Early Saturday morning on the 24th January, eighteen fine bushcarers and interested twitters headed to the Deanei to see if we could spot some birds.

The walk was guided by Graham Turner who has many years of experience and is a great presenter, with many many wow facts about local birds — and his bird calls are just amazing to listen to.

Graham was surprised at how many birds we did see (January is not a particularly great time of year for bird observation). We ended up sighting or hearing the calls of 36 birds in all — a wonderful effort — and what I noticed most is the wonderful and peaceful vista that lies within the Deanei. It is just so beautiful: tall, graceful gums with thornbills in the high canopy, whip birds in the distance, firetails coming in close and, as Graham pointed out, the Deanei is the perfect place for Wonga pigeons.

One of the highlights was to see a Pacific Bazza, which Graham explained as a climate change bird; it seems to be expanding its southern extreme.

We look forward to another twitch very soon.

A big thank you to Frank Winternitz and Graham Turner for enabling this wonderful event to occur.