Hi there New here Canadian man who loves Australian parrots

Hi there I am a Canadian man who went to Australia to live my life's dream of filming as many parrot species as I could. I spent 6 months there and went to almost every corner of this gorgeous country. Needless to say I had lots of adventures as I lived in my tent and stayed at hostels and caravan parks. I ended up in places as remote as Tasmania in the south, and almost to New Guinea in the North. I had more fantastic adventures than I could have ever imagined. But what was the most moving was to see some of these gorgeous creatures I had only seen in cages flying wild and free in their native habitat.
It should be fun to see what other folks are up to here and say hi to you.

Cheers!

Don

Welcome to the forum! You're our 40th member.

Welcome aboard the crazy train, Don , good to have you with us again!

Hi Don, glad you came.
Now because of your DVDs I'm in love in neophemas

Wow, that's so cool that you made that dream a reality! I hope you share some of your experiences and photos here with us.

Hey Don,

Next time you do something like that, can I stow away in your backpack?

Oh -

patdbunny wrote:

Hey Don,

Next time you do something like that, can I stow away in your backpack?

Oh -

Me too!! What a backpack!

First of all Margaret I am so delighted to hear that you are now interested in the Neophemas and of course stoked that the DVD set you purchased from me gave you so much enjoyment. One Neophema parrot in particular deserves our attention as there are only about 35 of them left in the wild.

Next time I go since at least a couple of people are going to climb into my back pack, I better get an oversized one...

I will post more pictures later but since if a picture is worth 1000 words then perhaps video is worth more?

Here are 3 clips from the footage I took while I was there and samples from my DVD series. (Glad all that editing is done!


Intro trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GY7lW58k-go&feature=related

Cockatiels in the outback
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q-5MEXfAMDg

Almost extinct Orange-bellied Parrot
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QG1y4ztYqQY

Hi and welcome! Can I have your life? Ive always wanted to go to Australia

Hi Don! You're going to need an over-sized backpack indeed for all the people who want to stow away (myself included )

Yes Evil Chicken it seems more folks want to come along when I go back to Aus. Less and less room in that back pack... I think its only fair to show people what you would look like and where you would end up sleeping if you were along for the trip...

Here is what you would look like sleeping in tents in the wilds of Northern Queensland.
At one point Papua New Guinea was only 150 miles away.

Oh and dont even think about heading to the ocean to clean up....

[/quote]

I want to hug one!

Dirt, tents and crocodiles? Fun! When do we leave?

coldtrance wrote:

I want to hug one![/quote]
i bet the fishing is good there.

evil chicken wrote:

Dirt, tents and crocodiles? Fun! When do we leave?

Yes, please!! Ever since I saw the Rescuers Down Under in like, kindergarten I have been absolutely obsessed with Australia. I wrote research papers on it, memorized the capitals, everything. I even had an application in to James Cook University in Cairns for a semester abroad and was as far into the process as signing up for classes and looking at apartments, but finances and a few situations at the time changed my plans One day I WILL go to Australia and I cannot WAIT Thanks for sharing, Don!!

Me too, me too! Tents and dirt? Right up my alley! Welcome Don, what wonderful pictures!

So glad that you like the pictures guys. They are stills from my video footage taken while there so not the best in quality. While I was filming Eclectus and Palm Cockatoos in Cape York me and my mate Greg went out one night after a rain to see what was crawling around... In the second picture this "little beauty" is a death adder. Very slow and it hides in the forest leaves and litter so that unsuspecting creatures will step on it... then boom its over. Of course its simply innocently hoping to nail a rodent or lizard but one does have to be careful... The day after I filmed this I was kneeling beside the road in the jungle when I felt a sharp stab in my knee!!!! But turns out it was only a stinging nettle... ha ha!



Eclectus nest tree

Well, I was with you right up until you said, "Stinging nettles." Sorry guys, I'm out! Y'all have fun and take lots of pictures for me!

Just kidding! (OK, so it wasn't that funny )

Regardless, Don! Glad to have you and your gorgeous scenery!

Hi, welcome over here! I'm really interested to hear your future journeys!

Don't take me wrong- but all of those animals are in DVD too, not as a main subject, but as a background, when Don talk about parrots.
Yeah, I love all of 6 Neophemas from Australia. I read also that Bourke's Parrot was once included and now excluded in that family. I hope people have more info about them as a home(not only aviary) birds. I posted more here: http://www.parrotparadiseforum.com/t154-parrot-maniacs-your-next-bird-will-be