General Itinerary
27 May: Boulia to Bedourie, overnight camp Monkira property area
28 May: Monkira property camp, east to the left hand corner towards Diamantina
Lakes National Park near Currawilla property,
turned left and went nearly half way up the road towards DL NP, camped
overnight in Palparara property area
29 May: Palparara property camp, back south to main Bedourie/Windorah road,
Windorah, road to Quilpie but turned right at
Thylungra property corner and took the Kyabra road towards Eromanga, camp for
the night in the Kyabra property area
30 May: Kyabra property camp, Quilpie
31 May: Quilpie, camp overnight in the Yalamurra area and explored Cooladdi
area
1 June: Yalamurra area, Charleville, Cunnamulla, Bowra property camp for the
night
2 June: Bowra property camp for the morning
Birds
27 May was the haul from Boulia to Bedourie, with 500 Black Kite at the same
point on the Georgina River where over a
thousand of them were on 17 May. Now the Fairy Martins are in a nest-building
frenzy, with 200 of them swarming back and
forth to the riverbank and obtaining mud and flying to their nesting site. In
this area there was a long stretch of
roadworks with concrete culverts lying around awaiting placement: the Martins
were nesting in these culverts before they had
even been put in place!
A Chirruping Wedgebill at 24 06 54 S, 139 32 51 E was giving a rather different
“rough” call.
And here, as elsewhere a number of times, Spotted Harriers were flying low over
the grasslands. This was very distinctive
behaviour for these raptors.
But wait, there’s more……….
Phillip’s sharp eyes saw a white raptor sitting in a bush only about 1.5 metres
above ground so we stop. We pile out because
he thought it was a Grey Falcon. Oh, a Black-shouldered Kite. Nevertheless we
all stand there looking – could it be a
Letter-winged Kite? Some people dared not to think so, thought it couldn’t
possibly be, but something told me that I was
about to see this raptor. Heart pounding. Looking at it through the
binoculars, the black patch on the shoulder was
noticeably bigger than that on a “normal” Black-shouldered Kite. Additionally,
this bird had a different “look” in the face
(as a result of not having the black behind the eye).
Finally, the bird flew and we screamed – there were the long black lines along
each underwing right through to the body.
Letter-winged Kite. Richard said we were louder than when the Beatles landed
at Melbourne airport. And so, at 23 16 08 S,
139 42 44 E, I got lifer number 513, my last lifer for this trip, and what a
beauty and what a biggie.
Phillip was forgiven that it wasn’t a Grey Falcon. The bird flew only 100
metres and landed on the other side of the road,
once again in a small bush (which was actually about the only perches around in
this area of cleared paddocks/grasses).
On to Monkira property area for the night, camping on a river which was teeming
with 160 Nankeen Night Heron comprising about
40% adults and 60% striped immatures. This area was activity plus, with a
wonderful passing silhouetted parade at dusk as
Australian Pelican, Great Cormorant, Australian White Ibis, Straw-necked Ibis,
Egrets and Whistling Kite flew past, some in
this direction, some in that direction, but mainly along the waterline.
The big chill during the night with ice on the kitchen table in the morning.
28 May
1,000 Fairy Martins. 400 Australian Pelicans flying, with 20 “stalling” in
flight and forming into a V shape. Otherwise saw
many of the same birds today as previously, one highlight being a Gibberbird at
24 45 23 S, 141 25 39 E being extraordinarily
canary yellow, on a grassy area near gibber.
Another icy night (literally).
29 May
There I am happily enjoying a close view of a Pallid Cuckoo, admiring the
light-coloured triangles on the outer edges of its
undertail. Yellow-throated Miners give their alarm call and the Pallid Cuckoo
suddenly becomes very alert. A Black Falcon
comes rocketing through low, giving me a chance to note its pointed wings,
cream undertail and vent indicating it to be less
than 10 years old.
Heading back south to the main road, a group of 5 Banded Lapwings includes 2
immatures, and an Emu is clocked running at 42
kms per hour.
In the Kyabra property area, we had Bourke’s Parrot, Crested Bellbird, Ground
Cuckoo-shrike. Walking at one stage I heard a
chirping and then a Spotted Nightjar flew out from under a bush and circled for
about 4 minutes, giving some of us excellent
views. Gosh they’re pretty birds.
30 May
Kyabra property area proffers Black-breasted Buzzard, Major-Mitchell’s
Cockatoo, Red-backed Kingfisher, Southern Whiteface, a
beautiful river, Singing Honeyeater feeding on mistletoe, Ground Cuckoo-shrike
(for years never saw any, now they’re
everywhere!), Yellow-billed Spoonbill.
Quilpie for the night, with a funny sound coming from the head of leaves at the
top of a palm tree: Blue-faced Honeyeater.
31 May
A bit less driving and a bit less birding today as we spent some time in
Quilpie in the morning. Then moved to camp in the
Cheepie/Yalamurra area and explored this area. Saw an adult Pied Butcherbird
eat a grasshopper by holding it in its foot and
eating the grasshopper head first. Grey-crowned Babblers were working over
tree branches, particularly the broken parts.
Similar to these birds seen the next day, they were silent (what a concept:
silent babblers).
1 June
Nice time to birdwatch before breaking camp, seeing Redthroat, Crested
Bellbird, Chestnut-rumped Thornbill and Spiny-cheeked
Honeyeater.
Otherwise a bigger driving day, which included lunch on Mirabooka property
about 70 km north of Cunnamulla. Here were
fabulous views of Ground Cuckoo-shrike walking on the ground (I’d only ever
seen them flying before or once perched in a
tree), and great views of their stripes and eye ring. There’s no bird like
them.
At one stage in the stretch north of Cunnamulla, 115 Emu were counted over
about 5 minutes (so say 7 kilometres), all in
paddocks with grass tall enough to hide their legs. If their head was down
feeding in the grass, you wondered what the funny
mound in the grass was, until the head popped up!
And arrival on Bowra property outside Cunnamulla to test it out. A lovely
camping site on the banks of a great river with
huge gum trees, this property also has cypress and other vegetation, making it
quite interesting. A Black-breasted Buzzard
flew over to welcome us. Late afternoon 1 June and morning 2 June gave us a
wide variety of birds including Red-winged
Parrot, Spotted Bowerbird, Brown Treecreeper, Hooded Robin, Little
Button-quail, Splendid Fairy-wren, Blue Bonnet and
Mistletoebird.
A Brown Goshawk was sitting on a dead branch and when a small bird flew past,
the goshawk chased it, showing those lovely red
stripes across the breast.
More to come - though I can't top the Letter-winged Kite in the next report.
Irene Denton
Concord West, 12 km from Sydney city, NSW Australia
Birding-Aus is on the Web at
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