Wind, Rain and Floods
An Inland Trip, March-April 1999
11330km
187 spp
17 LIFERS
The object of the trip was to drive from Canberra, up through Central
Australia to Katherine, and return via the Barkly Tableland and SW
Queensland, tracking down all the birds I hadn't seen in the area. In the
end I saw over half the target spp, including some really lucky finds. I was
accompanied (just to make things difficult for me) by my two sons, aged 3
and 4, who had to be tended and placated on the way, and diverted with
stories, tapes and games.
Anyway the first two days, in which we travelled from Canberra to Port
Augusta were uneventful bird-wise, except for the presence of hundreds of
Purple-crowned Lorikeets in Port Augusta town around flowering eucalypts.
The next day we went on a tour of Pandurra Station with Peter Langdon. Peter
(tel: 08 86425723) knows the PA area well and has spots for a number of
rarities. We saw lots of goodies on Pandurra Station, including REDTHROAT
and SLENDER-BILLED THORNBILL, two birds you'd have to search high and low
for if you didn't have a local guide. Other good things were Ground
Cuckoo-shrikes, Rufous Calamanthus, Australian Pratincole and White-fronted
Honeyeater. Disappointment was the lack of Thick-billed Grasswrens.
The next day we went to a spot off the Eyre Highway that Peter recommended
as another TBGW site, but still didn't find them, so we started north up the
Stuart Highway towards Coober Pedy. It was sweltering, and the car's
air-conditioning had chosen not to operate, so we sweltered. Almost the only
birds of note on the drive was a flock of Orange Chats near Coober Pedy.
The next day we continued north, and about 60km north of CP a pair of
BOURKE'S PARROT flew across the road and perched in a bush giving excellent
views; we didn't see the sp again on the trip. 5km further on I stopped
again and observed various birds, including CINNAMON QUAIL-THRUSH and Pied
Honeyeater. The weather had suddenly turned cold with a very strong se wind,
a wind which propelled us north the whole time, and which continued to blow
throughout the entire trip. Just as well it was cooler, as both boys had
come down with Chicken-pox (high temperature, spots, thanks child-care!). At
the Banded White-face site north of Erldunda in the evening I found
conventional Whitefaces, and White-backed Swallows, and nothing else. At
Erldunda, where we stayed we saw the western race of the Major Mitchell
Cockatoo, which I reckon would be a good split: it's smaller, paler and has
a higher-pitched call than the eastern race, and has no yellow in its crest.
The next day the boys had begun to recover, but it was freezing, with a very
strong wind. The country seemed to be very very lush in places, with much
water about, though other areas, such as the gibber ridges in SA, had been
dry. Around Uluru the vegetation was luxuriant, but had obviously dried out
since spring rains. The weather and the lushness of the vegetation made
birding difficult and I wasn't surprised that at Uluru itself we failed to
find the Striated Grasswrens, Banded Whitefaces, Chiming Wedgebills, or
anything much at all, except GREY-HEADED HONEYEATER.
Heading back, towards Alice, we stopped off at the Banded Whiteface site
again, where there were only White-winged Fairywrens and another Cinnamon
Quail-thrush, and at the Henbury Meteorite Craters, which, even though there
was very little bird life about, were worth a visit.
We stayed in Alice and the next day went off to Kunoth Well. I wasn't
expecting much as the temperature was about 10 degrees and the wind
gale-force, but although the area seems no different to all the other
interminable kms of cattle- and sheep-devastated mulga you drive through in
this part of the world, it turned out to be a very birdy spot and we saw
Hooded and Red-capped Robin, Crested Bellbird, Singing Honeyeater, Southern
Whiteface, White-winged Fairywren and 4 types of Thornbill, Inland,
Chestnut-rumped, Yellow-rumped and SLATY-BACKED, which was very useful for
comparisons.
Then we went on to Simpson's Gap where the Dusky Grasswrens failed to
materialise; my grasswren agnosticism was reaching certainty by this point,
and even a trip to the Old Telegraph Station at Alice, and a very handsome
WESTERN BOWERBIRD failed to relieve it. In the evening we drove to Ormiston
Gorge and there was just enough light to see SPINIFEX PIGEONS roosting like
little brown rocks right out on the roads and on the bitumen of the car-park
and camping area generally.
In the morning we started on the Pound Walk (a great effort in cajolery and
admonishment with two little boys). We got about 2kms and had turned back
when suddenly I spotted a DUSKY GRASSWREN on the other side of a small
valley, great rejoicing, and, at last, I'd seen a grasswren! There were also
several flocks of Grey-headed Honeyeaters about.
On the way back to Alice we stopped at Ellery Creek Big Hole Reserve and saw
a SPINIFEXBIRD quite easily and then we turned north for the long drive to
Katherine. The only remaining excitement that day being a Black-breasted
Buzzard half-way between Alice and Tennant Creek.
The next day we started off and almost immediately called in at the Thomases
little spot just north of TC (follow the telegraph wires off the main road,
but as the road has some very deep creek beds and it's only a couple of kms
from the main road to the two big creek crossings you might as well park on
the main road and walk in, except if you've got little ones with you, of
course). Here we failed to find Rufous-crowned Emuwren, but it's a nice spot
and we saw Grey-fronted Honeyeater, Variegated Fairywren, and Mistletoebird.
The weather was warmer by now and we finally caught up with Budgies,
hundreds of them, and when we got into the tropical woodland belt by the
evening it was quite humid and we began to see many old favourites such as:
Brown Honeyeater, Little Frairbird, Masked and 2x Barred Finch, Pheasant
Coucal, Red-winged Parrot and White-winged Triller. At Mataranka Caravan
Park we caught up with still more such as Rainbow Lorikeet, Blue-winged
Kookaburra, Great Bowerbird, White-gaped Honeyeater and Magpie Goose.
That night the heavens opened in a tropical downpour and I was just
congratulating myself on the good old tent withstanding the downpour when
the waters rose UP into the tent, the Park's management having decided to
locate the camping area in a swamp. We evacuated to the car, and as the boys
wouldn't go back to sleep I decided to drive on to Katherine (it was now
about 2am) and as we were cruising very slowly along (for fear of crashing
into a roo) we flushed a GRASS OWL from long vegetation by the road and had
excellent views of its buff underparts and great long legs.
Dawn found us at Chinaman Creek outside Katherine (I wish we could get rid
of these racist names). Here is a good dry-season spot for Gouldian Finches,
but now in the Wet they are finishing breeding and are in smaler, family
parties, much more difficult to see; we spent some hours here, but didn't
see any Gouldians. However this is another very birdy spot and I saw:
Yellow-tinted, White-gaped and Singing Honeyeater, Red-tailed
Black-Cockatoo, Red-backed Fairywren, the northern race of the Varied
Sittella, Masked and 2x Barred Finch, Little Cuckoo-Shrike, 'Paperbark'
Flycatcher and Great Bowerbird. Later we went on to Edith Falls, but the
people studying the Gouldians were not in residence and so we couldn't get
any further info, failing this I looked in a few place around about, but
like looking for a needle in a haystack it was a pointless exercise. I saw a
few other nice things like Northern Rosella and Bar-breasted Honeyeater,
however.
The next day we turned south and then east along the Carpentaria Highway.
The road was quiet birdwise except for a few things like Diamond Dove, Dusky
Honeyeater, Grey-crowned Babbler and Long-tailed Finch. By afternoon we had
reached Cape Crawford Roadhouse and turned south. Here we entered the flat
treeless expanses of the Barkly Tablelands and began to see things like
Bustards and Ground Cuckoo-shrikes. About 200km south of Cape Crawford I saw
4 large brown pigeon flying very fast parallel to the road; we caught up
with them, adjusted speed to keep level with them and found they were flying
at 75kph. Then I accelerated ahead, stopped, jumped out and IDed them as
FLOCK BRONZEWINGS. Night was drawing on and we camped by the road, as
driving on was too dangerous, what with stock on the road, and hundreds of
Australian Pratincoles, which were difficult to swerve around.
The next morning we carried on, tuning east along the Barkly Highway,
however there were no Letter-winged Kites evident in trees around as there
were supposed to be, according to the script. We drove and drove and about
mid-day we reached the Lady Loretto Mine site near Mt Isa. Here, even before
I got out of the car I saw Spinifex Pigeon and PAINTED FINCH. Now as to
these birds, there has been a tendency on birding-aus to denigrate the
moderately decorative Star Finch, but who told the Painted Finch it could
mix bright scarlet and that mid brown in quite the way it does? A rather
aesthetically unpleasing bird, I think.
However the best was yet to come, I walked quietly west up the first creek
crossing and heard fairy-wren like notes, pushing on I flushed a handsome
CARPENTARIAN GRASSWREN, who, not scuttling away like they are supposed to,
boldly posed and chattered at me, before flying, mark that, away. Also on
the site were a pair of 'Cloncurry Ringnecks', which, apart from their very
different plumage, seem to have much the same voices and habits of Mallee
Ringnecks.
The next day we searched for the eastern Dusky Grasswren at Mica Creek, near
Mt Isa, but drew a blank. We then drove on to Winton, a very long drive, and
rather tedious as most of the birds we saw were ones we had already been
seeing; the countryside was looking lush in the extreme, and it was much
warmer, fortunately now the air-condition in the car had decided to work
again. At Winton we turned south, intending to visit the Opalton area, an
area of red-hills and spinifex which holds Striated Grasswrens and
Rufous-crowned Emuwrens. However, we had got about 3/4 of the way there when
suddenly, SPLAT, we were bogged at a creek crossing. After about 3 hours of
digging I had just about cleared all the mud from under the axles and
wheels, preparatory to us rolling forward on to the causeway. Just then
locals turned up in a huge Land Cruiser, the Land Cruiser from the Book of
Revelations, and with hardly a word, plucked us out backwards, pausing only
to inform us that Opalton and the Windorah area generally was under water.
And so off they roared, loaded up with the week-end's beer-supply for Opalton.
We squelched back to Winton, pausing only to admire a huge Black-headed
Python on the road. The next day we travelled back down the Opalton road,
about 20km from the turn off from the Lark Quarry road, to an area of red
hills and spinifex we had seen the day before, but not stopped at. Here we
found Spinifexbird and Spinifex Pigeon, but not the Emu-wren or the
Grasswren. However the area seems to be several hundred hectares in extent,
and would probably have them.
Baulked of going through Windorah to the Hall's Babbler site nearby we had
to do a long detour round the Landsborough Highway to Cunnamulla, having the
excitment of being towed through a flood just west of Longreach, and then
west through Eulo and Thargomindah. The Paroo and Bulloo rivers looked just
about to rise and cut us off, but I though a two day dash into Sturt from
the north would be OK. However we found the roads to Cameron Corner cut by
water, and at the Onepah Station Grey Grasswren site, despite searching for
hours, we found only a plague of White-winged Fairywrens, so all the bushes
were full of squeaky grey things, but not the right squeaky grey things. AND
we got a puncture. The only consolation was a GIBBERBIRD in Sturt, no mean
feat to spot as the vegetation on the gibber plains was a luxuriant 5 cm tall.
Back on the bitumen we cruised back towards Thargomindah, and just west of
the town saw a CHESTNUT-BREASTED QUAILTHRUSH on some bare stony ground by
the road. Lake Bindegolly now has a nice picnic area and there were Brolgas
in residence. The Lake was full, though we didn't look around the whole
shore, and didn't see any Freckled Duck.
Between Bindegolly and Eulo we stopped at some good-looking mulga and saw a
handsome White-browed Treecreeper. Past Eulo we stopped at Eulo Bore and got
bogged 2 meters off the road. Fortunately we managed to get back on the road
soon without help. Eulo Bore turned up two spp of Babbler, Chestnut-capped
and Grey-crowned, the only other birds of interest being some Blue Bonnets
of the pallid SW Qld race. It wasn't looking good for Hall's Babbler, but I
decided to stop at every promising looking piece of thick mulga and walk in,
and at the 3rd or 4th spot I found a company of the said HALL'S BABBLER,
resting midday and talking quietly to each other, excellent bird, excellent
views. This was at a side-road off to a property north of the road, 31km e
of Eulo, 36km w of Cunnamulla, just w of the 'T 160' sign.
And that was it really, even though we were another few days getting back to
Canberra (via Dubbo Zoo!). The only other birds of note were several flocks
of Red-tailed Black-cockatoos on the road between Bourke and Brewarrina.
It was an enjoyable trip, even though the weather caused some disruptions;
my only regret is that I didn't see just 2 more spp, as my Australian list
now stands at 598. However I'm sure I shall fall across the line sooner or
later, perhaps sooner.
John Leonard
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
John Leonard (Dr),
PO Box 243,
Woden, ACT 2606,
Australia
seen recently on golf-buggy:
'Unregistered Vehicle Permit' :-)
http://www.spirit.net.au/~jleonard
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
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