On Friday 4th July, I was lucky enough to be in Maitland on the Yorke Penisula
with a morning to spare. I raced down to Innes NP to arrive just before dawn
with the intention of searching for Western Whipbird. I pulled up on the side
of the road, halfway between Deep Lake and Dolphin Beach. Much of the heath
along Pandalowie Bay Road looks ideal for the Western Whipbird and is thick,
mature, and relatively high (often 2-4m tall) heath and I am sure stopping
anywhere along this road and carefully working through the heath would provide
excellent birding.
The birding for the first hour of daylight was excellent with Crested Bellbird,
Brush Bronzewing, Purple-gaped Honeyeater, Southern Scrub-robin, and Grey
Currawong all calling continuously and showing well. I was particularly
impressed with the number of Southern Scrub-robin in full song which is
obviously a very common bird in this fantastic mature heath.
As for the Western Whipbird, I was able to track down 3 calling birds but the
best views were a brief silhouette and several terrible flight views as the
birds disappeared into the impenetrable heath. So I will happily have to return
to spend more time stalking this skulker.
One of the surprise birds of the morning was a Malleefowl flying over whilst I
was scrambling through the heath. This happened just after dawn and I was
easily drawn to look upwards as the birds wings clapped noisily together. Not a
bird I ever expected to see in flight.
Perhaps even more unexpected was a solitary duck wandering through the seaweed
on Dolphin Beach before having a quick swim in the breaking surf. It soon
decided this was not a good idea! As I raised the bins to id this bird, I could
quickly see the distinctive silhouetted bill of a Freckled Duck. I moved down
the beach to get the sun behind me and to see if this was a confused young bird
but although there was no colour in the bill, the plumage was too grey to
determine whether it was a female or immature bird (usually duller brown, I
believe). As a family strolled down the beach, the Freckled Duck took off and
flew strongly a km into the southern oceans before again thinking better off it
and returning back to shore but out of view.
A final quick drive out to the Lighthouse at Cape Spencer where I had great
views of Rock Parrot and a Rufous Fieldwren in the very short and sparse
coastal heath (more open spaces than vegetation). I would not be at all
surprised if others have seen Freckled Duck or Rufous Fieldwren somewhere
within Innes NP but I don’t think they recorded on park’s internet list so I
will try to email these records to the park ranger.
I was very impressed with this beautiful national park and will be making an
effort to return and give the Western Whipbirds a longer shot.
Cheers Dan
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