The birdman of ABC
It is not every day you have to collect semen from a randy emu but actor and writer William McInnes tackles the task with trademark good humour in the new ABC documentary series, Hello Birdy.
"What can I say, I was in Perth, it was lonely, there was an emu . . ." he jokes down the line from Melbourne, where he was about to begin filming on the second series of the ABC drama series The Time of Our Lives.
"You'll see where all the Christmas pud went - on me and (fellow star) Shane Jacobson, no one else," he sighs.
In the six-part Hello Birdy series, dubbed the "boofhead's guide to birdwatching", McInnes travels around the country taking a fun and informative look at Australian birdlife and meeting the people who work with them.
"I don't pretend to be an ornithologist but I do love birds," he explains.
The first episode focuses on parrots, with McInnes travelling to Darwin to investigate why so many red-collared lorikeets are being found apparently drunk.
In Sydney he climbs a tree to help install a camera to monitor a sulphur-crested cockatoo and then visits a town driven crazy by corellas.
McInnes has his own fond memory of a cockatoo that charmed his daughter when she was younger. "She was in tears and didn't want to leave it because she thought it was talking just to her.
"It was sweet and heart- wrenching at the same time."
It is in the second episode that McInnes encounters the amorous emu in Perth, under the guidance of Associate Professor Irek Malecki from UWA's school of animal biology.
"He was a magician, the Bradman of emu semen collection," McInnes recalls.
"It's funny on the surface but if you dig a bit deeper you have to admire Irek and the way he is studying these birds and how we can improve farmed emu stocks.
"Irek really is an unknown jewel. In WA we also met fantastic people down in Ongerup, volunteers, doing their best to protect the malleefowl.
"If you approach people with respect, you can have a lovely time finding out their stories."
The series was produced by WA filmmaker Leighton De Barros, whom McInnes worked with on the documentary On A Wing and a Prayer, about the endangered Carnaby's black cockatoo.
McInnes' passion for birds was shared by his late wife, the director and animator Sarah Watt. It also comes to the fore in his latest novel The Birdwatcher.
"I think birds are fascinating for almost everyone," McInnes says.
"At idle moments throughout the day you look up and there they are, flying above and around you, defying gravity. My favourite bird is the seagull. I know they are pests but they remind me of being a kid and walking to school, which was near the beach."
McInnes, who will be appearing at the Perth Writers Festival at the end of February, hopes the light- hearted Hello Birdy will help viewers see Australian fauna with new eyes.
"This is not David Attenborough or a twee person giving a lecture about birds. I think it is refreshing to have a show that cherishes Australian fauna but doesn't just bow down and admire it in silence and treat it like an ornament.
"It is something that is there to be enjoyed and I am there learning along with the audience. As someone said, it is like watching a sports master giving lessons to a class in a subject he has never taken before."
