As the time hit 6am on our designated start day of the Outback Twitchathon,
The Rylstone Curlews were deep under cover.
It was dark and cold at the Eulo Bore in SW Qld and bed was the better
option.
However the urge to get our first tick for the morning soon took over
and Bourkes Parrot was number one!
The Curlews, (Timothy Hyde, Lynda Holmes & Jill Dark) had chosen Eulo Bore
as their start point and it was far from boring. A great birding spot
and a great bush camp site.
We ended up the twitch at the Ten Mile Bore deep in Currawinya NP,
93 birds later. We decided not to travel far or fast on the twitch,
and as a massive 23 of the birds spotted were new for Lynda and myself
we preferred to linger on each of the lifers.
93 birds for the twitch was just short of our hoped for target of 100
but we were quite pleased with the result. Also pleased with the amount of
funds we raised for Newhaven which beat our last years effort by many
hundreds.
As every team experiences, we had a few dips that were rightfully ours.
No Apostlebirds that had been under our feet for days. No Freckleds at the
Currawinya Lakes, and only the Caspian Tern there as well. And no ferals.
Following the twitch period, we had a beer at the delightful
Hungerford Pub and negotiated the shocking road to Bourke.
The highlight of this days travel was a flock of 33 Brolgas ! at the same
spot the WOW team had reported 2 weeks prior.
(Green Creek near Fords Bridge).
After a night regrouping in Bourke and checking the car for shock damage,
we journeyed down the Darling River Run, narrowly avoiding the famous
Louth Races,
camping at Tilpa Wier and then onto the Burke & Wills campsite at the
Menindee Lakes.
Two days then at Broken Hill doing the tourist thing including a trip
out to the oasis of
Umberumberka Reservoir that proved to be a birding hotspot.
Highlights of the trip included -
The Brolgas mentioned above.
Red winged Parrots outside the Queen of Eulo Hotel ( Bird of the trip
for me)
Western Gerygone at the Date Farm Eulo
The early morning Parrot Festival at Eulo Bore - Bourkes, Ringnecks,
Blue Bonnets, Mulgas
Galahs ...
A few Red Tailed Black Cockatoos at the amazing Old Bourke Wharf and
then see a swirling
flock of 50 or so very close up near Tilpa.
Lake Wyara - Crunching across the salt flats, the impossibly huge number
of birds on the lake, The White Winged Wrens (Lynda's Bird of the Trip)
and the scores of Orange Chats.
A huge thanks to Frances Czwalinna for organizing the event and David
Geering who I think
originally proposed the idea. It certainly encouraged us to push our
birding boundaries a bit
and I suspect it has for several others.
Cheers
Timothy Hyde
Blue Mountains / Capertee Valley
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