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Members of the Tamworth Birdwatchers Club were
asked to create a birdlist for the owners of a station way out between
Yantabullah and Engonia, north of Bourke NSW. They have set up a
tourist enterprise, offering outback bush camping on the Maranoa waterhole (a
six kilometre long permanent stretch of water where the Duracks are supposed to
have camped on their way to the Kimberly), B & B and cabin accomodation or
even camel tours. They wanted to be able to add birds as an
attraction too.
I joined the group that went there and we spent
nearly a week surveying their 100,000 acres. Due to the extremely
dry season with resulting lack of seed, insects, flowers etc, bird numbers were
pretty low. We did find two birds however that will be a big plus
for them. They have a number of Hall's Babblers
and Chestnut-breasted Quail Thrush. There
were lots of grey crowned babblers too. They were the most common,
but the Hall's Babblers were easily seen in a number of locations.
Another interesting sighting was a Laughing
Kookaburra that was fishing like a kingfisher. Has anyone
seen that before? It spent its day sitting above the waterhole and
swooping down to the water where it picked up what were either small shrimps or
fingerlings.
The property has a number of swampy areas that
still have some water in them( a spotted crake was our best bird there), a bore
set up with a spa type bath which is heaven for the campers, and also has some
fascinating mud springs. Most appear to dried out now, but we were
told one was still active.
If anyone would like to go there, the place is
called "Comeroo". They have a website headed "Comeroo Cattle
Station" and a glossy brochure can be found at the caravan parks and motels in
Bourke. We hope to return sometime after rain to add to the
list.
Annabel
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