Last Friday evening Tony Keene, Ed Williams and myself set out from Melbourne on a trip to Gluepot, mainly to catch the Scarlet-chested Parrots while we could. Not much to report from the Friday: a late start meant the best we could manage was a number of Barn Owls spotted along the road between Bendigo and Mildura. We stopped off at Renmark overnight before an early start for the run on to Gluepot. Highlights of the trip in included a large group of Whistling Kites over the fields around Pyap, some Blue Bonnets near Moorook, and what appeared to be a lone Apostlebird wandering round alongside the ferry ramp at Waikerie (I’m sure it’s clan were around somewhere). It was a slow drive in to Gluepot through the Taylorville Station: we kept stopping to see the birds! Before long we had seen Chestnut-crowned Babbler, Restless Flycatcher, good views of a pair of Crested Bellbird, small flocks of Budgerigar (abundant around Gluepot at the moment), Southern Whiteface and Southern Scrub-robin. I was last at Gluepot three years ago, and the change in bird abundance since the drought has broken was very noticeable. Close attention to Yellow-throated Miner flocks had resulted in two very good candidates for Black-eared Miner. A subsequent review of Tony’s photos has satisfied us they were good ‘pure’ birds. Add to this Woodswallows everywhere along the road: mostly Masked, with a few White-browed thrown in for good measure, a nice Brown Goshawk, ‘Mallee’ Ringneck Parrots, Spiny-cheeked, Brown-headed and Yellow-plumed Honeyeater and the trip was off to a good start. Eventually we made it to Gluepot, and up to the visitor centre first to sign in before returning to the Gypsum-Lunette walk to scout for the SCP. Within a hundred metres of so of the car park, and while Tony and I were distracted by a Variegated Fairy-wren and a Hooded Robin, Ed picked up a male SCP near the top of a tree. RESULT! We were treated to brief views of this amazing parrot until it was chased out of sight by a pair of Mulga Parrots. We carried on bashing round the walk through the Spinifex but didn’t pick up many more birds. Some White-winged Trillers, a Snow Bunting (okay, not really a snow bunting – the guys clarified the small rufous and white thing I nearly stood on was actually a Little Button-Quail), Gilberts Whistler (heard), and good numbers of Yellow-Plumed Honeyeater. The walk finished off with nice views of three Varied Sitella (black capped subspecies) nest building. After that we appropriately set up our tent at the Sitella campsite for the night. The evenings spotlighting was curtailed by battery issues – we saw lots of bats while the torchlight lasted, but were only able to hear Spotted Nightjar, Southern Boobook and an Owlet Nightjar that seemed to be flying just above the tent at times! The next morning (Sunday the 13th ) the campsite had a small mixed flock of Inland and Chestnut-rumped Thornbill moving through, which distracted us from the big scorpion that emerged from under where the tent had been. A brief rain shower made us shuffle our plans slightly, and we headed out to the visitor centre to sign out of the reserve before going back to the Gypsum-Lunette walk. Well worth the detour: we picked up a very nice Gilberts Whistler and a pair of relatively confiding Chestnut Quail-thrush alongside the road. We stopped at Kangaroo Dam where there was a flock of 15 Black-tailed Native Hen, a couple of Grey Teal and a Hoary-headed Grebe, not your usual Gluepot birds! Sadly no more SCP sightings for us at Gypsum-Lunette, but the second walk around the loop bagged us sighting of Red-lored and Gilberts Whistler, Black Honeyeater and a day flying Owlet-nightjar that obligingly sat in a tree branch for us. Bacon sarnies all round before hitting the road back south….northern Victoria report to follow! [Other Taylorville Station / Gluepot birds seen not mentioned above: Australian Magpie, Australian Raven, Brown Falcon, Brown Treecreeper, Common Bronzewing, Crested Pigeon, Galah, Grey Butcherbird, Grey Currawong, Jacky Winter, Nankeen Kestrel, Red-capped Robin, Splendid Fairy-wren, Striated Pardalote, Tree Martin, Welcome Swallow, White-browed Babbler, White-winged Chough, Willie Wagtail, Yellow-rumped Thornbill, Whistling Kite, Red Wattlebird, Rufous Whistler and Grey Shrike-thrush]
Cheers
Tony Keene, Ed Williams, Mike Honeyman
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