Things started well, with an envelope in my pigeonhole, my name and address printed neatly on the front, and the sender’s address in Gwindinup, south of Manjimup, on the back.
I carefully slitted along the top seam with my favourite antique letter opener with a Siam crest, and took out the card inside.
Things improved with the sight of a golden whistler — a bright watercolour of a pachycephala pectoralis on this Birds of Australia card.
Things took a decided turn for the even-better when I started reading John McKernon’s note on the right-hand page inside. It began: “Zebras!”
Having recently returned from Africa, I had written a story about zebras which was published here in Sunday Travel. Every zebra is different. Just like finger prints, the pattern on each is unique. I wrote how I like the way the pattern complicates towards the end of the spine, then criss-crosses down the tailbone in a delicate plait, before ending in the cascading hair which almost continually flicks away flies.
I’d been watching zebras in Zambia, just as I had been in Botswana.
I hoped John had enjoyed sharing the moment, and in his next sentence, it did seem that way: “Zebras. They look great grazing the plains of Africa.”
But then John’s letter took a turn, and I’ll let your read it for yourself…
“A few years back my wife and I spent a night at Western Plains Zoo at Dubbo. A wonderful experience.
“We were sitting outside our tented cabin watching giraffe, zebras and kangaroos grazing.
“One of the zebras took a dislike to a small kangaroo, chasing it initially; stomping on it until it killed it.
“A horrifying sight.
“Since then, I have a strong dislike of zebras.
“Keep up the entertaining articles.”
John McKernon
(I do enjoy the varied correspondence that comes in every day, electronically and, every now and then, in an envelope, rather appropriately, in my pigeonhole.)
BLOWING TIME ON THE WHISTLER
The bright watercolour of the golden whistler on the front of the Birds Australia card was painted by Susan Tingay. Of pachycephala pectoralis, the back of the card said: “It occurs in many different vegetation types, from about Cooktown in eastern Australia, south and west to Shark Bay/Carnarvon in the west.”
I suspect the card may have been in a drawer for a while.
It was my friend Patrick Tremlett who, upon hearing this story, pointed out there are no longer any golden whistlers in Western Australia. This is not because they are extinct, but because they have been “redesignated”.
DNA testing has officially split the western whistler (pachycephala occidentalis) from the golden whistler. It came as rather a surprise in birding circles, as the birds of our South West region had previously not been seen even as a subspecies, but put in with the South Australian subspecies Pachycephala fuliginosa. That subspecies officially has “buff-bellied females”. The split came to light through genetic studies of golden whistlers which were formalised in 2014. It showed the western whistler was probably less closely related to eastern forms than it was to the mangrove golden whistler.
The benchmark IOC World Bird List was updated in 2015, recognising the split.
PS When Patrick heard John’s zoo story, he sent me this text message… in emojis.
