And I finally pass 250!

Brown Songlark (Cincloramphus cruralis, near Wongan Hills, WA, Australia).

With the sighting of a Common Tern at Cape Lambert (identified by John Graff and Alan Collins via a series of photographs) and many Brown Songlarks at Wongan Hills I have finally passed the 250 bird mark for my Western Australia list.  I am now on 251.

My Apple History

With the passing of Steve Jobs, I thought it would be a good time to reflect on the impact Apple Computers has had on me.  Here is a rundown of my "main computer" Macs.  I haven't included those acquired for my (rather out-of-control) collection.

• It all started in the mid-1990s and involves playing the original version of Cyan's Myst with Simon Wright on his Apple clone (the brand was Umax if my memory serves me correctly).  Simon and I used to prepare all our group assignments on this setup (he had a scanner and a printer as well I think).  This got me hooked on all things Apple.
• In the mid-1990s my folks bought us a second hand Apple Macintosh IIci (8MB/80MB) from Simon's Dad's work.  It was fantastic.  Mum and Dad then splashed out and bought a brand new StyleWriter 1200!  I still have the IIci and StyleWriter.  Years later I discovered the IIci had come with a Nubus ethernet card, making it even cooler.  The IIci remains my favourite Apple product.
• After a few years of University studies I purchased (for a ridiculously high price) a Performa 5400 (160MHz/32MB/1.6GB).  Not one of my better decisions.  I foolishly chose the higher clocked 603-based Mac over the slower clocked 604-based one.  I bought my first (of many) boxed Mac OS version for the 5400 - Mac OS 8.5 (I updated to 8.6 by downloading all of the disk images over a 33.6 modem).  I did get it to boot MkLinux from a 250MB Zip Disk (once).
• Early in the piece I purchased (for about $500 I think) my first PowerBook, a PowerBook 150 (4MB/500MB).  I sold it a few years later.  I spent a while trying to find more RAM for it but had no luck at all.  I now have a handful in my collection...
• My next PowerBook was a PowerBook 1400 (133MHz/Passive Matrix Screen/40MB/1.3GB) and a PowerCD (as the 1400 had no internal CD drive).  I sold the PowerBook a while later but have kept the PowerCD.  I think I paid about $1400 for this.  The 1400 also ran MkLinux briefly...  Needless to say I have kept the reasonably rare and unusual AppleCD in my collection.
• For the last few years of Uni I had a Lombard G3 PowerBook (400MHz/192MB/6GB) until upgrading to a brand new PowerBook G4 12" 1GHz (256GB/40GB).  Later I upgraded the RAM to 768MB and the hard disk to 320GB.  This is the only new Macintosh I have ever bought.
• The latest upgrade (nearly three years ago now) was a second hand MacBook 2.16GHz (2GB/120GB).  I later upgraded the hard disk to 320GB.  I'm currently typing this post on it!  It has been a good work horse.
• I guess I should also include the iOS devices.  I started with a 2nd Generation iPod Touch (8GB), followed with an iPhone 4 (16GB Black, I was a late adopter) and the latest acquisition has been an iPad 2 (Black/Wifi-only/16GB).  They are incredible pieces of kit.

For the record I think it is perfectly normal to remember the specifications of all computers you have owned.

Bird List Anomalies

There are a few anomalies in my birding list.  I'm referring to families or groups of birds where I have seen a member that is rare (or difficult to find) yet I am missing "straightforward" members.  Here are a few:

• Terns:  I have seen an Arctic Tern (a rare vagrant to Perth) yet I am yet to see a Bridled Tern or a Roseate Tern (both semi-regular along the coast near Perth);
• Emu-wrens: I have seen a Rufous-crowned Emu-wren (apparently a potentially difficult bird to find) but not a Southern Emu-wren (relatively common along the south coast of WA);
• Ducks: I have seen a Northern Pintail (the third record for WA - BARC accepted) but not a Freckled Duck (probably the hardest resident/regular duck to find in Perth but still... Northern Pintail?!?).

I am fortunate to have a group of very talented birding friends: these people are the source of most of my rarities and are fantastic companions when I do get out and about birding.  One way or another they are all involved in the "rare" or difficult to find birds in the list above.  I've just got to search out all the common birds missing on my list now...

Arctic Tern at Hillarys

Bird number 248 on my life list is a successfully twitched Arctic Tern (Sterna paradisaea) that has somehow found its way to Hillarys Boat Harbour.  Arctic Terns are rare visitors here and this particular bird has been hanging around for most of the week.  John Graff and I saw it in the late afternoon as it meandered its way around the harbour walls amongst the Silver Gulls.  The bird was quite cooperative and performed several close flybys for us before perching on a jetty post.

I took a lot of photographs but the fading light (and weather closing in) has meant that not a lot are very sharp.  Thankfully they are good enough for me to convince myself of what I am looking at!  Below is the best photograph of a rather ordinary bunch that I took.



Only two more birds to go and I hit the magical 250!

iPad

I now have an iPad (iPad 2 16GB/wifi/black to be precise).  I am thoroughly impressed.  A friend of mine has the first generation equivalent (so I knew roughly what I was getting into).  I went with an STM cover as the Apple versions did not protect the back of the iPad (what on earth were they thinking?).  The STM cover functions the same as Apple's with regards to unlocking/locking the iPad.

The only "additional" apps I have running on it at the moment are:

• GoodReader, for reading PDFs (highly recommended);
• Apple's Numbers, for managing my birding lists;
• The Battle for Wesnoth (slowly learning how to play this);
• YouVersion Bible.

I'm really enjoying having it with me on the (increasingly frequent) flights I am taking northward.

2011 WA AMRA Model Railway Exhibition

Once again this event crept up on us: surely 12 months haven't elapsed since the last exhibition?  As usual I attended twice, once with my father-in-law and children on the Saturday and once with a friend (who is also into model railways) on the Sunday.  According to the brochure this is the 35th such exhibition.

While the number of exhibitors and vendors seemed the same as previous years the floor space had increased significantly (this year both the Robinson Pavilion and the Silver Jubilee Pavilion were used).  This was great news as it made navigating the crowds with small children a little easier.  Popular exhibits with the children included anything with Thomas the Tank Engine in it....

My favourite layout by a fair margin was "Avalon", a British N gauge layout.  We saw this layout as a "work in progress" last year and were very impressed.  Running were a variety of steam and early diesel locomotives (mostly Graham Farish as far as I could tell).

Another highlight was the "Northern Districts Model Engineering" display.  This included a ride-on train that we all enjoyed and some fairly impressive large scale locomotives.

Study Rearrangement

I have just finished rearranging the study (again).  The motivation this time around was to make the model train layout more accessible to me (and the kids of course - Declan has been complaining he can't see trains).  It now sits approximately one metre off the ground and (when I clear out some stuff) is accessible on three of the four sides (including both "long" sides).  The study is quite a high use room: anything of any value that we want to keep the kids from damaging tends to get stored here.  My laptop is in the study, as is Kylie's G5 iMac, the printer, the ADSL modem and network switch and so on and so forth.  The study is now much easier to access and egress.

The only downside of the movements was that a track section switch on the train layout was destroyed by the door frame.  Thankfully I had a spare and was able to solder (with only minimal burning of flesh) a replacement in situ.

Class 14 and Class 20 Diesels

New birds in the Pilbara (for me)

In the space of one week I managed to find:

• A group of Crimson Chats (at least 6) in the area around Wickham (mentioned in my previous post);
• A Masked Lapwing (northern form, race miles) at the Karratha sewage ponds (near the Gap Ridge Camp);
• A Spinifexbird in the area near Roebourne.

All three are lifers for me and take my total to 245!

Belated update of sorts

Well, so much for my plans to update this blog more often...  Life has been busy so here is a quick summary:

• I am working away regularly again, splitting my time between jobs at the Rio Tinto ports at Dampier and Cape Lambert.
• The model train layout is progressing, albeit slowly.  I am now starting to consider building an OO gauge layout to run the Wrenn rolling stock I have been acquiring of late.  If I were a betting man I would put money on the era being early British diesel (LMS).
• I am slowly getting though all of the home maintenance jobs that have accumulating over the last few months.  Still have plenty to keep me busy though.
• Birding has been good.  Trips north have allowed me to pick up birds like Western Bowerbird, Black-necked Stork, Eastern Curlew and most recently Crimson Chat.  Haven't had the time to do as much birding as I would like (especially around Perth, I have missed twitching a few "easy" ones like Chestnut Teal and Cattle Egret).  My life list (Australia/WA) is currently at 243.  Only 7 more and I hit 250!
• My G4 Mac Mini is now hosting a development website (via MAMP) allowing me to develop and test a new Birds WA sightings page.  The project is coming together nicely (but too slowly).
• For those of you interesting in birding, may a I recommend the following blog published by some friends of mine: Leeuwin Current Birding.
• I have purchased an Australian reptile field guide and am in the process of working out what reptiles (monitors mainly) I have taken photographs of in the Pilbara.  Stay tuned for some updates on this theme.
• Oh and the iPad 2 has been announced.... drool....

Class 25 Diesel

Weathered Graham Farish Class 25 Diesel (this is the locomotive mentioned in the last post,
click on the photo to see a larger version)

Graham Farish Class 25 Repairs (split chassis type)

I finally repaired my N gauge Graham Farish Class 25 Diesel locomotive.  I took it apart when it first arrived and would not run (in this instance I think a wire had come loose).  Apparently I didn't put it back together quite right.  What I neglected to do was to make sure all of the copper conducting tabs (between the bogies and the chassis) were below the chassis (and therefore able to maintain a conducting contact) and not captured inside.  It turns out that the locomotive will run reasonably well with one of the four tabs out of place but will stall on bends.  If by some chance you have made the same mistake as me you may find you need to bend these tabs slightly with a small screwdriver to restore contact.