The birdman of Melbourne - Museum Victoria ornithologist Wayne Longmore - woke very early yesterday. Something was calling him from the beyond.
"It was 4.03am," he says. "There were magpies in my garden. They start to breed at this time of year, they're constructing nests, there's lots of predawn activity, a lot of racket. I got up and had a good listen."
The birdman does this kind of thing routinely. Even among the most ardent "twitchers", as birdwatchers call themselves, his is keen behaviour.
Mr Longmore, Museum Victoria head of ornithology, has helped put together the Stuffed and Mounted exhibition, which highlights the museum's collection of 75,000 bird specimens and celebrates the 100th birthday of the non-profit group Birds Australia. The exhibition is on until October 12.
While still by definition a birdwatcher, however, Mr Longmore is much more than a twitcher. He has studied birds all over Australia for 25 years, specialising now in bio-geography (why birds are where they are) and oology (eggs) as a scientist, curator, researcher and collector.
