From Maree, we popped up to North Lake Eyre, again on a pretty good
road. We flushed some inland dotterels along the way [always nice to
pick up a new species while driving]. After lunch, we went for a walk
along the lake bed. We had to go a couple of kilometres [out to the
stick] to get to the continuous salt zone. Along the way, we came
across and photographed an inland dotterel that was nesting [three
eggs] in the footprint of previous hiker. We also got to photograph a
baby redcapped plover hiding behind a saltbush [where a track crosses
the Goyder channel], and a half-sized inland dotterel on the way to the
campsite on Muloorina station.
The campsite is located beside a billabong on the Frome River and well
set-up [cost is a donation to the RFDS]. The little grassbirds were
calling from the reeds, the babblers were doing their thing in the
bushes, the whistling kites were nesting and I got some nice pix of a
pallid cuckoo while Julie found a baillons crake on the billabong.
We tootled on to Lyndhurst, stopping for a squiz at the Ochre Pits [got
some nice pix of a group of kestrels interacting on the wing]. We
arranged permission to bird on Mt Lyndhurst and easily found and
photographed chestnut-breasted whiteface and thick-billed grasswrens at
the two gate site. The birds were very cooperative, perching on top of
shrubs and hopping about in the open. One of the grasswrens very
kindly on top of a rock so I could get some better pix.
We stayed the night in the shearers quarters [the day after Phil
Maher’s crew] and had a good yak with the Scammells [see separate
post]. Dave and Brian enjoyed poking around the old shearing shed and
traction engine.
We proceeded to Leigh Creek, having a squiz at the mine and lunch in
town. We stopped at an excellent bakery at Copely and picked up some
delicious quandong jam. The drive through the Gammon Ranges was very
pleasant and we camped at Italowie Gap. The chirruping wedgebills were
very tame and easy to photograph and I had some crippling views of a
black-eared cuckoo that perched on a shrub beside me.
[pt 5]
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