Here are a few notes that I have compiled of a recent trip from Brisbane to
Adelaide and return undertaken by myself and a mate.
A version of these notes has been posted on the BQForum previously, however,
since I have just joined the Birding-Aus forum and have a bit of free time on
my hands I thought I might expand on them and post it here for the benefit of
all. These notes mainly concentrate on species that I haven’t seen before
rather than being an exhaustive list of each and every sighting on the trip.
Our trip was mainly after Grasswrens covering 6,800km in two weeks (14-27
April, 2007) heading via Cunnamulla (Bowra Station), Innamincka, Strzelecki
Track, Cameron's Corner, Tibooburra, Pyampa Station, back to the Strzelecki
Track, Mt Lyndhurst, Flinders Ranges (Stokes Lookout and Wilpena Pound), Lake
Eyre (charter flight), Adelaide (where my mate flew home), Kangaroo Island
(where I saw rain – a novelty for a Brisbanite after such a long period of
drought), Gluepot Reserve, Hattah Kulkyne and finally a long solo drive back to
Brisbane (it rained the whole way …until the Queensland border).
We managed to find all of our target Grasswren species; however, the Grey
Grasswren lived up to its reputation and proved the most elusive.
We didn't get the Grey Gw at the usual Pyampa Station site but managed very
brief glimpses at a site we found on the main drag to Innamincka just before
Coopers Crossing. The co-ords were S27 30.213 E141 56.553. There are other
postings on this particular location in the Birding-Aus archives. We also
found many Little Button-quail at this site.
Even after flushing a fair few LBQ's there was still considerable debate over
what type of BQ we were actually seeing - which is no surprise with BQ in
general (Were the field guide illustrators really looking at the same birds we
were?). We settled on the LBQ based on our location, and the main diagnostic we
saw time and time again (as they flew away) - the white flanks - which were
most prominent. However, there was a single up close view of a female BQ with
a fair amount of Rufous around the neck and chest that we still haven’t been
able to positively identify – possibly a Red-chested BQ?
As for the GGw - I only got an extremely brief sighting of three flitting
between the lignum clumps. The female White-winged Fairywren did their best to
confuse us time and time again in the undergrowth as well.
Frankly, if I thought you could get away with it at Pyampa Station I would
suggest the only reliable way of flushing the GGw would be by burning the god
forsaken place out along with all the flies, mosquitoes, sand flies, march
flies and anything else that bit me during the period we were there (yes it did
get to us!)
We found the Eyrean Gw easily (for Gw) on top of a dune on the north side of
the road west of Bollards Lagoon/Cameron's Corner (S28 55.933 E140 24.750). We
also got Cinnamon Quail Thrush nearby at S28 49.152 E140 17.368 although we
found a lot more of them further down the road at Monte Collina Bore.
We briefly saw Thick-billed Grasswrens at a rocky outcrop on the southern side
of the Strzelecki track near Mt Hopeless (S29 36.542 E139 10.833), which I
suspect is near the northern end of their range. We had better views of
Thick-billed Gw at Mt Lyndhurst.
Using the details provided in Thomas and Thomas with supplementary notes from
Birding-Aus we stopped off at the `Mine Site' at Mt. Lyndhurst late in the
afternoon.
Our expectations of seeing our target species at that time of day weren't
exactly high and we figured we would probably need to return to the site in the
morning, however, we managed to get the Rufous Fieldwren very quickly near the
old mine, followed by a small group of Chestnut-breasted Whiteface a short
distance further on.
We then moved on to the low rocky outcrop to the west (erroneously called a
rocky 'escarpment' in other site notes on Birding–Aus postings) and started
walking toward the rusty car. It wasn't long before we noticed a small party
of Thick-billed Grasswren. These appeared more secretive than the Eyrean Gw
and considerably duller in hue but still a great sight.
In order to assist people in finding their way around the Lyndhurst site
without getting lost and especially for those that don't have a copy of the out
of print T&T I have provided some of the GPS co-ords for different features
noted in this reference text and in other records on Birding-Aus.
Turnoff to Mine site S30 12.286 E138 36.718
Rusty Car S30 12.215 E138 36.585
No Public Access Sign (Parking spot) S30 11.963 E138 36.298
Mine (our Rufous Fieldwren site) S30 11.898 E138 36.076
Our Chestnut-breasted Whiteface site S30 11.830 E138 35.896
Rocky outcrop (escarpment) S30 12.055 E138 36.362
Our Thick-billed Grasswren site S30 12.050 E138 36.406
Very happy with our days efforts, we then proceeded on our way to Leigh Creek
which had a great campsite and excellent facilities to wash away the
accumulated dust of a few days camping out on the Strzelecki track.
Short-tailed Gw at Stokes Lookout (S31 27.853 E138 43.748) took a while to
track down but were far more accommodating in comparison to some of the others
- impressing us with a full song and dance routine on top of a nearby rock.
The tail is noticeably shorter, barely reaching head height when in full song
with head held high.
As my time was limited I engaged the services of Peter Waanders at Gluepot to
show me around. We managed to track down a large flock of 30-40 Black-eared
Miners and hybrids; Gilbert's Whistler, Chestnut Quail-thrush and a small group
of Striated Gw (my fifth Gw of the trip) were also sighted although we weren't
as fortunate with the Red-lored Whistler as its habitat had suffered during the
bush fires in December.
If Peter ever gives up his job as a guide he can always turn to rally driving!
Seriously though, thanks Peter, I had a great time and learnt a lot from you.
Other 'lifers' seen on the trip included Halls Babbler (Bowra), Banded
Whiteface, Black Falcon (Tibooburra), Inland Dotterel (Tibooburra),
Purple-gaped Honeyeater (Kangaroo Island sub sp.), Grey-fronted Honeyeater
(Flinders Ranges).
We also saw many other interesting inland/mallee species that I had seen on
previous trips including (but not limited to) Peregrine and Brown Falcon,
Hobby, Brown Goshawk, Collared Sparrowhawk, Black- breasted Buzzard, Australian
Pratincole, Banded Lapwing, Pied and Banded Stilts, Crimson and Orange Chats,
Splendid Fairy-wrens, White-browed Treecreeper, Yellow-plumed, Singing and Pied
Honeyeaters, Chirupping Wedgebill, Southern White-face, White-backed Swallow,
Crested Bell-bird, Chestnut-crowned and White-browed Babblers, Spotted
Bowerbirds, Ringnecks, Budgerigars, Bourkes, Elegant, Superb, Red-rumped and
Mulga Parrots, Bluebonnets (2 sub sp.), Yellow and Adelaide Rosellas, Barking
and Boobook Owls, Spotted Nightjar and of course, the ever present Willie
Wagtail.
My mate and I came to the conclusion one evening at the Strzelecki Crossing
(after a few red wines) that Sean Dooley's theory in ‘The Big Twitch’ that the
Grey Falcon is a mythical species needs to be extended to include all species
beginning with a 'G' including Grey Falcon, Ground Cuckoo-shrike, Gibberbird,
Grey Honeyeater, Mallee GWhip-bird, Gallee Emu-wren (and my local nemesis bird
the Rufous Grub-bird).
It was interesting to hear from Peter Waanders that he and others had been
dipping out on the Gibberbird over the last few trips up the Strzelecki
although others have since reported to me that they sighted Gibberbird on the
Birdsville Track during this same period.
I would like to thank all of the previous posters on the Birding-Aus forum that
provided me with a lot of useful information on where to start looking with a
modicum of certainty and hope my post helps others planning a trip out that way
as well. If you require any specific information please do not hesitate to
drop us a line.
Cheers,
Carl Billingham
(PS: I’m sure you will all be pleased to hear that global warming doesn't
appear to be affecting the inland fly population and for those people that have
had a humour transplant the quip about burning out Pyampa Station was intended
as a joke ...so no abusive emails please)
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