Part 3, Night Driving and Night Parrots
>
> Nighttime driving speeds in Australia's semi-deserts are kept low by
> kangaroos, cattle, and sometimes the "roads" themselves. Provided you
drive
> slowly enough to stop within high beam headlight distance, for me up to
to
> 80
> kph, identifying nocturnal birds on the roads or verges before they fly
> off,
> and not running them over, is easier, not to mention mammals. Most major
> roads now have wide mown verges, which attract birds day and night.
> The only recent specimen of a Night Parrot was probably hit by a car
> near Cloncurry, and although your chances aren't high, keeping your eyes
> open for chunky almost quail-shaped birds with a big head and hooked
bill,
> and with a spotlight or strong torch ready to approach them if they sit
> blinded by the headlights on the road, might pay off one day. "You never
> never know if you never never go"
> A Barn Owl sat on the roadside as I drove into Kulgera after seeing
> the Letter-wing Kites,
> not many 'roos and they were avoidable, but on the Stuart Highway back up
> to Alice Springs,
> literally scores of black Wedgetail Eagles and carrion crows consuming
the
> carnage of kangaroo carcases killed overnight were almost the only birds
> visible while driving, one Major Mitchell ("Pink") Cockatoo at a wayside
> rest.
> Leaving Newhaven a couple of nights later there were seven Yawny
> Frogmouths, a Spotted Nightjar and a probably a Pipit on the road up to
the
> main gate.
> Cheers
>
> Michael
>
> Michael Hunter
> Mulgoa Valley
> 50km west of Sydney Harbour Bridge
>
>
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