Hi Peter
We were in the West MacDonnells in May - it was atrociously dry then - and
had trouble finding several such species that we had better hopes for.
The only place we saw a single Dusky Grasswren was on the Mereenie Loop Road
not far from Tylers Pass on the way to Gosse's Bluff from Glen Helen. It
was purely by chance as it was close to a group of Fairy-wrens that we
stopped to look at.
We had no trouble finding Spinifex Pigeons and Painted Finches around
Ormiston, but no Emu-wren, Spinifexbird or Grasswrens in that area. There
were large areas burnt out between Glen Helen and Alice Springs meaning that
a vast area of potential habitat had become unavailable. This burning was
obviously much more recent than 2002 - I would guess in the previous 6 to 9
months.
The amazing thing is that the Todd River is now running - shown on the TV
news last night.
Regards
Bob Cook
-----Original Message-----
From:
On Behalf Of
Sent: Thursday, 20 October 2005 11:23 AM
To:
Subject: where are those grasswrens?
Hi:
I went to the West McDonnell Ranges in mid September looking for dusky
grasswrens, but did not hear or see any. I was wondering if anyone has seen
them there recently. Several of the areas mentioned in bird-finding guides
(even the new Nielson one) refer to sites that have burned recently (in 2002
according to the Alice Springs Field Naturalist site
(http://members.iinet.net.au/~alicenats/FreqAskBirds.htm). This includes
Simpson Gap and Ellery Gorge. My impression of these two sites was that the
spinifex was rather limited (at least near any of the trails).
Ormiston Gorge had much better stands of spinifex, but, again, we did not
find
any grasswrens. I would suggest persons looking for grasswrens head there
first. At Ormiston we flushed a Spinifex pigeon near the entrance to the
Pound
walk (just down from the Ranger's residence) and we saw painted finches just
below the saddle from which you descend into Ormiston Pound (i.e. before the
lookout). A nice hike, but relatively few species of birds.
It is somewhat depressing to not see these birds when some guides, such as
the
Lonely Plant Watchable Wildlife Guide, say that grasswrens are "ridiculously
easy" to see at Simpson Gap. I think that may be an overstatement.
Similarly, the guide books refer to striated grasswrens at the sunset
viewing
area at Uluru. I looked there several mornings (evenings are out of the
question as there are hordes of people) and did not hear (or see) any
grasswrens. I even tried using tapes to get some response, but to no avail.
Any insights would be appreciated.
By the way, I'm reading The Big Twitch right now, and I highly recommend it!
Peter Dunn
pdunn at uwm.edu
on sabbatical at Zoology Dept. Uni. Melbourne
--------------------------------------------
Birding-Aus is now on the Web at
www.birding-aus.org
--------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message 'unsubscribe
birding-aus' (no quotes, no Subject line)
to
--------------------------------------------
Birding-Aus is now on the Web at
www.birding-aus.org
--------------------------------------------
To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message 'unsubscribe
birding-aus' (no quotes, no Subject line)
to
|
