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I'm heading into Queensland now, from the dry South
West corner, to the North East; the wettest part of the country. But to get
there I have a lot of ground to cover, and still a few birds to try for.
Leaving the desolate gibber hills behind I enter
the equally desolate broad sweep of the Bulloo River flats.After so long without
rain, it becomes bleedingly obvious why we have to stop land clearing. When
there is drought the first thing to die are the grasses. Then if there is still
no rain the bushes and shrubs wither and die, and eventually the trees will
go. Take out all the trees and shrubs, and come the first dry spell and you have
nothing but bare earth. This is was my roadside for hour after
hour.
Not surpisingly there were very few birds. As I got
closer to Thargomyndah the floodplain held more trees (Coolabahs or something
similar) and I began to notice some were in heavy flower. There were flocks of
woodswallows too. The first time I stopped they were Black-faced, one of the few
birds I had consistently seen throughout the deserts and the drought affected
country. But I kept seeing more and more flocks around the blossom. About 45 km
south of Thargomyndah I thought I better check them out again.
What greeted me as I got out of the car was a
cacophony of woodswallow calls, this time hundreds of White-broweds with a few
Masked thrown in, the first I had seen since the odd sighting of some on Norfolk
Island of all places. There were Crimson Chats taking advantage of the blossom
as were the honeyeaters- mainly Yellow-throated Miners and White-plumed
honeyeaters. I also managed to see at least four Painted Honeyeater
a bird that having missed down South over Summer, I was very worried
about where I could get onto it before the year ended as they are a very
unreliable and scarce bird.
We have an amazing country. In a land of
drought, one species of trees in one particular area decide to flower in
profusion thereby saving whole populations of birds from starvation. This
is how it should work. But we have created all these gaps in nature so that
these massive, continental scale systems can't function as they were designed.
And every major event, be it drought or bushfire, sees the general pool of
native species from which to repopulate, diminished.
Sense a theme here? Because my route north skirted
the fringes of the massive clearing that has taken place in Queensland over
the last few years. While the Queensland and Federal Governments quibble over
who should pay compensation to farmers for not ruining the environment,
landholders, fuelled with uncertainty panic cleared and now, a year or two on,
the sight of cleared woodlands lying fallow being used neither for agriculture
nor for harbouring our native species, is a terribly disturbing
sight.
Luckily much of the Mulga belt has been spared and
it still provides large areas of habitat for Bourke's Parrot which I saw at the
noted Eulo Bore site (though only after dark and before dawn, drinking from the
lower pool) as well as Hall's Babbler and Chestnut-breasted Quail-thrush.
Last year I had both these species easily not far from Eulo Bore. This year
nothing, though I did pick up Red-winged Parrot, amongst many
other parrots coming in to drink.
I booked in to stay at "Bowra", a working sheep and
cattle property just out of Cunnamulla. Ian and Julie McLaren just love their
birds and have opened up their property to birders. On the phone Julie had said
they had recently seen both the preceding species and Grey Falcon, but then
hastily added they couldn't guarantee them- they must have had to deal
with disappointed twitchers before, not a pleasant experience I can assure
you.
Very quickly I added Spotted Bowerbird
and Hall's Babbler but the Quail-thrush eluded
me. To add salt into the wounds, Ian mentioned he had seen them three days
running only the week before. I spent two full days out in that mulga country
looking for the bludgers, occassionally scanning the skies for the falcon. I got
neither. I did get a puncture courtesy of a spike of Mulga, and I also got lost
(well, I miscalculated where I had left the car giving me an extra hour's walk),
and still didn't see the bird. Did see some really nice stuff like Pink
Cockatoo, a very early and westerly Latham's Snipe, Crested Bellbird, three
species of Babbler, and White-browed Treecreeper, but no bloody Quail-thrush.
I even detoured further north to try again at
Idalia National Park near Blackall. The ranger told me that since they have been
baiting against foxes and feral cats, they have noticed an increase in
Quail-thrush... but only in the warmer months. Perhaps they are a partial
migrant? This didn't stop me from looking but I failed to turn anything up, I
will have to detour in West Australia for this species later in the year. I did
pick up a mammal tick, however when I flushed a petite wallaby from the scrub. I
thought it looked like a Nail-tailed Wallaby, and it was only when I visited the
info centre that I discovered that Bridled had been released there a few years
ago. Nice one.
And so I had to give up on the Quail-thrush and on
the deserts for, ahead of me, lay the lush country of that birding mecca, North
Queensland.
Sean Dooley, August 14, 507
species
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