Sad news about Fred Smith. I hope all his friends and family are dealing with his passing as best they can. The role of John Barkla in facilitating Fred’s birding should not be underestimated. I was lucky enough to run around the WTP a couple of times with John and Fred. I don’t know John well enough to say they’d been doing it all their lives but it seemed that way. The knowledge of birds was extraordinary, and very generous. No stupid question went unanswered. But most of all, I will remember the great good humour of these eminent gentlemen of birdwatching, from two distinct generations. They bantered in a lovely, familiar way like two vaudevillians. RIP Fred Smith.
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I had three encounters with Fred Smith, all very positive and confirming what a great birder he was.
The first was when camping at Round Hill where we had dipped badly on finding (or even hearing) a Red-lored Whistler. Fred came walking through the mallee with a group of birders and casually let us know that he’d heard them just up that way. We still dipped.
The second was when I was leading an Outback Track Tour in south-west Victoria. He conducted us through Werribee, giving lots of useful advice, listening and patiently replying to questions however arcane, and generally being a marvellous informant on all aspects of bird life.
The third one was sharing a cabin with him on a trip to Ashmore Reef. He slept in the bottom bunk, being the senior member of our two person cabin, and I had to climb over him to get to my bunk. Sharing with Fred was an honour and I was very much aware of my junior status bird-wise! He was I think about 79 and anxious not to fall over when we were on the high seas so spent most of his time on his bunk between islands (a person on an earlier trip had fallen and fractured a hip – not a good thing to do when you are 3-4 days away from medical help) but came to startling life when we disembarked at Scott, Ashmore or Lacepedes islands and was immediately onto terra firma taking part in the ticklish process of identifying pipits, warblers and other wayward species that had become lost at sea.
He was one of our great Australian birders. Honour to Fred. ===============================
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