bought a birdwatching guide in Katherine, written by Mike Reed, on where to find gouldians in the wild in NT and West of WA. One morning we parked our van on Buchanon Highway (actually only 4 WD, but I had a good feeling about seeing some gouldians). I started walking with my camera and a gouldian hen flew up from the side of the dirt road. That is the first picture. The hen was alone. Later that morning we also saw a BH male (second picture), joined by two other birds (that I couldn't get on camera). In the evening we drove to Timber creek to camp and next day we returned to the same spot and by the end of the day we saw 5 more gouldians. (2 final pictures)

Timber Creek (33).JPG

Timber Creek (45).JPG

Timber Creek - kopie.JPG

If you would ever see any gouldians in the wild in QLD, or any other place, will you let us know?

Cheers,

Patrick

[kenny66]

Hi Patrick

You can definitely visit me when you come to Cairns. I have about 150-birds. I breed Ruddies-Emblemas-Yellow and Red Stars-Pied/Normal Red Faced Parrot Finch-Jacarinis-RCCB-OBWB-Gouldians and Canaries. I am not a member of the Far Northern Finch group but I am friends with a couple of their members. I live just out of Cairns right next to Clifton Beach so it is very central. Let me know when you are here and I will arrange a visit to some other aviaries if possible.

[GregH]

Well Patrick I'm living in hope for the Mereeba birds. We've discussed them before (click here) and it was only in 2008 that they were saying that the reintroduced birds were persisting but it doesn't take long for a small population to go to nothing. I prefer to live in hope that a small core, rarely seem will one day show up again.

[pdg]

Well Patrick I'm living in hope for the Mereeba birds. We've discussed them before (click here) and it was only in 2008 that they were saying that the reintroduced birds were persisting but it doesn't take long for a small population to go to nothing. I prefer to live in hope that a small core, rarely seem will one day show up again.

Hi Greg,
I read the discusssion about reintroduction. Thaks for forwarding the link.

I found the story about the gouldians in Hervey Bay the most surprising. I'l like to see that.

Also, someone mentioned the fact that gouldian numbers are rising again. When I spotted the gouldian finches near Timber Creek, I contacted Mike Reed (who wrote the birdwatching guide I mentioned earlier) to thank him for writing the guide (for without the guide I probably wouldn't have seen any at that time of year) and he emailed me to say that the gouldian numbers were indeed rising again in the NT. So that is good news!
As far as Mareeba is concerned, I asked the people working there (one of my visits) if there were really any gouldians breeding in the wild. I didn't get a straight answer and was only told what I had already read on the internet and read again in the links shown in your discussion: that gouldian finches were spotted once + a photo of a banded gouldian finch fouraging on a man made feeding table.

Forgive me my criticism, but if that bird is used to eating at that feeding table/spot, so would his young or they would al least be around the feeding table somewhere. There is a high possibility that they would visit that table quite frequently at least part of the year and therefore it would be possible to take more pictures and have much more sightings. This is not the case, on the contrary. If it would be the case, they would let the world know with much pride and would probably have more visitors who had photos of the gouldians they spotted. I've been there four times. I like the place a lot and I'm happy to visit. So are many other bird lovers who pay for a one (or more) day birding trip. I presuppose that if any of them, for several years, would have seen a gouldian finch in the wild in Mareeba it would have been first page news. But this has not been the case either. So if you ask me, are there any gouldians in Mareeba, I'd say I don't think so, but I don't know!

But, actually I think this is for me partly what magnificant Australia is all about! The mistery related to the size of the country. That it is still possible to be unsure if there are any gouldians somewhere in a region in Queensland. An older man (breeder from a Cairns club) told me he had seen gouldians in Northern Queensland about 15 years ago. Others say they might be around somewhere else. This is for me what it is all about: the wildness of Australia and therefore also the consequence that there aren't any correct data on the number of gouldians or the places they can be seen. I just hope they are out there somewhere and only hope, with you, that I will spot some in Queensland one day, real wild ones!

Also I think it is not necessary to introduce the birds in the wild from breeder populations and not the best option or most logical one. I think much more engery should be put in preserving the habitat of the bird (and other animals that go with that habitat), where the known populations are residing now, but also to make sure that strips or parcels of their kind of habitat are linked (or almost) all throughout the North of Australia. This way the existing wild populations get a chance - with a little help from concervationists and all concerned Australians - to migrate when tey would be doing better. Helping place nest boxes to counter the competition from longtails and masked finches is also a good solution I think, because the lack of good nesting sites as a result of smaller habitat is a consequence of human endeavours.