Hi all
Just a quick report of the highlights from a trip with George Appleby to Alice.
We were originally going to do the Strzlecki and Birdsville Tracks, but they were closed a couple of hours before we got to Lyndhurst.
We went via the Flinders where we saw short-tailed Grasswren at Stokes hill Lookout, and Yellow-footed Rock Wallaby at Brachina Gorge.
Just south (9Km) of Lyndhurst we saw an Inland Dotterel and Orange Chat
Heading north from Port Augusta the countryside is in awesome shape. at 20 – 25Km north of Marla we picked up on a lone Bourke’s Parrot, and next stop was the T&T Banded Whiteface site near Erlunda. The weather was wet, windy and cold and we dipped on the whiteface.
In Alice we got the Western Bowerbird at the Botanic Gardens and also at Ormiston Gorge. There were plenty of Grey-fronted Honeyeaters around but fewer Grey-headed. In the Eastern MacDonnells we saw a group of 7 Brown Quail, and also Dusky Grasswren at Trephina Gorge. Aslo at Trephina we saw a pair of Spinifexbirds just outside the reserve gate.
In the Western MacDonnels we got great views of Dusky Grasswren and Little Woodswallow at Ormiston, Black-flanked Rock Wallaby at Simpsons Gap (there was also a pair of Collared Sparrowhawks nesting in one of the Ghost Gums here)
We missed out on Rufous-crowened Emu-wren as we couldn’t get allong the santa Teresa road due to the weather.
On the way back we saw Pied and Black Honeyeaters at ad hoc roadside stops. Re-trying the T&T site for Banded Whiteface we were successful seeing probably 5-6 individuals – what a difference good weather makes!!. Stopping in Coober Pedy, we saw Cinamon quail-thrush down near the water treatment works, with at least 7 Spotted Crakes in the ditch oposite. A few Km south of coober we saw Chestnut-banded Whiteface (2-3 individuals) and finally called in to Whyalla and saw Thick-billed Grasswren along the Iron Knob Road.
A great trip given the restrictions of the weather
I am in the process of posting photos on my blog at tcphotosdotnet.blogspot.com
Cheers
tony
Tony Crittenden www.tcphotos.net tcphotosdotnet.blogspot.com Adelaide South Australia
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