Central australia Bird report- apparently my attachment is not working so have submitted it as an email.

Day 1 We left Melbourne on Saturday Sept 20 at 2.30 am to meet up with a few birding friends at Point Danger near Portland to locate the Cape Gannet. We arrived about 7.30am after driving through the night and were immediately given great views of the bird because Farnsy, John and Kay had found it already! 30 minutes later it flew out to sea so we were so glad we left so early! Thanks to those people mentioned for our first target and ‘lifer’ for the trip! A long drive then to Port Augusta to start our arid bird adventure. Day 2(Sept 21) We left Port Augusta very early and headed to Whyalla Conservation park(Wild Dog Creek Hill) to search for the Western Grasswren. Although we could not find it here, Crimson Chats, Mulga Parrots, BF Woodswallow and Horsefield Bronze Cuckoo gave us great enjoyment. We the headed to the site half way between Whyalla and Iron Knob(opposite the construction site camp on the road) where we located at least 3 parties of Western Grasswren which gave us excellent photo opportunities. Slender-billed Thornbill were also in good numbers! Great experience and two more ‘lifers’! We then headed off to Stokes Hill in the Gawler Ranges to locate the Short-tailed Grasswren. A stop in the township of Hawker gave us excellent views of friendly Black-tailed Native Hen near the toilet blocks. We dipped at stokes Hill on the grasswren but got the bird at Mt.Ives on the way home. We camped at Willow Springs and enjoyed the an Owlet Nightjar at our campsite. A beautiful location to camp at. It was also pleasing to see the many Emu’s with chicks on the drive up near Hawker on the side of the road. Day 3(Sept 22) Another look around Stokes Hill with no luck but found Elegant Parrots near the top. We then headed to Lyndhurst Station. I had made contact with manager weeks before and he was happy for us to enter as long as we did the right thing, which of course we did. After a 3 hour search around the ‘rusty car’ site, we found our key target! 3 Chestnut-breasted Whitefaces! One of our main targets and another ‘lifer’! We also photographed Rufous Fieldwren, a pair of Chirruping wedgebills and Red-backed Kingfisher here as well. A Thick-billed Grasswren gave us a quick glimpse but we would find this later on the trip. We have thanked the manager for this opportunity and hope this opens the way for other birders in the future! Day 4(Sept 23) After staying at the Lyndhurst Hotel(great place to stay!), we headed to Coober Pedy via Maree. We were amazed at the number of Orange Chats and Cinnamon Quail-thrush on the road and these birds were especially plentiful on the road between William Creek and Coober Pedy. A Spotted Harrier was also well seen. We stopped a number of times and enjoyed Budgies and Brown Songlarks along this stretch of the road. The trip was spoiled by a blown tyre. A piece of advice. Do NOT drive over the small embankments made by the grader as this exposes your tyres to nasties within! Park on the road! We finally made it to Coober Pedy and camped in one of the caravan parks there. Day 5(Sept 24) A dawn visit to the memorial site about 12 kms south provided an excellent morning there. More Orange Chats in good numbers, Cinnamon QT also but the highlight was the Thick-billed Grasswren! Many were seen and photographed on the section straight out from the memorial about 500 metres and left of this. They were calling gleefully and gave us extraordinary views of this special bird. It was a great moment! We returned to Coober Pedy about 8am to have our tyre repaired then off to Alice springs. On the way we found a pair of Chiming wedgebills, just over the NT border, which gave us a great rendition of their special song! It was great to compare the song to the Chirruping which we had seen and heard a number of times the previous day. Day 6(Sept 25) Again, a very early start to get to Santa Teresa road at dawn. We immediately found Dusky Grasswren in very good numbers as soon as we jumped out of the car at the ‘old tyre in the pol’ site, roughly 33 kms from AS. Another ‘lifer’! Diamond doves and Spinifexbird gave great views and Cockatiels flew over. We searched relentlessly for the Rufous-crowned Emuwren for a number of hours but with no success. We bumped into the local bird guide at this site that told us that this species was very difficult to find at this site at the moment because of the dry conditions and many had moved on. But Variegated Fairy-wrens were plentiful. We then headed back into AS and up north-west to Tananmi Rd, around Kunoth bore. We were amazed at what a terrific birding site this was and produced birds such as Bourke Parrot, Inland Thornbills, Slaty-backed Thornbills, crested Bellbirds and some magnificent Splendid fairy-wrens. We were looking for Grey HE but dipped on this bird. A quick look at the western Bowerdbird at Olive Pink Gardens back gave a great view of the male displaying his antics at the bower. A great day around the Alice! Day 6(Sept 26) A big day of travel heading back down the highway, past Coober Pedy and heading towards William Creek where we camped for the night. We were so surprised at the vast amount of Orange Chats on the way so they have obviously had a great season, as were cinnamon QT’s. The road to William Creek from CP was the best dirt road we travelled on –excellent condition. 46 kms from the turn off to WC from CP, we located our first Gibberbird. It gave us great views. It was a beautiful male and another ‘lifer’ for us! Day 7(Sept 27) Starting on the Oonadatta Track, we were again presented with healthy numbers of Orange Chats and Cinnamon QT’s. Our aim was to make it to Mungarannie today. Gibberbirds began to become more common. We also checked every communication tower for Gray falcon but it was very windy and we had no success. On the way back in a few days’ time would be very different but we were not to know this. We arrived at Mungarannie and camped at a beautiful spot by the lagoon. We got a tip from the local pub owner about a communication tower on Cowarie station about 20kms out so we raced off there. We found a falcon species on the very top of the tower and despite photos and bins, we were unable to correctly ID it. Possibly a young Grey or maybe a light-phased Brown. No joy! So we headed back to the pub we were able to enjoy the local hospitality and the GF. A big night with the locals! Day 8(Sept 28) An early start to look around the lagoon for the Eyrean Grasswren. Dipped on this but were rewarded later on in the trip for this wonderful grasswren. A pair of Brolga’s gave us great views, as did a single Common Sandpiper. Blue Bonnets were prevalent and we had our first Rainbow Bee-eaters for the trip. We were both very concerned at the number of feral cat footprints in the sand dunes here. I suspect the grasswrens may have become victim to this dreadful environmental catastrophy we are facing here in Australia. Back on the road to head to Birdsville! We were amazed just how dry it was up here and there was virtually no bird, reptilian or mammal life between this stretch of road. The bores along the way does mean that the birds tend to congregate around these waterholes. But we found mainly huge numbers of zebra finches. We are arrived at the Birdsville and had a beer in the iconic Birdsville Hotel before setting up camp near the large water course in the town. A couple of Whiskered Terns and 8 Australian Pranticoles gave us some good views at our campsite. Day 9(Sept 29) Up early to head to Big Red, about 30 kms west of the township. I struggled to drive over Little Red so we decided to cut our losses and concentrate our search along this first major sand dune by following a track to the right for 1.7km. We climbed the dune and were lucky to find at least 2 Eyrean Grasswrens within the first 30 minutes. A great ‘lifer’ for us and we were really happy with our photos! The hard work climbing the dunes was worth it! Back on the road to begin a 2-3 day search for the Grey Grasswren! We were discussing driving to the sites around the Noccundra hotel which was a very long drive and would take us a full day to travel. As we were discussing this, I saw a bird fly across the road from a lignum bush around 90 kms from Birdsville. We stopped at checked it out and what did we find? Three Grey Grasswrens zipping about the lignum! They were by far the most difficult bird to photograph but we had some great views of them flying and running between bushes. Ken managed some very good shots when one of them pooped out of a lignum bush at one stage. A terrific ‘lifer’ for us and saved us the trouble of driving such another long distance. We stopped at the Mirra Mirta bore about 40 kms before Mungarannie and saw a single Flock Bronzewing but we missed the photo. We travelled on to make our way back to Mungarannie then onto Lyndhurst to check out the communication towers again. About 30 kms south of Mungarannie, we stopped at a tower and there they were – a pair of Grey Falcons! Yahoo! Finally we found one of our key targets of the trip! They were perched near the top and we were able to get some reasonable photos. Day 10(Sept 30)) Staying at the Lyndhurst Hotel, we decided we would go to Mt.Ives station to make another attempt at the Short-tailed Grasswren. We arrived there mid afternoon and checked out the proposed site which is half way up the rough track to the top of Mt. Ives. No luck but it did give us a plan for the morning. Birding around Mt.Ives station is sensational. Great shearing quarters to stay in and the amount of great birds just behind these quarters were amazing. Crimson Chat, Redthroat, Splendid Fairywren, Southern Whiteface, White Browed babblers were all present. Ken added a new bird to their extensive bidlist with a Spotted Harrier near the quarters. We decided we would get up early the next day, drive to the base of the Mt.Ives, then walk the very rough track to the top(about 2 kms but not a steep walk. Day 11(Oct 1) Up early again and began the walk. Not far from the top, we found our target just off the track. It gave us sensational views and photograph opportunities. We had now found and photographed 6 out of 6 grasswrens for the trip. And another ‘lifer’! We decided to make the long trip to Murray-Sunset NP to hopefully find our last grasswren for the tour. We decided to stay at the Underbool Hotel (near the entrance to the park) and this is a great spot to begin a trip into MSNP. Murray was a great host and we stayed in the wonderful and cheap accommodation at the rear of the hotel. I recommend to anyone who wants to visit MSNP to use this as a base as you can camp there too. Day 12(Oct 2) We went out at dawn to a spot I had found the Striated Grasswren only a month or so ago. We were totally exhausted from our trip and looking forward to getting home so we both were a little eager to look quickly and then get on the road. No joy today and we dipped but we were extremely happy to head home with 6 grasswrens. As we were leaving, a Malleefowl popped out of a bush and gave me excellent photo opportunities. All in all, a wonderful trip and I would highly recommend it to anyone but be prepared to get up early, drive long distances and keep persisting with the hot weather, the flys and the dirt roads! And do it THIS time of the year! The rewards are great! Bernie OKeefe Bernard O’Keefe Applied Learning Coordinator [cid:imageb33865.JPG@72a68f89.498a4254] Caroline Chisholm Catholic College 204 Churchill Avenue, Braybrook. 3019 T: 03 9296 5311 | F: 03 9296 5381 E: b.okeefe@cccc.vic.edu.aub.okeefe@cccc.vic.edu.au> [cid:image39f7a9.PNG@08e499aa.4693a770] [cid:imagec0c5b0.PNG@d5b0745e.4491c615] [cid:imagea82eff.PNG@498edfbb.48b1df4a] [cid:imagefb8b85.PNG@3cd42f9b.4cafe73a] [cid:image4850ec.PNG@15c94db7.45a5ae69] [cid:imageb33865.JPG@72a68f89.498a4254] [cid:image2e3688.JPG@a779be4b.49a23e66] ————————————————————– This Email and any attachments may be confidential and, if you are not the intended recipient, you must not disclose or use the information in this mail. 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