Neil Cheshire, Peter Madvig and I have just returned from a birding trip to
Sturt National Park and surrounds chiefly to seek out Grey and Eyrean
Grasswrens. Our initial aim was to get permission from Ross and Marge Betts
owners of Onepah Station which straddles the NSW-QLD border with the Grasswrens
at Pyampa Swamp on the Qld side of the border. In recent years they have not
wanted birders to visit but I hoped this might have changed. A call to Onepah
revealed that Ross had split the property keeping the Qld section and selling
the NSW part to the Sloane family. They seemed happy to allow birding access
but there are no Grasswrens on the the NSW side. After numerous phone calls I
managed to track Ross down at his home in Broken Hill and his position of
recent years unfortunately remains unchanged. He politely but firmly said NO,
his comment being that they had had real problems with pig shooters
masquerading as birders and as such the property was off limits to all. We
determined to respect his views so as not to get birders any bad press and
suggest this approach for others.
There is a Plan B which is to head further out to Adelaide Gate where land
owner Bill O' Connor is very happy to have birders provided you contact him
first (Narrewarra Homestead drop by and see him en route). His concern is that
he sometimes takes pig shooters out into the lignum and doesn't want any
unheralded human targets. Having got there the lignum was exceptionally dry
and we only had glimpses of two pairs of Grey Grasswrens despite many hours of
walking. Sturt NP is badly drought affected at present, they last had rain in
May and to date this year have only had 60mm. The birds, while all there, are
in very low numbers and required a lot of work to find. Highlights included
Grey and Black Falcon, Gibberbird, c.20 Blue-winged Parrots, Black-eared
Cuckoo, several pairs of Cinnamon Quail-Thrush the only species seemingly in
reasonable numbers, breeding Black Honeyeaters and lots of Pieds. Unexpected
were 4 Plumed Whistling Ducks and a Greenshank.
There were similarly bad drought conditions over the border in SA and we walked
many sand ridges out from Cameron Corner before finally getting several Eyrean
Grasswrens opposite Merty Merty Station. Thanks to Dick Cooper, Bob Way, Ian
Mc Allan and Alan Morris for assistance with pre-trip planning.
Alan Rogers
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