128 [page number] 
24.6.48 On Thursday we made an early start 
I 49 (1) in the Marlin for Bowen. It was quite 
T 74 rough and the boat tossed about a lot. There 
(7) was only one mal-de-mer aboard out of 
seven which wasn't bad! A school of 
porpoises played round our boat and 
the only birds on the trip in to the 
mainland were Brown Gannets and 
Crested Terns. A flock of Pied Cormorants 
was nesting on some rocks off a small 
island inside Gloucester Passage. So ended 
the birds of the islands and seas round 
them - fifty species with one unidentified. 
At Bowen - a one horse town if 
ever there was one! - there were no 
further birds of interest that day which 
we had not already seen at Mackay. 
25.6.48 At the airfield next morning a 
75 (7) flock of HORSE-FIELD BUSHLARKS* [Horsfield's bush lark] was seen - 
remarkable by their almost finch-like 
bill and curious hesitant flight. We 
touched down at Mackay where I spent 
an all too brief ten minutes with 
Macdonald, regretting the Mornington SS 
trip, hearing his news, trying to hear news 
