Hattah-Kulkyne and Murray-Sunset and the virtues of getting lost

[Michael Todd <>]

Hello Birdos,

I took a couple of days off work at the end of last week so as to give
myself a little more time to get down to see some of the Victorian mallee
country. In particular I was looking for Striated Grasswrens and Mallee
Emu-wrens. I didn't have time to see much of either of the parks that I
visited, particularly Murray Sunset where I did a circuit around Last
Hope Track, Pheeny Tank Rd and the Pheeny track all on the far eastern
edge of the Sunset country. I found it very interesting and I look
forward to getting back there with more time. I found a few things on the
way there and on the way back also so I'll just summarise what I
found.

Little Bittern at Oxley on the Lachlan River and Redthroat
at a new spot, 6 km north of Penarie in Old Man Saltbush and Black
Bluebush. Chestnut-crowned Babbler near Wemen, and Regent
Parrots at numerous locations in Hattah Kulkyne NP and Murray Sunset
NP.

Striated Grasswren- found at 2 spots in Hattah Kulkyne NP (both on
the Nowingi Track). This is basically the same area that others have
found them and are pretty well documented in the Birding-aus archives. I
had to work really hard to get my first ones though. I've searched for
Striateds before in other parts of Australia and failed and I put in a
total of 8 hours before I found the first ones here! Once I'd found the
first ones it was like the dam wall breaking. I found them in a further 4
spots in Murray Sunset NP (on Last Hope Track and 2 spots on Pheeny Tank
Rd). 
Mallee Emu-wren- I found the first ones by co-incidence while I
was recording the first Striated Grasswrens that I mentioned above. I
hadn't realised they were there until they appeared in front of me. I
found them in a further 3 spots in Murray Sunset NP (Pheeny Track, Pheeny
Tank Rd and Last Hope Track). With both of these species I found most of
them while I was driving slowly with the windows open. I found that I
could pick their calls once my ear was correctly tuned. I'm pretty
certain that I was only hearing ones that were adjacent to the road and I
must have missed many. 
Other birds that I picked up in Murray Sunset included Southern
Scrub-robin (4 spots), Shy Heathwren (4 spots), Gilbert's
Whistler (2 spots), Chestnut Quail-thrush (2 spots, and
another 2 in Hattah-Kulkyne). I found Malleefowl footprints in two
spots in Hattah Kulkyne. I got a buzz out of seeing Golden
Whistlers in the mallee, they're not a usual bird in the central NSW
mallee.
Black-tailed Native-hen- There was a flock of approximately 300
birds on lake Hattah.

On the way back to Griffith I decided to take a quick look at the
Tullakool Saltworks about 50 km SE of Moulamein (back in NSW) which I had
heard had Banded Stilts. Sure enough, there was a minimum of 200
Banded Stilts, 200 Australian Shelducks and 200
Red-necked Avocets (by this stage of the trip I wasn't so keen on
counting and they were a long way away through my telescope). I got
mildly geographically embarrassed on my way back and ended up at
Jimaringle, about 50 km north-west of Deniliquin. I didn't mind though as
I found a wonderful little creek with great muddy margins. Despite its
small size it had 3 Baillons Crakes and 6 Australian
Crakes, Red-kneed Dotterels, Nankeen Night Heron, Purple
Swamphen, 8 Black-tailed Native-hen etc,. A couple of
kilometres further north there was an irrigation channel and adjacent
paddock with approximately 200 Black-tailed Native-hens. 

Its not a bad idea getting lost sometimes!

Cheers,

Mick Todd
Griffith, NSW



Birding-Aus is on the Web at
www.shc.melb.catholic.edu.au/home/birding/index.html
To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message
"unsubscribe birding-aus" (no quotes, no Subject line)
to