G’day all, The Central Australian birding community has sent one its true characters northwards this week. I thought it would be remiss of me to not put in a few words.
Anyone who has been involved in birding, politics, art, indigenous affairs, or just generally not living under a rock in Central Australia over the last few years, will almost certainly have crossed paths with Bob Gosford. A great photographer, writer, and a well-travelled ornithologist, he has helped many of us and leaves behind many friends who will miss him, but now have the perfect excuse for regular forays to Darwin. He alerted me to the idea of ethnoornithology – surely an under-explored avenue of research, in this country anyway. I look forward to your posts from the tropics mate.
The silver lining to this cloud is that Bob has left his chair at the local ABC studio vacant. Before it even had time to cool off I shoe-horned my way into it and am now the new custodian of the local birding radio show “The Twitch” on AM 783 ABC Alice Springs. Bob created this little program many moons ago and I was lucky enough to do a few guest spots.
The new presenter for mornings on 783 is Tatiana Clancy and she is raring to go on another season of “The Twitch”. So if you’re ever after 10 minutes of extremely light-hearted birdy chat from The Centre then you can now listen in online on Tuesday mornings at 9.45am or download the show as an Mp3 from the website http://www.abc.net.au/alicesprings/programs/alice_springs_mornings/ or just follow the link on my website www.comebirdwatching.blogspot.com
Just to be clear: I don’t get paid for doing it, it isn’t a commercial thing – I just thought folks might be interested. Also a warning, having listened to the recording, I have realised I have nowhere near the amount of radio presence as Bob. My voice sounds like a flock of geese honking through a thick morning fog, and if bird-puns may offend….well, as I said, it’s light-hearted. Anyway, cheers Bob and I’ll see you in the mangroves as soon as I can.
Chris Watson Alice Springs
