Melinda J. Irvine

My six-year old niece Rosalie loves bids. All wildlife really. She’s a lot like her dad at that age.

I was really excited when she wanted to come bird-watching with me at the black rock swamp.

About half-an hour into our adventure though she asked me if I could take her somewhere there were more birds.

“Last time dad took me bird-watching I saw a kingfisher who killed a fish and ate it.” she told me very earnestly.

Realising I was going to have to step it up a notch, I cheated and drove us to the next town (Macksville) to the duck pond. Come on it wasn’t just full of ibis, there were purple swamp hens, dusky moorhens and the rainbow lorikeets in the trees above were in a a feeding frenzy.

“Cool!” said Rosalie through her binoculars. Shortly before she lost them.

PS: I swear it was the microphone on the iPhone that made me sound like a herd of elephants