White-throated Grasswren was also my first grasswren at Gunlom in July 1992 on a ‘Great Grasswren Tour’ from Derby to Melbourne organised by Chris Doughty and Kevin Coate. A great trip. We all missed Black Grasswren at Manning Gorge (it had been burnt). About half of us saw WTGW at Gunlom. A few people saw Carpentarian Grasswren just north of Cape Crawford. We all got Dusky Grasswren at Simpsons Gap. We all got Grey Grasswren and Eyrean Grasswren (nesting) at Koonchera Sand Dunes / Goyders Lagoon. We all got Thick-billed Grasswren at Lyndhurst Station. A few of us saw Short-tailed Grasswren (Striated at the time) at Flinders Ranges. Noone saw Striated Grasswren at Hattah as it was very windy. The others were not split at the time. I think we travelled about 6,000km in three weeks and Common Myna was our 300th species as we entered Melbourne. _________________________________________________________________ Frank O’Connor Birding WA http://birdingwa.iinet.net.au Phone : (08) 9386 5694 Email : foconnor@iinet.net.au
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Hi Martin and Graham. This thread has reminded me of my own Grass Wren experiences and whilst I have never been to the Kimberleys to see the Blacks, ( can’t wait ) I do recall with some fondness my first and only encounter with the White-throated Grass Wrens. It was at the top of Gunlom in April 95. Shortly after the early morning ascent, I walked through an open section with escarpment both sides and sat on a rock. I thought to myself, ” this must be perfect habitat for them”. I had probably been there for ten minutes just scanning when I heard a Grass Wren type call some way off. I sat tight and in a short while, I had picked them up through the bins. The group loosely consisted of about 5 birds and they were coming my way ! I started ‘pishing’ very quietly and sat tight. To my amazement, they came closer and closer. In fact at one point, they were right at my feet. My binoculars were hopeless so I resorted to enjoying them with the naked eye ! Fantastic birds. The whole morning was memorable with Sandstone Shrike Thrush and Chestnut Quilled Rock Pigeon at close quarters. Once I was back, I recounted my experience to the Ranger who expressed that they were becoming more difficult to see. He asked me to draw a mud map to show where the Wrens were. I obliged on the understanding that he send me a copy. He never did. Anyway, for many years, the Black was the only species that I had yet to see but these days, there are more excuses to ‘go West’ again ! Happy birding. BTW Graham, I live very close to you…I think. I also have a copy of that old Wingspan Magazine. Tim On Wed, May 27, 2015 at 9:53 AM, martin cachard < mcachard@hotmail.com> wrote:
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Hi Graeme, Please accept my humble apologies for my long delay in getting back to you… Firstly, I need to say here that it was your pioneering work on Grasswrens that gave me the kick that I needed to actually get out there for myself to see them. Then there was your amazing article in an old ‘Wingspan’ years ago that really spurred me on further, & from then on, I was categorically hooked! I constantly referred back & forth to your great web-site for more & more information as I needed it. So thank you Graeme for that… Secondly, thanks for your tip on here re looking for White-throated Grasswrens – I’d imagine that they would be even a tad louder than the already noisy Black Grasswrens, with White-throated being a slightly bigger bird. So Graeme, is it so that White-throated GW are noticeably much louder in the field than Black GW, or just a little louder ??I reckon that you would be the only person who could answer that question with any real authority – and I’ve always wanted to know the answer, given that I have never heard a White-throated GW personally. I recall fondly my very first encounter with Black Grasswrens – I found a very noisy & inquisitive bunch of them on the Mitchell Plateau running around only a metre or 3 in front of me, & just after a quick storm had passed over.After checking out this busy bunch of birds for about 10 mins, I then decided to just sit under a rock that was nearby, keeping myself very quiet & motionless, and in the general direction of where I thought they were going to be heading. Then presto!! They scampered right into where I was, hopped around a bit, called a little in contact, and then left a few minutes later. A couple of them even came right up to my boots, which were still attached to my feet at the time!! Then straight after these guys moved on & while still sitting in the same spot, I had an equally close encounter with a gorgeous male Variegated Fairy-wren (Kimberley race ‘rogersi’ ) in fine form, being early December at the time. All of this without any use of recorded bird voice (I’m pretty sure most on here know already that I don’t use any recorded bird sounds when looking for birds – I just find it totally un-sporting – but of course, each to their own). It just goes to show that getting ahead of a foraging group of birds, & just waiting quietly & patiently for them to enter your space, actually pays great dividends with extremely close encounters – your space becomes theirs & they are more relaxed as they have chosen to enter that same space… Well, that’s my method anyway, especially with seed-eating, & therefore, water-drinking birds. And finally Graeme, I need to thank you for correcting my error in thinking with some certainty that I had seen a rather misplaced male eclipse Splendid Fairy-wren at Goyder’s Lagoon. I had a very good look at that image (#535210D) of yours on your web-site of a 3rd year immature Blue & White (or White-winged) Fairy-wren. And of course, you are absolutely spot-on. That is exactly what I saw, except that the bird I saw appeared to have no blue on body at all – just blue on its flight feathers & tail. I just saw the blue tail, blue on wings, dark blackish looking bill, & thought well, it just has to be a Splendid – and all of this at the crack of dawn in very low light, & what’s more, being very rudely interrupted by a Grey Grasswren!! But what really confirmed to me back then that I had seen a ‘lost’ eclipse male ‘Splendid’ was when I returned home a couple of weeks later. It was what I read in my HANZAB (please refer to vol.5, p.295) under the Similar Species section of the account for Splendid Fairy-wren. At the bottom of that page in the LH column of text it says in one sentence the following: …”Adult & immature non-breeding male easily distinguished from other brown-plumaged fairy-wrens by diagnostic combination of mostly brown plumage, turquoise upperwing and turquoise or bluish tail.” It was the presence of 2 words in that very sentence that threw me towards a definite Splendid FW, despite the location (easily and diagnostic). And further, there is no specific mention at all of White-winged (or Blue & White) Fairy-wren in that Similar Species section for Splendid FW. So it’s easy to see where I went wrong.But Graeme, I had not gone to your wonderful website back then to check this out any further. Obviously, if I had done that as well at the time, then I may well have seen your image #535210D and learned something new – that I had not seen a lost Splendid Fairy-wren after all. It was something else!! Now people, what a perfect example of the value of Graeme Chapman’s work… So thank you, Sir Graeme Chapman, for teaching me something new …again!! cheers,martin cachard,trinity beach, cairns *** see Graeme’s last comment to me on this thread below… > Your eclipse male Splendid F/W at Goyder Lagoon is certainly a long way out of the known range and that is an area that has been surveyed intensively. The most likely explanation is that you actually saw (in the heat of the moment!!) an immature Blue and White. In winter plumage they are fairly alike – both have blue wings and tail and younger B & W males take nearly four years to acquire adult plumage. Have a look at my pic #535210D. In a few months that bird would have had a black bill and easily be mistaken for a winter Splendid male. We all make mistakes – my wife keeps reminding me more and more.
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