Eve of Departure

We're there! All those months of planning and reckoning off the days until departure date are at an end. We fly out of Brisbane in the morning [Thursday 2 September 2010]. There may be some on-the-run, last minutes readjustments to be made once we're in Staffordshire but to all intents and purposed, this is it.

I came to blogging via the West Midlands blogspot to help get a "feel" for my old stomping grounds and that has been worthwhile. I was made welcome and reading through the various posts certainly added further incentive to be there, becoming reaquainted with former "ticked" species and maybe even adding a few new ones to the list. Birding in the U.K. appears to have undergone several changes since I was last there.

And yet it has been perhaps a little incongruous, someone from the South Burnett region of Queensland posting occasional blogs referring to Australian birds. No one appears to have objected, certainly no one told me I shouldn't be there. It may be that I have simply misinterpreted the protocols. Is the spot for West Midlands birders only? Is it in fact open to all and sundry?

What I have most admired during my brief sojourn here is the dissemination of local birding news and knowledge. Clearly local birders are wll catered for here, although I don't doubt that other regions are similarly catered for.

It set me to thinking, what's an old Queenslander doing in a West Midlands blogspot? Yes, I am a former resident but I left Staffordshire in 1974 and have returned only on rare occasions, the last 11 years ago.

It's time to move on, to follow Richard Powell's adage, "Local Birding for Local People." I have my own local patch here in the South Burnett and there are a number of local people with varying degrees of birding interest - from the obsessed [you should talk to Fay about it] to the casual backyard observer who throws out a few crumbs or commercial seeds.

I have made a tentative start [to be continued on my return from the U.K. in October]. Those interested in knowing a little about the local birds from a small area on the other side of the [West Midlands] world are welcome to follow my at:

www.southburnettbirding.blogspot.com

Not that this is the end. If matters pan out as I trust they will I'll post daily updates on our progress throughout September and even after our return to Nanango I'll keep an eye on the antics of "Blurred Birding" etc.