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TRIP REPORT - THE BOURKE
BUSTARDS OUTBACK TWITCHATHON REPORT
The Bourke Bustards Team was
especially formed for this occasion and consisted of Nola Hancock, Andy Burton
& Alan Morris, a trio of old stagers, the later two having been in a number
of Twitcathons in the past. We made this trip a fairly leisurely affair,
commencing at 7am (not 6am because it was dark and cold at Cobar) in the
township of Cobar. We virtually planned a trip around Sewarage Treatment Works
ponds, starting at the Cobar STW and the Newey Reservoir, travelling to
Bourke and visiting the STW there both in the evening and next morning, and
finishing at the Nyngan STW and the Bogan River Weir. Overall we had a pleasant
two days birding despite the smells, in a fairly droughtified area of the State
and managed to raised some funds for the Newhaven project and complete about 40
or so Atlas Sheets. Unlike the Whacked Out Woodswallows, we failed to
see one Bustard!, but we did find 111 birds - not the biggest total, but good
fun never-the-less!
It was a great morning at Cobar
27/7/02 when the sun did come up and in the bushland we were soon onto
White-browed Babblers, Crested Bellbird, Bar-shouldered Dove, Mulga Parrots, a
pair of Pink Cockatoos, Chestnut-rumped Thornbills & Southern Whiteface,
Hooded Robins and plenty of Ringnecks, The highlights of STW were an out of
season trio of Crimson Chats, the male in almost full breeding plumage, and an
adult male Spendid Fairy-wren in full breeding colours - stunning. the usual
waterbirds were present, including good numbers of Hoary-headed Grebes. The
Newey Reservoir, is always good for Mistletoebirds, Spotted Bowerbirds and
Striped Honeyeaters and it did not dissappoint. In the shallow water there were
a few Pink-eared Duck amongst the many Grey Teal, Hardheads, Black-winged
Stilts, Black-tailed Native-hens and Red-kneed Dotterels.
At Tindara Tank, midway between Cobar
& Bourke we picked up our first Common Bronzewing, Jacky Winter, Red-capped
Robin and our first and only 2 Banded Lapwings (where have all the Banded
Lapwings gone?). We lunched in a dry creek in Gundabooka NP finding our first
Brown Treecreepers, a possible but rejected White-browed Treecreeper, Eastern
Yellow Robin, Weebill and Singing Honeyeater. Onto Bourke where we first visited
the STW. Here we saw a pair of birdwatchers, where they taking part in the
Twitchathon we wondered? At first we thought they were because they were very
guarded in what they said to us, no way were they going tell us what they saw
other than to say that there had been 4 Brolgas there when they arrived but had
now flown off!! Chased away more likely we mumbled to ourselves, but as luck
would have it, we still managed to find another two Brolgas at the back of the
ponds! There were over 1000 Pinkears on the ponds but no Freckled Ducks!! We did
the Maritime Port of Bourke walk to check out the heritage of this famous
Darling River port & railway (alas it is no longer either a port or a
railhead!) and manged to turn up our first Red-tailed Black Cockatoos, Great
Egret, Darter and Great Cormorants. We finished the day with 94 birds, not bad
for a dry inland venue we thought! We rested at the Port of Bourke Hotel and
enjoyed one of their famous BBQ dinners.
Up to early and walked along the levy
bank of the River and viewed some of the new tourist attractions, and managed to
add Pelican to our list. A revisit to the STW gave us great views of a Peregrine
Falcon, before it took off. A few minutes later we watch it attempt a strike at
a Grey Teal but it missed because the Teal was spooked by a pair of Blue Bonnets
that we had disturbed! Then off to Byrock where once again we became tourists
and did the Bai Rock Aboriginal site walk - a great interpretive walk and well
worth a visit when passing that way. In the bushland around the site we added
Inland Thornbilll, Western Gerygone, Restless Flycatcher and Rufous
Whistler to our list. We finally collected the Chestnut-crowned Babblers
between Byrock and Coolibah, and Zebra Finches & White-breasted
Cuckoo-shrikes at the Monkeycreek Bridge east of Coolibah. From here we took the
"riverland" route to Nyngan, passing over the Bogan River, Duck Creek &
Belah Creek as we headed toward the finish line. We spent some time searching
out a Black-shouldered Kite for our list and the last bird to be counted was a
pair of Cattle Egrets well west of their normal range at the Bogan Weir at
sunset. Despite the good birding on the second day, we only added 17 species for
the day!! It was hard going.
While travelling to Cobar we saw
Pallid Cuckoos between Molong & Wellington, and more on the way home in the
same general area but none during the Twitchathon. Similarly we saw Budgerigars
and Double-barred Finches at Terramungermine Reserve, Dubbo but none when it
counted! A big thankyou to all our sponsors.
Alan
Morris
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