26 August, 2011
35th Annual Bird Week
Lock it in now! Come Celebrate O’Reilly’s 35th Annual Bird Week in November 2012
The O’Reilly family are eternally grateful to be surrounded by rainforest dwellers like yellow eyed Regent Bowerbirds, red breasted King-Parrots, small brightly coloured Kingfishers, rich blue and black Fairy-Wrens, and once a year, bird lovers flock from around the world to appreciate and admire over 232 recorded varieties in this vast bird paradise sanctuary.
“One minute you are wandering through a quiet rainforest, and the next minute a startling abundance of beautiful Crimson Rosellas glide down towards you,” said Tim O’Reilly, as guide at O’Reilly’s for over 20 years. “They may be hiding in the creek, behind a blossoming flower or up high in the branches of a birding hot-spot,” concluded Tim.
In November 2011, Roger Jaensch, who has a 30 year career in wetland and waterbird conservation and as a teen would disappear into the bush or swamps spending family holidays searching for birds; graced O’Reilly’s as a guest speaker. He has travelled extensively from an office in South Korea to promote international cooperation for conservation of migratory waterbirds and their habitats, including visits to Mongolia and Russia where the conservation issues of steppe wetlands and waterbirds were assessed. Roger is now living locally in Queensland, and is particularly interested in secretive waterbirds (notably bitterns, rails and snipe) and colonial breeding.
With expert guides, including Tim O’Reilly, Glen Trelfo, Ian Gynther, Bill McDonald and Duncan Fowler alos leading guests through ecosystems of the Lamington region, visitors experienced special sightings and birding ‘hot-spots’, a renewed knowledge of Australian fauna and a greater understanding of the role birds assume in a natural rainforest environment.