3 Grasswren Trip Report part 1

[John Leonard <>]

Trip Report: Great Grasswren Hunt in New South Wales NSW Sept 05

 

Summary:  a trip to New South Wales NSW and SA and SW Qld searching for three spp of Grasswren; two of which were located. Other birds of interest seen: Bourke's Parrot, Banded Whiteface, Gibberbird, Inland Dotterel, Redthroat, Pied Honeyeater, Little Button-quail.

 

For details and narrative, read on....

 

25/09 Once we had travelled a few hours west of Canberra through very lush green countryside, we started to see the birds that would be very common this side of the Darling: Choughs and Apostlebirds in great numbers, Brown Songlarks in even greater numbers, performing their parachuting display flight, or perched on fences and signs. Good numbers of Rufous Songlarks, Pipits and a few Bushlarks. Further west, past Griffith, we started to see more western spp, Mallee Ringnecks, Yellow-throated Miners, Singing Honeyeater, Cockatiel, Blue Bonnet, the odd Major Mitchell and Emu.

 

Travelling north into the Yathong Mallee we started to see Crimson Chats, many more Emus and Mallee Ringnecks and countless White-browed and Masked Woodswallows.

 

Once north of Yathong nature reserve we started searching for the central NSW Striated Grasswrens. This is an isolated population living in the mallee north of Yathong. They were only rediscovered in the 1970s, and are rarely seen; they are not in the new Atlas, for example. Having failed several times to find this sp at Hattah, and in other places, I was keen to find them here.

 

However this evening we drew a blank, despite looking in excellent mallee with such spp as Shy Hylacola, Chestnut Quail-thrush, Chestnut-rumped Thornbill and White-fronted Honeyeater.

 

26/09 In the morning we searched other sites and found the going very difficult as the enormous numbers of honeyeaters (including Spiny-cheeked, White-fronted, White-eared, Black, Yellow-plumed and Grey-fronted), and the Woodswallows, were making such a racket it was difficult to hear anything else. We also saw Budgies and a Western Gerygone. However, after 5 hours searching in total, success! We stumbled across three Striated Grasswrens, who, discovering we were following them, quivered with indignation, and bounced away with loud, derisive calls.

 

I suspect that in all my searching I've simply never been anywhere near SGWs, as, once the call is heard, it is distinctive and loud enough to bring you to them from quite a distance. These birds were very dark compared to illustrations in the field guides and although I haven't seen this sp anywhere else, comparison of Rohan Clark's photos of this sp from the SA mallee with Michael Todd's of this population on ABID might also suggest this.

 

The rest of the day we spent travelling on to White Cliffs, beyond the Darling.

-- 
John Leonard
Canberra
Australia
www.jleonard.net