Birding Badges

Many years ago I took over a specialist Australian birding magazine, originally with the fabulous name of Cosmic Flashes.  This was the invention of the late John McKean (the first to 600 Australian birds as far as I know) and was intended for twitchers and like-minded birdwatchers.  Margaret Cameron became the editor and one of our first jobs was to reproduce the 600 club badge which features a not very well drawn Eyrean Grasswren.  It has only taken me 45 years to get this badge and now I feel as though I can take over its distribution without being tempted to wear one when it's not deserved.  There are plenty of badges so please contact us if you would like one.  IT IS FREE and will be sent out with no postage charge.  This is an honour system and is only available to those that have genuinely seen 600 birds in Australia, in other words it is not for badge collectors.

After the success of the 600 badge and the pestering of some prominent birders, I am very pleased to reveal the new 700 Club and 800 Club badges. A special thanks to Bill Cooper for allowing us to use a painting of the Princess Parrot for the 700 Club Badge.

The 800 Club badge is supposed to be a Saunders Tern, however 800 Club member Mike Carter reckons it is a Little Tern. What would he know?

Andrew Isles