For those that don’t know, Chasing Birds is screening on ABC1 tomorrow night (Thursday) at 2135.
Chasing Birds on ABC1
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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).
Hoary-headed Grebe
Hoary-headed Grebe (Poliocephalus poliocephalus, Ascot, WA, Australia).
This is another first for my list!
List = List + 2
Went on a Birds WA walk on Saturday and added two more birds to my life list:
- Inland Thornbill (Acanthiza apicalis);
- Grey Shrike-thrush (Colluricincla harmonica).
Both were seen in the Dell Forest in Kalamunda. Thanks to Maris Lauva for helping me find the Grey Shrike-thrush – it helps if someone knows it’s call.
Thousands of tiny screws…
The 12″ PowerBook G4 is a real pain to take apart. I am in the process of replacing the HDD and optical drive and you have to strip the PowerBook down completely. Everything from the motherboard up needs to be removed before you can extract the optical drive. The HDD is only marginally easier to get to.
Anyhow, last night I reached a milestone. I am now putting things back together instead of taking them apart. In all honesty I probably have another 6 hours of tinkering to do.
The end result will be a very usable PowerBook with a working optical drive and a 160GB HDD. I think it’s worth it…
Photo Updates
Check out my Flickr page for more…
Welcome Swallow (Hirundo neoxena, Ascot, WA, Australia).
Percy, Thomas and Toby.
Birding Target Groups
There are a few groups of birds that I haven’t been very successful in seeing (and identifying). The more obvious groups (parrots, finches, honey-eaters etc) are well covered in my list but the following are not:
- Cuckoos (I have only seen two species);
- Waders (especially migratory);
- Penguins (a trip to Penguin Island was a failure);
- Quail (and other small ground-based birds);
- Some of the more difficult water birds (Crakes, Rails etc).
A pelagic trip earlier this year helped me out in the seabird category, now all I have to do is organise some excursions to see some of these. Looking at the Birds WA Sightings page, now seems to be a good time for the cuckoos…
Ordering from the Australian Apple Store rocks!
I ordered a copy of iLife 08 (Family Pack) from the Australian Apple Store late on Wednesday and it arrived early on Friday morning. Maybe I am new to the whole web ordering thing but I think that is sensational service.
We will be using iLife primarily for iPhoto – not much else will run happily on our G4 and earlier Macs.