Dynamics of birding

I find it amusing how it will often take me a long time to find a particular bird for the first time, yet once I have found it I seem to find them everywhere. This has happened with:

• Australasian Pipits (saw my first near Dampier recently, have now seen them 2 minutes from the office in an area I had looked before);
  
• Western Spinebills (first seen in Pinnaroo a few years back, we now have a family of them frequenting the backyard);
• Australian Reed-Warblers (seen first on a BAWA walk, now I see them in the reeds everywhere);
• Brown Honeyeaters (for years I thought they were small Singing Honeyeaters);
  
• Common Greenshanks (seen first on a BAWA walk, now I see them all the time in Dampier).

I suspect that the same will happen with the Little Grassbird and a few other conspicuous absentees from my list.

Help name my layout

My N-gauge model train layout is progressing well.  I spent a few hours tonight wiring block switches and covering foam with plaster-of-paris strips for the tunnel section.  The layout is predominantly 1970s-1980s British diesel but also tends to have anything else that catches my eye...

I think the layout needs a name (most others around the place, especially those on the web, are named).  Therefore, if you are reading this (I think at least a few people read this?) and have a suggestion please comment.  Thanks!

Progress?

"Trying" to transfer the firmware off a NOE card using Modbus. This was going to take over 12 days...

A few new birds for the list

• Australasian Pipit (Anthus novaeseelandiae), seen in the Dampier and Karratha area;
• Horsfield's Bushlark (Mirafra javanica), seen in the Dampier and Karratha area;
• Purple-crowned Lorikeet (Glossopsitta porphyrocephala), seen at both Gnowangerup and Wagin;

The list is now at 173 174.

Class 31

Class 31 (31421) Graham Farish (N gauge).

Class 08

Class 08 (13365) Graham Farish (N gauge).

A rather rambling update

It has been a while since I have posted here - so here goes:

• Added a few new birds to my life list - most notably a pair of Bush Stone-curlews (Burhinus grallarius) seen on the road to East Intercourse Island in Dampier in the middle of the night (I was on night shift, not going for a midnight twitch);
• Work on my British N Gauge model railway is progressing well (tunnels are under construction, some buildings have been added). The locomotive and rolling stock collection is growing also (I have three Graham Farish locomotives: a Class 08, a Class 31 and a Class 37);
• I seem to be continually adding Macs (in particular iMacs) to the collection - thanks Alex! Thankfully I have a shed...
  

Edit: Changed Beach Stone-curlew to Bush Stone-curlew after consultation with experts.

Western Wattlebird

Western Wattlebird (Anthochaera lunulate , Wireless Hill Park, WA, Australia). This bird is endemic to Western Australia.

Going with British Diesel

With the acquisition of a Graham Farish BR Class 37 Diesel (37035), I have made the decision to go with British Diesel on my N-gauge model railway.

There are a lot of reasons to go for American locomotives (reliability and availability being the biggest two) but for some reason I am attracted to the British locomotives.  At some point in the not-to-distant future I may add a shunter to my fleet (probably a Graham Farish one again).

As it turns out, my daughter Olivia (who loves playing trains) has taken a strong disliking to the Class 37 locomotive.  Kylie (my wife) thinks it looks like a slug...

(edit: Kylie claims she called it a caterpillar).

Decisions, decisions...

So, I now have a partially constructed N-gauge model railway.  It is now time to start considering what locomotives and rolling stock to run.  The question is: English or American?

I am leaning towards English (mainly diesel) at the moment.  I like the locomotives more and I can run small consists with some degree of realism (running an American diesel with three box cars just doesn't look right).  There are other prototypes out there (Japanese is one that comes to mind) but I don't have much knowledge and experience with them.

A quick tip found out the hard way: I'm sure it has uses but Flex-track is a real pain.  Set-track is much nicer to work with (just a little more expensive).

Thomsons Lake Crakes

Went to Thomsons Lake last week with Martin Cake for a bit of a look.
With Martin's expertise we saw all three of the common crakes for the area:

• Baillon's Crake (Porzana pusilla);
• Australian Spotted Crake (Porzana fluminea);
• Spotless Crake (Porzana tabuensis).

They were all seen in the typha at the southern end within a few metres of each other!
Also seen was a tiger snake and a feral fox (inside the perimeter fence at the northern end of the lake).

Red-eared Firetail

My first new sighting for the year!

Red-eared Firetail (Stagnopleura oculata) - a small group (about 4) seen at Lesmurdie Falls. I managed to take some photographs but they were for identification only.

Lesmurdie Falls is local to me now - the birding there is quite good. There is still a fair bit of water flowing and most of the (unburnt) vegetation is thick and green. Also seen:

• Tawny Frogmouth (Podargus strigoides);
• Splendid Fairy-wren (Malurus splendens);
• Common Bronzewing (Phaps chalcoptera).

New (to me) MacBook

I am now the proud owner of a 2.16GHz C2D MacBook (2GB RAM, 120GB HDD, SuperDrive).  I purchased it locally.  It is my first Intel Mac (and at the moment I have skipped the G5's completely).  I haven't used it for long enough to form an opinion but so far I am impressed.

Google Picasa for the Mac!

The good news is that it finally exists, albeit in beta form. (1)
The bad news is that it is for Intel Macs only. (2)

(1) Not a big problem really, after all Gmail is still in beta and that works fine.
(2) Mainly an issue because I don't have an Intel Mac.

Hot rod 7500

I have finally finished building (I think) my hot rod Power Mac 7500.  It has:

• 256MB of RAM (using 4 of the 8 slots in case I find some more 64MB sticks);
• An IBM 18GB SCSI disk;
• A PowerLogix PowerForce G3 350/175/512K G3 (Spartan) upgrade card running at 300MHz;
• A fairly generic USB 1.1 PCI card;
• An Apple Fast Ethernet 10/100 Base-T PCI card;
• An iXMicro Ultimate Rez Twin Turbo 128 PCI graphics card;
• An AppleVision 1710 Display.

Everything else (floppy and CD drive) is stock.  It runs Mac OS 8.6 like lightning.

Very Shallow Blue

I can now beat the chess program (Apple Chess) that ships with Mac OS X (as long as the computer is set to the easiest mode). I think it is time to start cranking it up a bit... Most of the time I can beat the computer using less than 40 moves. Sometimes it takes me up to 60 (which is not a good thing).

Also found this site - MacChess - Dedicated to chess on Mac.

Merry Christmas

Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Playing Chess

I have started to play chess again (for the first time in many years). I am not very good at it but I am keen to learn and find it intellectually stimulating. At the moment I am playing against the computer but I may play against real people (online) at some point. I purchased some basic chess books as my Christmas present and am slowly working my way through them.

For some reason I have always been intrigued by the game. Grandad and Grandma Howell gave us a really nice wooden set when we were younger (I have it in the shed) and Chris and I would sometimes play games. From memory he would usually beat me...

At the moment I am just playing the version of Chess that ships with Mac OS X. I have installed Deep Green (by Joachim Bondo) on the Newton 2100. I will be having a look at Glaurung as well.

Red-capped Plover

Red-capped Plover (Charadrius ruficapillus, Point Walter, WA, Australia).

I stumbled across a pair of Red-capped Plovers while walking to the end of the spit at Point Walter.  I was initially trying to get a better look at the birds further out into the river and didn't see them until I was 2-3 metres away.

New Mobile Phone

My Sony Ericsson K610i has had a hard life - busted screen, poor battery, numerous scratches. I have replaced it with a Sony Ericsson W610i. I purchased the phone outright.

So far it has been a nice phone - has the same connection cable (for charging and data) as the K610i (so I have less "redundant" chargers lying around) and a few new features (you can use it as a torch, it has a radio tuner). It also has much nicer buttons (that don't try and connect you to the web the moment you brush them accidentally).

The torch/light feature comprises of two white LEDs. One of the applications on the phone signals SOS continuously...

Declan Oren Howell

Declan was born a few hours prior to this photo...

Safe and sound

Declan is finally home after a 4 day stop over in PMH.  No one is really sure what he caught but the staff at both PMH and KEMH (where he was born) were fantastic.  He is now more active, less yellow and generally happier.  He had his first bath at home today (in the kitchen sink).

Thanks to all who have prayed/visited/called/sent gifts/cooked meals - we all really appreciate it.

New Howell

Declan Oren Howell was born 19/11/2008 at 11h30.  At birth he was 45cm tall and weighed 2.315kg (about 5 pound 2 ounces for those who work in imperial).  He was born by C-section (sort of in a hurry).  Kylie and Declan are both doing well.

Stay tuned for some photographs...

Birding trips I need to do

In my ongoing attempt to see more of the birds of WA, I think trips to the following locations are in order:

• Rottnest Island (seabirds, waders and odd introduced birds like the Indian Peafowl and the Common Pheasant);
• Dryandra (bushbirds and hopefully some of the nocturnals);
• Albany (seabirds and some of the SW rarities);
• Broome (for reasons that should be obvious).
  

If anyone is interested in coming along (especially for Rottnest Island) send me a message.

Review: Twinhan Alpha Mac Edition (DVB-T USB 2.0)

Harris Technology have these for under $60. I thought that was a bargain so I picked one up. I have recorded a TV show and was very impressed (it is my first foray into digital TV as well). Here is a brief review:

Pros:

• It's cheap;
  
• It includes EyeTV (version 2.x, still great);
  
• It works exactly as advertised.
  

Cons:

• The box is big (and mentions that you need a FireWire port?);
  
• The printed documentation is average (thankfully you don't need it);
  
• The included aerial is useless unless you live under a transmitter (use a rooftop antenna).
  

Umm... Yes?

Observed when copying files out of a zip file in Windows Explorer under Windows XP SP3.

Chasing Birds on ABC1

For those that don't know, Chasing Birds is screening on ABC1 tomorrow night (Thursday) at 2135.

Birding Life List Update

My birding life list has now passed 150! Not really that impressive...
For comparison, Sean Dooley saw over 700 species on 12 months.

A will update the online version shortly.

Mission Accomplished

I have finally finished re-building my PowerBook G4 12" (1GHz). I have upgraded the hard drive (40GB to 160GB), replaced the broken combo drive (got one cheap off eBay) and upgraded the operating system (10.4 to 10.5).

To others considering a similar mission:

• The hard drive is much easier to replace than the optical drive;
• The 160GB 5400 RPM Western Digital Scorpio disk runs warmer than the stock disk (to be expected really *);
• Remember where all the screws came from (I didn't);
• Use the right tools for the job;
• There are a few service manuals available on the web. Use them.

I can't really justify a new laptop at the moment. I think these upgrades have extended the life of my old one a bit longer.

* Edit: this may be due to the fact that the original disk was 4200 RPM.

Buff-banded Rail

Buff-Banded Rail (Gallirallus philippensis, Ascot, WA, Australia).