General Itinerary
15 May: Birdsville, Bedourie via eastern side of Lake Machattie (due to water
making the western side impassable),
Sandringham property to camp for 2 nights
16 May: Sandringham property, north west of camp as far as we could go
(approximately Montara Sandhill) where the road was
cut off by water, back to camp, spotlighting at night
17 May: Sandringham camp, to Boulia for the night
18 May: Boulia, Dajarra, Duchess, Malbon camp for two nights
19 May: camp, Top Camp Road nearby, back to camp
20 May: Malbon to Mount Isa
Birds
Morning of 15 May allows a lengthy walk around Birdsville. The river has lots
of water and hence Gull-billed Tern, Silver
Gull, Banded Lapwing. Fairy Martins are gathering mud for nests. As always
the White-breasted Woodswallows are in town.
Then the long haul from Birdsville to Bedourie. This started a series of
sightings where the numbers of birds were quite
large, the first spectacle being 200 Australian Pratincole wheeling in the air.
Our lunchspot west of Lake Machattie, near a
sand dune, produced almost nothing in the way of birds but I did get yet
another Red-browed Pardalote as by now I'm well
tuned into their call.
Orange Chat, Singing Bushlark showing lovely orange underneath as it was
backlit by the sun and a fantastic Gibberbird. This
bird was extremely bright yellow. It sat still for a very long time as we
looked at it, sitting back with its pink legs at a
45 degree angle to the ground. The eye was black with a wide white ring.
Then out to Sandringham property, where the owners were gracious at allowing us
to camp at 24 03 05 S, 139 03 23 E. This
place was wonderful. On the edge of the Simpson Desert National Park, it had
open plains, sand dunes, large trees, gibber -
it was one of my first tastes of driving for hours and still being on the same
property. Certainly having water in the creek
made it nice, and our campsite had green plants on it to make camping pleasant,
but even without these, it would be an
interesting place.
During our time at the campsite and within a short distance, we built up a
great list of birds including:
* Black-faced Cuckoo-shrike - 40 adults and immatures often flying around
* Black-fronted Dotterel, Black-winged Stilt and Masked Lapwing heard at 9pm at
the shallow lying water nearby (so shallow it
only covered the lapwing's feet)
* White-backed Swallow (always gorgeous)
* A number of raptors including Australian Hobby, Brown Falcon, Black Kite and
Whistling Kite. A Nankeen Kestrel decided to
divebomb 6 Galahs which were minding their own business foraging on grass on
the ground.
* A few of the small birds including Red-capped Robin, Mistletoebird, more
Red-browed Pardalote (now seemingly common),
Diamond Dove.
* Australian Pratincole - 30 adults and immatures foraging not only on the
grasslands, but also on the sand dune and in the
water. They were giving a 2 noted "weee weee" call.
Spotlighting produced 2 pairs of Inland Dotterel which were rather reluctant to
move off the road.
16 May
Headed north west, once again getting out of the bus every so often and
exploring for bird atlas purposes. We were stopped
by some rather deep water over the road. How do I know it was deep?
Pink-eared Ducks were dabbling and diving completely
underwater.
Along the way, there were various treats such as White-winged and Variegated
Fairy-wren, Pallid Cuckoo, Gibberbird (23 58
28S, 138 52 53E), a group of 12 Inland Dotterel on gibber which Graham expertly
found with his ever present telescope.
Cinnamon Quail-thrush at 23 59 02S, 138 53 56E being a female which I was able
to watch a little first as she was under a
bush, then she moved out into the open. Once I cooeed for the others to come,
she flew and expertly disappeared.
Crimson Chat and Cinnamon Quail-thrush elsewhere, Horsfield's Bronze Cuckoo,
Rufous Songlark and Bourke's Parrot all made for
a good day out which produced a fair range of species.
17 May
Long haul to Boulia, with various stops along the way. Now in Channel Country,
i.e. where rivers and creeks form many
channels over vast areas of relatively flat plains.
More large flocks of birds including 30 Australian Wood Ducks, 140 plus
separately 60 Straw-necked Ibis, Fairy Martins in
flocks of 80 and 100 under bridge culverts, 2 flocks of 70 Australian
Pratincole and 60 Black Kite circling on a thermal in
various places along the way. But this pales into comparison with one spot on
the Georgina River where an amazing 700 Black
Kites were congregating at one spot, and another 500 just 2 kilometres away.
And what was the attraction?
Hundreds of catfish fingerlings trapped in the receding river waters. The
kites were circling in the air and then flying
down to the river, trying to grab a fish in their talons. It was interesting
to see that the kites wouldn't just stand at
the river - they flew down. 200 Australian Pelican were here as well.
This was one of the great spectacles of birdwatching.
Another goodie was a Spotted Harrier flying low and clearly showing its grey
upper side and red underneath.
And one of those small world stories - we happen to meet Richard Johnson in
this area. Nice to meet Richard face to face
after seeing his emails on birding-aus.
Ended the day with a Red-backed Kingfisher at Boulia.
18 May
An early morning visit to the fossil museum in Boulia is fascinating.
Have moved into "Cloncurry" Australian Ringneck territory.
Wedge-tailed Eagles, many at roadkills, and have noted quite a lot of birds
with white/light heads and backs, indicating
young birds.
But by now I'm getting itchy for another lifer and my chance is coming up with
a place apparently well known for
Rufous-crowned Emu-wren (21 14 28S, 140 09 20E) and sure enough, 7 of the
lovelies are there. They were in a spinifex bush
and would tantalisingly rise to the surface to look around, and then duck back
down into the thick. Finally, to emerge from
the bush, they would go to the bottom and scurry across or fly across close to
the ground. (Lifer no. 501)
This area also had Stubble Quail, and nearby Ground Cuckoo-Shrike and 100 Galah.
Off to nearby Malbon and set up camp on the banks of Cloncurry River. Being on
the river was terrific as it had a good
amount of water in it and attracted some great birds. Our time here included
two Brolga which flew in, giving a croaking
call and then landing on the riverbank and allowing extended views. Similarly
a Black-necked Stork literally helicoptered in
on outstretched wings and foraged extensively in the river.
Lovely calls in the air from Varied Lorikeet (502), Blue-winged Kookaburra
giving a hilarious sunset chorus, Red-winged
Parrot, and a Channel-billed Cuckoo giving its rising wailing screech.
Australian Owlet-nightjar peeped at night.
19 May
Off for the day. Stopped on the way to Top Camp Road and found Black-tailed
Treecreeper (503). This is a lovely bird -
cream flash in the wings against chocolate brown, stripes on the lower throat
and beautiful spotting on the undertail.
Nearby Mitakoodi Gorge at 20 56 43S, 140 19 54E is a site for the new Kalkadoon
Grasswren comprising steep rocky hills with
spinifex (so much spiky spinifex on this trip!). Once again we had to be
patient and quiet - the grasswren would burst from
a clump of spinifex and fly to another clump, so mainly you only got the
impression of the brown flash. But eventually I saw
it come out and stand on the ground between clumps, tail cocked, giving me a
good clear view. (No. 504)
On Top Camp Road itself was my first Grey-fronted Honeyeater (505). Two were
foraging in a gum tree - the gum trees had just
started bursting into flower. And let's keep up the pace and get Little
Woodswallow too (Lifer no. 506) which obligingly
flew low overhead and perched showing its blue bill and slaty grey wings.
Lunch was along this road at a great spot on Brightlands property with huge
trees, a river in a bit of a sandy gorge and
billabongs. I thoroughly recommend this area which proffered another Kalkadoon
Grasswren, Spinifex Pigeon, Sacred and
Red-backed Kingfisher, Brown Goshawk, Rainbow Bee-eater, Weebill and Common
Bronzewing.
We've also moved into Sulphur-crested Cockatoo country - the white cockies so
far being Little Corella.
20 May
Pack up camp and drive to Mount Isa with it pouring rain most of the way.
We're well and truly in the tropics, some days a
balmy 32 degrees and like summer, most of the days dry and treating us well.
Next report the Mount Isa area (Bob Forsyth, you'll be interested in this).
Irene Denton
Concord West, 12 km from Sydney city, NSW, Australia
33 50' 17" S 151 05' 25" E
(PS thanks to the people who queried where my next report was - gallstones
slowed me u
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