Have now completed over 7,000km from Darwin through Queensland / NSW / Victoria / SA and will be back in the NT in a couple of days. Today did a small 320km side trip to find the Short-tailed Grasswren at the Stokes Hill Lookout in the Flinders. Located one on the up slope on the other side of the Gully south west of the lookout (looked like good Grass-wren habitat and it was!). Thanks Greg Roberts and others for hints on this and other fora (forgive me – I did 2 years of Latin and “forums” just doesn’t make it for me.
Except for an old Emu carcass and fresh dead Magpie today, I have seen very few bird kills along the road. I have however fortunately seen over 30 dead foxes and many many mice (at night). This either means foxes are very unlucky or are breeding up in response to the mice / rat / rabbit numbers – I fear the later.
Oh and stranger than fiction I was talking to my daughter in SA yesterday about Piping (Crow) Shrikes (this is the unofficial emblem of SA where migrants confused it with the Scottish bird) / Magpie Larks. I instinctively called it a Murray Magpie (I lived in SA for about 14 years before moving to the NT). I now live in Darwin and one nests 2 metres from my 3rd floor apartment door! (several clutches in the 6 months I have been there, including rebuilding the nest from scratch after the Cyclone!). I have heard it called Pewee in most States and Mudlark occasionally (I assume due to the mud nest).
Rob Burgoyne ===============================
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