Ostriches - very feral.

["Tony Russell" <>]

Hi all, some friends and I joined Richard Baxter ( from Newcastle) last week to help find some feral Ostriches just north of Pt Augusta in SA.

After some extensive enquiries I was able to contact the property owner and make arrangements for accessing Mt Arden Station, a property of some 30km north–south and 20km east-west, some 600 sq km in all.

We collected a map and information regarding latest sightings from the owner, and a little later, from farm workers on the property.  Needle in a haystack to say the least.

After driving around often very indistinct bush tracks from 10 a.m. to about 1.30 p.m. one of our hawkeyed group spotted one male , easily 2km away across a large valley close to Monument Hill and Mt Arden itself.  Difficult to discern even with binos, so we followed a track down through the valley to roughly where we had seen the single bird, searched around for about half an hour , getting zilch.

We then decided to go for another large paddock at the opposite end of the property where we had been advised there were “a lot”.  Took a lot of work finding the way, even with the hand drawn map – some of the tracks just didn’t seem to exist.

However, by about 4 p.m. we found our way to a track following the power line to Woomera, intent on getting out of the property before dark – it was bad enough during daylight finding our way, although we did take GPS fixes from time to time.

Going along this track for a few kms a dozen or so Ostriches suddenly appeared racing across the track in front of us – some of us saw them, others didn’t. They rapidly disappeared over a slight rise, plunging into a valley and out of sight. 

Thank goodness for 4x4s, we bush-bashed after them to the top of the rise and found them about half a km away at the top of another rise, hiding in some bushes but keeping an eye on us. This gave us good views of their bodies and necks ( boy, those necks are loooong), but their legs were hidden in the undergrowth. I now believe what the books say about them running at 55kph., they went like rockets and are obviously very feral and skittish.

However, mission accomplished we headed west for the highway and back to Pt Augusta.  Richard headed off to look for Scarlet-chested Parrots next day with our instructions on where to look.  Did you find them Richard ?

Tony Russell