Hi Birding-Aussers
>From mid Oct- late Dec last year I was lucky enough to bird in Qld. I
thought I would send a note about each lifer I saw. So, starting with
Kalkadoon Grasswren. First of all, I like the name, named after the local
Aboriginal group where the bird occurs. HANZAB states the genus name
Amytormis came from generic appellation Amytis by Lesson(1831) after
Amytis(fl 550 BC) daughter of the Medean tyrant Astyages and who married
his conqueror and grandson, Cyrus of Persia. However the name was
preoccupied and Stejneger coined a fresh variant with the addition of the
Greek for bird. The species name ballarae is after the location of the
type-locality being the Ballara copper mine, north western Qld.
So, it sounds like the genus for grasswrens was named after some seedy
goings on which had nothing to do with birds. We got to Mt Isa in the
middle of the day and waited for the cool of the evening to go and look for
the grasswren. Went up to the site near the water tank, from Thomas and
Thomas. Not sure which side of the track to go up the gully but chose the
left and within 30-40 metres almost stood on a Kalkadoon Grasswren. This
was the first and last one we saw. Walked up and down the hills for quite
a while and took the walking track to the right of track to water tank
along the gull but saw nothing. Almost completely birdless. Probably the
most interesting thing we saw as the sighting of the grasswren was brief,
were good views of purple-necked rock wallaby.petrogale pupureicollis.
The next day 20/10/11 we went out to the Loretta mine site(thomas and
thomas) to look for the Carpentarian Grasswren. Pulled in at cairn and
read the book to see what others had been seeing(knowledge from Birds
Austalia Qld website. Went to campsite and saw a Grey fronted Honeyeater
buildig a nest. We first went north of campsite and my wife thought she
saw the grasswren but I missed it. We both saw a spinifex bird. It was
already hot at approx. 10 am. went back to the cairn and went south west
going across the road and within 50 metres of road started to see
Carpentarian grasswren. There were a number and although the spinifex was
low and habitat relatively open they were hard critters to get a good look
at. From there we went to Porcupine NP near the coast getting in after
dark and had the bonus of seeing rufous bettongs, but missed the
spectacled hare wallabies, not knowing that they were a possibility until
saw the info board in the light.
The next lifers were in Cairns, so until then.
Gary
Oh- the carpentarian grasswren, Amytormis dorotheae was named after Dorothy
White, daughter of Australian philatelist and oologist Henry Luke White. I
thought I knew that a philatelist was a stamp collector but an oologist??
not in my Macquarie but the study of birds nests, eggs and breeding
behaviour. Makes sense.
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