Hi from Terrey Hills NSW

Hi everyone,

Luke here, 30, recently moved to Terrey Hills following a 10-month road trip up the east coast as far as Cooktown, across and up to Darwin, back down to Adelaide and up to NSW. Originally from Adelaide but have also lived in Melbourne as well as a year in the UK.

A bit about myself - I've always been a keen bird enthusiast, and have recently embraced it more than ever. A large part of our recent roadtrip was to find what we were both passionate about - we had been working desk jobs and realised we were both terribly unhappy, so we up and left them to see Australia and hopefully find a spot that grabbed us and said, "Live here!" While that didn't quite happen, we saw more of Australia than probably most people will ever do, and have some great memories, particularly of the more remote spots like Cooktown, Abergowrie and Charters Towers (all NE QLD), Darwin and the surrounding NT.  We were lucky enough to see some amazing birdlife and wildlife around Australia, including this encounter with a wild cassowary in Mission Beach: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jsnDbSXXT8

Vicky is now living her dream working at this equestrian centre, surrounded by horses and riding every day. And I've committed to changing careers, out of marketing and into my long-held-but-never-pursued dream of zookeeping...especially with raptors or parrots! I've applied for bird volunteering positions at Taronga Zoo, and the Certificate II in Animal Studies with the Taronga Training Institute, with a view to gaining Cert III in Captive Animal Care and an eventual job with animals, so fingers are firmly crossed. If Taronga doesn't work out I'll get certified and volunteer elsewhere. If anyone can recommend a good place to train and volunteer as well, I'm all ears! Dream job would have to be presenting the bird show at Taronga or another wildlife park in Australia.

We live at Kallaroo Park Equestrian Centre, Terrey Hills, where my girlfriend is lead stable hand. The suburb pretty well backs onto the Ku-Ring-Gai National Park to the north and west, with Garrigal NP to the south east. As I type this I have a laughing kookaburra watching for skinks from the fence of a horse paddock, willy wagtails, welcome swallows and fairy wrens calling from the undergrowth, and sulphur crested cockatoos, grey butcherbirds, currawongs, lapwings and rainbow lorikeets causing a ruckus off in the distance. Bliss :)

I've posted a list of all birds I've identified (and some I'm not sure on) in another area of the forums. It currently sits at around 35. Link: http://www.birdsinbackyards.net/forum/Terrey-Hills-Equestrian-Centre-spe...

Please say hi! Lots of cool stories from the trip if you're interested in hearing them.

Cheers

Luke