Last Friday evening Tony Keene, Ed Williams and myself set out from Melbourne
on a trip to
Gluepot, mainly to catch the Scarlet-chested Parrots while we could.
Not much to report from the Friday: a late start meant the best we could manage
was a
number of Barn Owls spotted along the road between Bendigo and Mildura. We
stopped off at
Renmark overnight before an early start for the run on to Gluepot.
Highlights of the trip in included a large group of Whistling Kites over the
fields around
Pyap, some Blue Bonnets near Moorook, and what appeared to be a lone
Apostlebird wandering
round alongside the ferry ramp at Waikerie (I'm sure it's clan were around
somewhere).
It was a slow drive in to Gluepot through the Taylorville Station: we kept
stopping to see
the birds! Before long we had seen Chestnut-crowned Babbler, Restless
Flycatcher, good views
of a pair of Crested Bellbird, small flocks of Budgerigar (abundant around
Gluepot at the
moment), Southern Whiteface and Southern Scrub-robin. I was last at Gluepot
three years ago,
and the change in bird abundance since the drought has broken was very
noticeable.
Close attention to Yellow-throated Miner flocks had resulted in two very good
candidates for
Black-eared Miner. A subsequent review of Tony's photos has satisfied us they
were good
'pure' birds.
Add to this Woodswallows everywhere along the road: mostly Masked, with a few
White-browed
thrown in for good measure, a nice Brown Goshawk, 'Mallee' Ringneck Parrots,
Spiny-cheeked,
Brown-headed and Yellow-plumed Honeyeater and the trip was off to a good start.
Eventually we made it to Gluepot, and up to the visitor centre first to sign in
before
returning to the Gypsum-Lunette walk to scout for the SCP. Within a hundred
metres of so of
the car park, and while Tony and I were distracted by a Variegated Fairy-wren
and a Hooded
Robin, Ed picked up a male SCP near the top of a tree. RESULT! We were treated
to brief
views of this amazing parrot until it was chased out of sight by a pair of
Mulga Parrots. We
carried on bashing round the walk through the Spinifex but didn't pick up many
more birds.
Some White-winged Trillers, a Snow Bunting (okay, not really a snow bunting -
the guys
clarified the small rufous and white thing I nearly stood on was actually a
Little
Button-Quail), Gilberts Whistler (heard), and good numbers of Yellow-Plumed
Honeyeater. The
walk finished off with nice views of three Varied Sitella (black capped
subspecies) nest
building. After that we appropriately set up our tent at the Sitella campsite
for the night.
The evenings spotlighting was curtailed by battery issues - we saw lots of bats
while the
torchlight lasted, but were only able to hear Spotted Nightjar, Southern
Boobook and an
Owlet Nightjar that seemed to be flying just above the tent at times!
The next morning (Sunday the 13th ) the campsite had a small mixed flock of
Inland and
Chestnut-rumped Thornbill moving through, which distracted us from the big
scorpion that
emerged from under where the tent had been.
A brief rain shower made us shuffle our plans slightly, and we headed out to
the visitor
centre to sign out of the reserve before going back to the Gypsum-Lunette walk.
Well worth
the detour: we picked up a very nice Gilberts Whistler and a pair of relatively
confiding
Chestnut Quail-thrush alongside the road. We stopped at Kangaroo Dam where
there was a flock
of 15 Black-tailed Native Hen, a couple of Grey Teal and a Hoary-headed Grebe,
not your
usual Gluepot birds!
Sadly no more SCP sightings for us at Gypsum-Lunette, but the second walk
around the loop
bagged us sighting of Red-lored and Gilberts Whistler, Black Honeyeater and a
day flying
Owlet-nightjar that obligingly sat in a tree branch for us. Bacon sarnies all
round before
hitting the road back south....northern Victoria report to follow!
[Other Taylorville Station / Gluepot birds seen not mentioned above: Australian
Magpie,
Australian Raven, Brown Falcon, Brown Treecreeper, Common Bronzewing, Crested
Pigeon, Galah,
Grey Butcherbird, Grey Currawong, Jacky Winter, Nankeen Kestrel, Red-capped
Robin, Splendid
Fairy-wren, Striated Pardalote, Tree Martin, Welcome Swallow, White-browed
Babbler,
White-winged Chough, Willie Wagtail, Yellow-rumped Thornbill, Whistling Kite,
Red
Wattlebird, Rufous Whistler and Grey Shrike-thrush]
Cheers
Tony Keene, Ed Williams, Mike Honeyman
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