Hi All,
Greg and I were at Bowra last week and while we missed one day of birding with the road being impassable due to rain, it was a wonderful time to be there and the property is looking magnificent after all the rain. Thanks to the helpful and welcoming volunteers from Birds Qld who are running things out there at the moment. Highlights were fantastic views of a pair of nesting Ground Cuckoo-shrikes, a Black-breasted Buzzard feeding with Kites on carrion on the road in front of us, many encounters with groups of Hall’s Babblers and Chestnut-breasted Quail-thrush which were running everywhere, a Black Honeyeater [thanks Marilyn] and maybe best of all, extensive viewing of four Bourke’s Parrots feeding quietly on the ground. We’ve only seen them before roosting or disappearing like wisps of smoke from the edges of waterholes at dusk. There was also a roosting Square-tailed Kite and at least three Spotted Harriers working the paddocks as we drove in. We also saw Chestnut-crowned and Grey-crowned Babblers and one Painted Honeyeater. There were many families of Apostle Birds, numerous Crested Bellbirds, Red-capped and Hooded Robins, Little, White-browed and Dusky Woodswallows, Major Mitchell Cockatoos, Mulga Parrots, Mallee Ringnecks, Bluebonnets and Red-winged Parrots, Emus, Brolgas and Brown Treecreepers flitting everywhere. The whole place was alive with birds and over all was the constant music of the Rufous Songlarks. We were planning to get to Noccundra to look for the Grey Grasswren but only got as far as Thargomindah as they closed the road west. However it is well worth the trip west from Bowra if you’re out that way to see Lake Bindegolly. It’s huge. Instead of trekking for four kms to the edge of the water you can stand on the road which has become a bridge and look at Great Crested Grebe, Plumed Whistling Ducks, Black-tailed Native Hens etc swimming within a few metres while large flocks of Glossy Ibis fly over. The landscape has been transformed and is very lush so the drive is extremely interesting.
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