Hello all,
I am just back from 8 days looking for Night Parrots in the area to the
south-west of Cloncurry in North Queensland. I travelled with Jo Wieneke,
and - needless to say - we didn't find any Night Parrots. But it was a
glorious failure!
This is the area of several sightings of the bird up to 1994 (reported in
'Emu' by Stephen Garnett). When I had searched previously there had been a
succession of dry years. Parrot numbers generally were very low and the
situation was rather discouraging. This time, however, we were following
three good rainy seasons and everything was so different! Budgies, Zebra
Finches, Black-faced Woodswallows, Spinifex Pigeons and Crimson Chats
everywhere in their hundreds. Amongst other widespread species were
Australian Ringneck, Cockatiel, Spotted Nightjar, Black-tailed Treecreeper,
Red-browed Pardalote, Grey-crowned Babbler and Mistletoebird (one
Mistletoebird giving a magnificent example of a prologed sequence of
sub-song mimicry - oh for a tape recorder!)
Harder to find, but present, were Rufous-crowned Emu-wren, Dusky Grasswren,
Ground Cuckoo-shrike, Black Falcon, Little Button-quail, Australian Bustard
and Painted Finch
We camped most of the time by the Cloncurry River, which still had pools of
water, and our bird score quickly mounted. We recorded 58 species around
that camp - with highlights being Spotted Harrier (coming in to drink),
Black-breasted Buzzard, Australian Hobby, Brolga, Bush Stone-curlew, Spotted
Bowerbird, Red-winged Parrot and Varied Lorikeet.
The overwhelming highlight for us was the last campsite amongst stony hills
and spinifex - with nothing flowering except some mistletoe. As soon as we
awoke we realised we had stumbled onto a special spot - and I have taken the
liberty of showing below the species we recorded within a couple of hundred
metres of the camp in about 1 hour from 7am on 4 September -
Diamond Dove Peaceful Dove
Common Bronzewing Spinifex Pigeon
Galah Sulphur-crested Cockatoo
Cockatiel Australian Ringneck
Budgerigar Australian Owlet-nightjar
Rainbow Bee-eater Black-tailed Treecreeper
White-winged Fairy-wren Red-browed Pardalote
Striated Pardalote Yellow-rumped Thornbill
Weebill Little Friarbird
Yellow-throated Miner Grey-headed Honeyeater
Grey-fronted Honeyeater Black-chinned Honeyeater
White-throated Honeyeater Rufous-throated Honeyeater
Brown Honeyeater Crimson Chat
Jack Winter Crested Bellbird
Rufous Whistler Grey Shrike-thrush
Willie Wagtail Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike
White-winged Triller White-browed Woodswallow
Masked Woodswallow Little Woodswallow
Black-faced Woodswallow Pied Butcherbird
Magpie-lark Australian Raven
Spotted Bowerbird Zebra Finch
Painted Finch Mistletoebird
Tree Martin Spinifexbird
Black Honeyeater was 'probably' heard, and Emu, Grey-crowned Babbler and
Hooded Robin had been found at the same spot the day before.
The Spinifexbird seemed quite common, with 4 individuals being seen at one
point.
If you are heading that way please be meticulous in respecting private
land - and contact owners if straying off the obviously public roads. I can
provide landowner contacts etc if emailed directly - but I am on tour until
the end of the month so there may be a delay in replying.
Needless to say we are submitting a goodly pile of 'Atlas' sheets!
Richard
Richard Jordan,
ph (02) 4236 0542 fax (02) 4236 0176
www.ozemail.com.au/~emutours/
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