I just went to letter winged kite site 18kms approx towards Innamincka from Montecollina bore. There were a pair of kites breeding. Appeared to be sitting on nest and I observed them copulating twice. Rasping call made on both occasions, although it appeared rasping call was also made at other times. I came back towards sunset as I wanted to see the birds hunting. I think one bird was on nest and the other left perch at 6.50 pm about 20 minutes after sunset. I was approx. 60 metres away and couldn’t see the bird without binoculars and through binoculars could just make out white chest.
Unfortunately it flew straight over my head and disappeared into the west. It obviously had in mind somewhere there might be some long haired rats, as it was on a mission. I thought I would go around and see if the other bird was sitting. My headtorch was fairly dull and I was walking through longish grass, when I suddenly went flat on my face, sending spotlight(which was off) flying. The spotlight had been dodgy but it never worked again after that! Hauled myself to my feet, gave up on seeing if kite was on nest, turned around and in feeble light of head torch was what I took to be boobook owl, approx 15 metres from me. It then turned its head and I saw little curl of feathers and profile of head and saw it was tawny frogmouth. We looked at each other for a while and I then walked past it and it took no notice of me.
Where letter winged kites were nesting there were a small group of what i think were gum barked coolibah(Eucalyptus intertexta) and there was a great variety of birds at the site, no doubt due to the trees which are scarce in the area. Chestnut crowned babbler were breeding, Black Kite was sitting on nest as was Kestrel.
I observed spotted harrier behaving like big dipper or roller coaster and I imagined it must be a display flight for mate. A few moments later another bird came past flying more normally. What I saw fits with one report noted in HANZAAB by Tiley in 1985. The other bird of prey was brown falcon which was noisy after dark and when it was quite dark flew calling close to bush tops past where i was standing. they may have been nesting further down but I didn’t go down there.
In the immediate area there were 24 species of birds.
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS OF TRIP EYREAN GRASSWREN 200 metres towards Innamincka from the Art Barker lookout there was the best sandhill canegrass that I saw and there was a group of Eyrean Grasswrens. It was a very windy day and these birds are extremely fast when they pop out of the bush, but eventually I got good views
INLAND DOTTEREL S 29 32 48.5 E 139 50 04 Three inland dotterels, one immature. They would run in a crouching manner and then stop and stand up very tall appearing very long necked. I initially located them on side of road with more gibber and less vegetation-they flew to the other side of road where vegetation was much thicker and they would have been very difficult to find
ORANGE CHAT seen a few times but nest with two eggs located near turn off to Arkaroola nest was a small cup of grass approx 8” off of ground in low Atriplex(saltbush) There were other orange chats in area. I searched on stony ground a number of times for gibber birds and didn’t find any
THICK BILLED GRASSWRENS-rusty car site 26 kms lyndhurst Poor views of birds flushed approx 10 metres from drainage line flying to drainage line. Three separate birds seen
RUFOUS FIELDWREN-just as hills were finishing going towards Lyndhurst
Sun was going down and the bird came out into open and stood on something-can’t remember what- but very beautiful in the light(rufous and sunset light combined)
CINNAMON QUAIL THRUSH Same spot as rufous field wren-3 birds, the initial one I saw stood on rock facing me. What I saw in terms of black markings across belly was like forked lightening- starting as one and then splitting into two-has anyone else seen this?
It was a great two day trip and made me think I must do more of this. Took mainly flower photographs but got letter winged kite in flight and good shots of blue bonnets.
Go soon if you can.
Gary ===============================
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