Dear Friends,
Princess Parrot is one of my most wanted birds. I am thinking of heading
out to Jupiter Well next June. Can anyone tell me about the state of the
road west from from Alice Springs and can anyone give me advice on whether
it is possible to hire a four wheel drive that one could take out there?
Many thanks,
Dr John Penhallurick
86 Bingley Cres
Fraser A.C.T. 2615
Australia
email:
Phone: Home (612) 62585428
Mobile:0408585426
Please visit my website: http://www.worldbirdinfo.net
-----Original Message-----
From:
On Behalf Of Jon King
Sent: Friday, July 03, 2009 12:37 PM
To: Birding-Aus
Cc:
Subject: Princess Parrots near Jupiter Well
We have just returned from a superb week-plus in the Jupiter Well area along
the Gary Junction Highway in WA, where we found the incomparable Princess
Parrot in two different areas. Having tried along the Canning Stock Route
from Billiluna to Kunawarritji in the first week of May, and Jupiter Well
for three days from 6th-9th May, dipping in both areas, we felt we had
probably finally earned it!
The dunes were very different in late June versus early May, with lots of
flowering and loads of good birds that had not been present in the area in
May, including many Pied, Black, White-fronted, and other honeyeaters, and
hundreds of Budgies everwhere, with many prospecting and defending apparent
nest sites. We had Golden-backed Honeyeater possibly well outside normal
range, and bizarrely a flock of Black Swans flying WSW one morning (there is
probably no habitat for the latter within a 500km radius of Jupiter Well).
After searching for a full day on 25th June (when we had some rain) we
finally found some parrots on the morning of 26th, 2.7km NNE of Jupiter
Well, after Jon had first heard one several hundred metres north of the dune
top we were on. We watched 6-8 for several minutes near 0930, then saw where
they went to day roost. We left them alone, returning at 1500, just in time
for them to break roost, where they accumulated in another Sand Dune
Bloodwood. We had scope views here down to 20m for nearly half-an-hour of a
flock of 12, even getting some reasonable digiscopes. They shot off strongly
to the E at 1609. All these observation were within a short radius of 22 51
12.5 S, 126 36 17.9 E.
In the same area on the morning of the 27th we had at least three parrots
for a few minutes. Their footprints were very obvious on the dune tops, and
we were able to identify the grass species they were eating. However,
searching this same area on 28th and 29th, we saw no more.
On the drive in from Alice, we had passed through some dune areas 40-60km E
of Jupiter Well that we thought (in our relative ignorance at the time)
looked potentially good for parrots. Reluctantly leaving the great birding
at Jupiter Well, we stopped in this area on the way out. It was even more
packed full of nomadic birds, honeyeaters, Budgies, etc.
Incredibly, at 0715 on the morning of 30th June we found a flock of eight
Princess Parrots some 44km E of Jupiter Well. Watching them on and off for
nearly half-an-hour feeding in several shrubs (later identified), the flock
swelled to 21 by 0746, but then disappeared to the south, and could not be
refound that morning despite extensive searching. We returned to the same
area in the late afternoon, and had a pair fly strongly overhead going SE at
1611, but saw no more. We searched the same area the following morning, and
a few kms to the east, but with no more sightings. All of these observations
we in the area of 22 45 37.9 S, 126 58 11.6 E.
Australia is a land full of great parrots, but Princess Parrot is truly
stunning and is arguably the best. It is very well worth the effort involved
in seeing it. It is enhanced, if possible, by the great habitat in which it
occurs, and this is even better when it is flowering and packed full of
great nomadic birds.
Many thanks to Janet Morris (of North West Safaris) who originally told me
of her sightings at Jupiter in late April 2008, Don Hadden for his 2008
update from there and Well 44 on the CSR, and Merilyn Browne for her more
recent observation from Jupiter Well.
Cheers, Jon and Anne King.
===============================
www.birding-aus.org
birding-aus.blogspot.com
To unsubscribe from this mailing list,
send the message:
unsubscribe
(in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
to:
===============================
===============================
www.birding-aus.org
birding-aus.blogspot.com
To unsubscribe from this mailing list,
send the message:
unsubscribe
(in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
to:
===============================
|
