June 30, 2006

This morning I went for a walk to the nearest park (Glebe Park), about 2 blocks away, and used my binoculars and camera to observe birds. I didn't have a bird guide yet, so I took some pictures and memorized what I saw. I knew some birds from looking at pictures before. For example, I saw a couple eastern rosellas, and at once I knew what they were, because they are one of my favorite parrots that I had only ever seen in pictures before. I bought a bird book at a book shop at the mall later in the day, but while I was at the park I ended up seeing additionally a couple of crimson rosellas, several magpie-larks, a willie wagtail (black bird with a white belly and a long tail that it "wags" frequently), some Australian Magpies, some galahs (they sound much like "bigger" parakeets, and look/act a lot like bigger, parrot-versions of pigeons), some Australian ravens (smaller than normal ravens, and with white eyes!), two Australian king parrots (big green and orangish-red parrots), and a straw-necked ibis! The ibis looked really awesome and I was able to see it from about 40 feet away! It's got a naked black head and then it's dark back feathers have this bright shiny purple and green sheen! I think my picture turned out pretty good of this bird. I also saw some yellow-rumped thornbills -- they act a lot like warblers.

After walking around the park and the mall, I got pretty drained of energy, and felt really starved. I bought some spaghetti and spaghetti sauce at a supermarket and took it back to the hostel where I cooked myself lunch. The spaghetti and sauce didn't taste very good though, which was kinda weird. I guess they make them different than in the US (different brands too). I had had some McDonald's fries when I was out and about earlier too. My stomach felt kinda bad after I ate the spaghetti though, and a couple hours later it turns out my stomach decided to reject my spaghetti. Yikes. So I ate some crackers and drank water the rest of the day, then went to bed early again.