Hi
all, some friends and I joined Richard Baxter ( from Newcastle)
last
week to help find some feral Ostriches just north of Pt Augusta in SA.
After
some extensive enquiries I was able to contact the property owner and make
arrangements for accessing Mt Arden Station, a property of some 30km
north–south and 20km east-west, some 600 sq km in all.
We
collected a map and information regarding latest sightings from the owner, and
a little later, from farm workers on the property. Needle in a
haystack to say the least.
After
driving around often very indistinct bush tracks from 10 a.m. to about 1.30 p.m. one of our hawkeyed group spotted
one male , easily 2km away across a large valley close to Monument Hill and Mt
Arden itself. Difficult to discern even with
binos, so we followed a track down through the valley to roughly where we had
seen the single bird, searched around for about half an hour , getting zilch.
We
then decided to go for another large paddock at the opposite end of the
property where we had been advised there were “a
lot”. Took a lot of work finding the way, even with the hand drawn
map – some of the tracks just didn’t seem
to exist.
However,
by about 4 p.m. we found our
way to a track following the power line to Woomera, intent on getting out of
the property before dark – it was bad
enough during daylight finding our way, although we did take GPS fixes
from
time to time.
Going
along this track for a few kms a dozen or so Ostriches suddenly
appeared racing across the track in front of us – some
of us
saw them, others didn’t. They rapidly disappeared over a slight rise,
plunging into a valley and out of sight.
Thank
goodness for 4x4s, we bush-bashed after them to the top of the rise and
found them about half a km away at the top of another rise, hiding in some
bushes but keeping an eye on us. This gave us good views of their
bodies and necks ( boy, those necks are loooong), but their legs were hidden in
the undergrowth. I now believe what the books say about them running
at 55kph., they went like rockets and are obviously very feral and skittish.
However,
mission accomplished we headed west for the highway and back to Pt Augusta. Richard
headed off to look for Scarlet-chested Parrots next day with our instructions
on where to look. Did you find them Richard ?
Tony Russell
