The 2009 Xmas Letter of Brett and Karen

Merry Xmas from Brett and Karen,

2009 was pretty interesting for Karen and me, but as a lot of our activities involved birdwatching, perhaps it will not be too interesting for other people. For those of you who may have forgotten what we did in previous years, please click on the following links to view our Xmas letters for 2006, 2007 and 2008.

The year started off with some hard work. The retaining wall around our entertaining area needed to be replaced. It was constructed of hardwood sleepers, and demolishing it was bloody hard. To cut a long story short, after a couple of weeks of blood, sweat and tears, the new wall was up and looking beautiful.

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The new retaining wall Karen staining the new retaining wall

Our annual kayaking trip in early March this year was to the Central Coast of NSW - a week of paddling at Port Stephens, Lake Macquarie, Tuggerah Lake, Woy Woy and Patonga. During the trip we dropped in on some friends who had promised us a sighting of a Speckled Warbler, which had become our bogey bird over the past couple of years. A quick trip to a nearby property, and the bird appeared on cue. Our first new tick in a long time.

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Some of the kayaks on the bank during a break Karen and our kayak Lunch with John and Gill in the middle of the very tidal Patonga Creek

In June we flew to Cairns in far north Queensland, hired a brand new Hyundai Getz and spent two weeks looking for birds. In total we saw 188 different species, with ten new species that we had not seen before. While we were in the area, we also took the opportunity of climbing Mt Bartle-Frere, the highest mountain in Queensland. The picture of Karen below right was taken on top of the mountain.

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The Getz and one of the four cabins that we stayed in Karen on top of Mt Bartle-Frere

In October we joined four other couples (including Karen's mum and partner Brian) for a five week trip to Corner Country. We visited such places as Cunnamulla, Thargomindah, Innaminka, Cameron Corner (where the borders of NSW, QLD and SA all meet), Bourke, Broken Hill and Lake Cargelligo. We spent a lot of time birding, of course, but also took in the scenery and the history, especially where it concerned Burke and Wills. This time we saw about 185 different species of birds, but only five of these were "lifers" for us. It worked out at about 1000km of driving for each new species ... but it increased our total of new birds for the year to sixteen.

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A royal spoonbill at Macquarie Marshes A birdwatching hide beside a tank near Tibooburra Rocks Tibooburra Sometimes it was hard telling the road from the desert Sunset at Kinchega

You can view a whole lot more images at our Picasa Web Albums site.

Apart from that, everything is much of a muchness. We are still both heavily involved in the Shoalhaven Bushwalkers (www.shoalhavenbushwalkers.org.au), although I am less involved than normal due to relinquishing my presidency in August. To compensate, I became the Vice-President of the local camera club (www.bayandbasincameraclub.org.au). A few photos I have taken for the club competitions are shown below - including some self portraits.

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Patterns of Nature Portraits Weather Life Imitating Art
Ordinary People Wildlife Weather
Movement Whiting Beach

Karen and I are still bike riding a couple of times a week, with Karen augmenting her fitness regime with swimming, weights and walking - as always. She is in her tenth year at Bosco Accounting, still doing tax work, but also doing superannuation - Super Girl! And I am still designing the occasional website, and maintaining the ones I have already designed.

That's about it for this year. We hope everyone who reads this has a wonderful 2010 ...

Merry Xmas and Happy New Year,
Brett and Karen Davis