Thanks Claire for a great trip report.
I've purchased the app - BirdLog World - and found it very easy to use.
Wouldn't it be great if Eremaea had similar.
Judy
-----Original Message-----
From:
On Behalf Of Claire Runge
Sent: Tuesday, 24 July 2012 5:35 PM
To:
Subject: Oodnadatta track and Claire's guide to desert birding
Here's the trip report from two weeks spent surveying along the Oodnadatta
track. It's long but has a few hidden gems. Now is the perfect time to
travel to the region, things are really booming, even more so than last
year, and it is green in a brown kind of way. There are lots of wildflowers
and a lot of grass.
The trip was part of a long-term project run by Richard Fuller at the
University of Queensland monitoring the shifting abundance and distribution
of Australian desert birds, with mega-transects along the Oodnadatta,
Birdsville and Strezlecki tracks, and survey points every 16km. It's hoped
to secure funding for the next decade, and will massively enhance our
understanding of the ecology and conservation needs of these outback birds.
My two companions were Rob Clemens (formerly of Birds Australia) and Luke
Geelen, who has done a lot of fieldwork in the region. The trip started in
Adelaide where we did all the logistical things like buying groceries and
wondering how to fit all the gear into the hire car. We spent the first
night at Rangeview on the Stuart Hwy, under a shelter full of roosting
welcome swallows, my first introduction to camping under the stars - I'm
never going back to a tent! Our desert birding started the next morning on a
high with flocks of blue bonnets and mulga parrots feeding in the chenopods
nearby and a few friendly pipits wandering around our campsite.
We stopped in after lunch at the chestnut-breasted whiteface site south of
Coober Pedy (thanks Peter Waanders) where we found the whiteface without too
much trouble, along with good looks at cinnamon quail-thrush and the
ubiquitous white-winged fairy wren.
After a night spent at Cadney Homestead it was on to Marla for the start of
the transects. 5km out of Marla at our first survey site we picked up
banded whiteface, closely followed by a southern whiteface - all 3 whiteface
in less than a day. All species of whiteface were hard to come-by with only
3 records of the banded and 2 of the southern over the 2 weeks, with similar
records on the Strez and Birdsville. The southern seems to favour dry
creeklines filled with acacia woodland and shrubs. None of us was able to
get a handle on the preferred habitat of the other two whiteface, as they
were often absent from seemingly perfect looking habitat. However, they both
seem to prefer areas of chenopod shrub with scattered eremophila and senna
shrubland. (Chenopods is a term to describe the family of low often
ridiculously prickly bushes found everywhere, eremophila (emubush) and senna
are woody shrubs up to a metre or two in height with green leaves.)
About 40km out of Marla our survey intersected with a nice bit of mulga
woodland which after the gibber plain was (relatively) chock-full of birds.
I picked up redthroat, white-browed babbler, singing and spiny-cheeked
honeyeaters, red-capped and hooded robin, rufous whistler, mistletoebird and
southern whiteface.
We surveyed our way down to Oodnadatta and across to Coober Pedy. The aptly
named Moon Plain between Oodnadatta and Coober Pedy was allegedly the site
of testing for the Mars Rover, and surprisingly is also home to birds.
Kestrels could be seen hawking every km or so (we did wonder what they were
eating) and gibberbird are not hard to find if you walk enough gibber. These
guys were not uncommon north and west of Oodnadatta, though we only lucked
onto one on the southern transects. There were also a lot of holes and
tracks from the long-haired rat so letter-winged kite may turn up sooner or
later. (More on them later). We also spotted a lost pelican and a few
orange chats travelling through the gibber plain.
After walking 400 transects across the stuff I am now an expert in the many
shapes and colours of gibber. There's the "twist your ankle at every step"
gibber, "sink into dust two inches thick" gibber, "just rocky enough to
guarantee a rough night's sleep" gibber and the rarest but much sought after
"cobbled lane" gibber. It is truly surprising how interesting gibber can
be.
The gibber and chenopod shrubland along the track is broken up
intermittently with dry creeklines filled with acacia woodland. These are
good for birds like hooded and red-capped robin, brown and rufous songlarks,
honeyeaters, splendid, white-winged and variegated fairy-wren, whiteface and
zebra finch. If you find some eucalypt you can add red-browed pardalote,
chiming wedgebill (north and west of Oodnadatta), chirruping wedgebill
(south of Ood), pied honeyeater, western gerygone, weebill, slender-billed
thornbill, yellow-rumped thornbill, and around water you'll pick up mulga
parrot, ringneck, corella, galah, black kite, white-plumed honeyeater,
black-fronted dotterel, crested pigeon, darter, cormorants, grebes, ducks,
pelican, grey shrike-thrush, yellow-throated miner, barn owl and red-backed
and sacred kingfisher. Hookey's waterhole, a few km from Oodnadatta on the
Coober Pedy road is a beautiful example of a permanent waterhole, and just
out of Oodnadatta on the Marla r oad is some very birdable eucalypt
woodland along the creek.
Around Coober Pedy there are two spots with water - one is a small pond near
the sportsfield. We saw nothing here. On the other side of town is the
outflow from the sewage plant, a small stream surrounded by samphire. Follow
Hutchinson St north until it turns to a dirt road. No waterbirds, but heard
lots of little grassbirds. This would be a good place to keep an eye on as
the surrounding landscape dries out.
We headed back to Oodnadatta to survey on the road south to Marree. There's
a lot of water around at the moment and south of Oodnadatta are a few
water-filled creek crossings. Definitely worth checking out, we got some
nice views of red-browed pardalote and chirriping wedgebill and a bunch of
waterbirds.
Cinnamon quail thrush are common right now and easy to spot in chenopod
shrubland, preferring sites with some grass. Listen for their high pitched
contact call. They are also present in denser samphire, but impossible to
see. We found them most common from Oodnadatta and further south.
Thick-billed grasswren can be found all up and down the track, I found a
good place to be opposite "Patsies Car", an old rusted out blue car on the
right-hand side of the road from Coober Pedy to Oodnadatta. We found these
grasswrens anywhere the saltbush was taller than 0.75m. The best way to find
them is to wander around listening for the faint contact call. If you hear
it you know they are within 150m. Don't go rushing over to where you think
they are, they will hide and go silent. The best way is to scan around
surrounding bushes waiting for one to perch, if you see one perched you will
soon see more hopping around on the ground nearby. Playback and pshing does
not work, though very softly imitating their contact call does seem to
intrigue them enough for you to approach. Rufous fieldwren like similar
habitat, though were more common between William Ck and Marree.
Budgies and zebra finch are both impossible to avoid seeing at the moment.
There were two sites along this track that just blew us away with supreme
bird awesomeness and I'll tell you about the one we first came across.
Somewhere about halfway between Oodnadatta and William Ck is the start of
the dune on the left hand side of the road and a creekline on the right.
E28.10928 S135.77128. We came across a huge mixed flock of woodswallows and
lots of perching budgies. Black-faced, masked, white-browed and
white-breasted. Then I saw it - a pied honeyeater! I had begun to doubt
these birds actually existed, having spent plenty of time in suitable
habitat but never seen one. There were a lot of other birds here too,
including songlarks, honeyeaters, robins and whistlers. We went to bed on a
high that night, little knowing that even more excitement was in store for
us the next day.
Somewhere between 32 and 40km south of William Creek is a gate on the
right-hand side of the road heading south, a couple of hundred metres before
a big sand-dune perpendicular to the road. E29.06679 S136.52073. Through
these gates is a birding mecca, a small waterhole overlooked by the dune.
Drawn to it by the massive flock of corella, we had only just got out of the
car when a flock of flock bronzewing flew by, and there must have been
fifteen pied honeyeater flitting around. As it was getting late in the day
and this was our next survey site, we stopped to camp the night in a state
of awe. Dawn brought a succession of birds in to drink, starting with
Bourke's parrots. About halfway through the transects I saw it - a crimson
chat, our first for the trip. I radioed it through and turned around. "Make
that crimson chat and Bourkes parrot". The reply came a minute later "Rob
can top that. He's got a pair of grey falcon". There was no way I was
finishing that transect so I bolted back to the waterhole where the grey
falcon were perched in a face-off with a flock of ravens. We set up the
scope and while we were watching when the view of grey falcon was obscured
by flock bronzewing. Honestly! On our transects we also came across
chirruping wedgebill, diamond dove, budgie, splendid and white-winged
fairywren, banded whiteface, brown falcon, nankeen kestrel, wedgetailed
eagles, more pied honeyeaters, dotterel, grebe, rufous whistlers, orange
chats and robins.
If we had been anywhere near a town I would have bought a lotto ticket
because on our very next transect 16km south I came across 15 inland
dotterel. Of course the guys were at the opposite end of the transect and
had left their radios in the car. I must really like them because I ran
that 800m across gibber to tell them. We lucked onto another group of
dotterel a few days later.
A night or so later we stayed at Coward Springs where we fell asleep to a
horror-movie soundtrack of howling dingoes and shrieking barn-owl. The "hot
springs" are better described as "slightly warm springs" but where else can
you sit in the bath and watch spotted nightjars hawking? Plus the chance to
wash was much appreciated by all three of us (and probably those around us).
An early morning bird of the wetland behind the campground turned up
spotless crake, black-winged stilt, black-fronted dotterel, rufous fieldwren
and loads of little grassbirds in addition to the usual suspects.
A little way down the road are some mound springs, now a national park.
These are definitely worth a look from a geological and cultural
perspective, though not the bird-haven that you might expect from a
permanent source of water. We saw red-necked avocet and red-capped plover
on an ephemeral lake on the drive in, plus a few dotterel and brown songlark
around "The Bubbler". There are more unsigned mound springs along the
Oodnadatta track, keep your eyes peeled.
We picked up black-tailed native hen, pink-eared duck, Horsefields
bronze-cuckoo, pallid cuckoo and a few other things at Bereford waterhole.
Other birds seen along the track include wedgetailed eagle (including a
nesting pair with two downy chicks), brown falcon, spotted harrier, black
falcon, pipits, black-faced woodswallow, white-backed swallow, little-button
quail, stubble quail, Aus raven, little crow and probably a few others I
have forgotten. Unfortunately no letter-winged kites and my travelling
companions were too sensible to drive the extra 4hrs up the Birdsville track
to see the nesting lwks despite my protestations that they were lame and
would lose all birding cred if they didn't. *sigh* we all regretted it when
we saw the amazing photos of what we missed.
Most numerous bird probably goes to budgie, though it is a close contest
between budgie, zebra finch, white-winged fairy wren (look at these closely
though, splendids often hang out with them), nankeen kestrel and orange
chat.
Interestingly, while the robins were quite common on this trip, last year
none were seen. Nankeen kestrel which were everywhere this year were also
far less common last time.
We stopped off at the Flinders Ranges on the way home which at any other
time would have been amazing but it doesn't compare to letter winged kite,
and the level of grazing-induced degradation was just depressing. To top
things off we dipped out on the short-tailed grasswren despite wandering
through spinifex for hours. An unfitting end to an amazing trip! Picked up
more redthroat, inland thornbill, elegant parrot and yellow-tufted
honeyeaters among others which perked me up a bit. The Leigh Creek
retention dam was worth stopping for, full of great crested grebes (we
counted 75!), all types of cormorant and grebe and a few white-fronted chat,
plus musk duck.
All in all we drove 3000km, walked 160km of gibber, did 350 point counts and
400 transects, spent 14 glorious nights camped under the stars, woke covered
in frost 4 times, showered twice, drank 4L of port and a bottle of tequila,
and picked up 112 species along the transects with a further 25 along the
way.
As most of these are nomadic birds I offer no guarantees, but can recommend
the Oodnadatta track as a great alternative to the tracks further east. The
road is in good condition having been recently graded, there are towns with
fuel and water every 200km, incredible scenery and amazing birds.
I'll add the interesting sites to eBird soon or you can contact me for GPS
locations (if you are not an eBirder check it out
http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ I nearly wet myself with excitement when I
found out about it, you can record your sightings on your smartphone and
upload them to the website along with photos, and look at where other people
have been and what they've seen all over the world. Plus it gives you all
kinds of stats like year/life lists. And most importantly all records are
freely available to researchers worldwide. The best invention since
binoculars!). It is hoped one day all the survey records will appear on
eBird though someone needs to enter the records to the computer first - any
volunteers?
Claire
Claire Runge
PhD Candidate
Environmental Decisions Group
School of Biological Sciences
University of Queensland
St Lucia QLD 4072
Australia
Email:
Website: http://www.fullerlab.org/category/people/
===============================
To unsubscribe from this mailing list,
send the message:
unsubscribe
(in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
to:
http://birding-aus.org
===============================
===============================
To unsubscribe from this mailing list,
send the message:
unsubscribe
(in the body of the message, with no Subject line)
to:
http://birding-aus.org
===============================
|
