Hi all. Apologies for the late report, but I have only just now returned from central Australia as I drove the trip. Last Wednesday I met up with Nigel Harland, his wife Anne and friend Dougall, and headed out from King’s Canyon in search of Princess Parrots. Armed with our $450.00 permits we headed out along the Mereenie loop for about 35kms to a point where we met our guides for the day. They were, Douglas Multa, representing the traditional owners of the land we were about to enter, along with three other indigenous guides. Also present was Sam Rando and other representatives from the CLC. After leaving the Mereenie loop we headed North West along various tracks for about 40kms to a spot where we were to continue on foot for about 500 metres to a place of known PP activity. I probably should not give the exact co-ordinates because the birds are breeding and, being on private property, I would have to check if the owners were happy for it to be made public. Anyway, as soon as we left the cars we began spotting small groups of PP’s and were immediately blown away by the beauty and graceful flying style of the species. The long tail, almost like a streamer, and relatively lazy wing beats, make the birds quite distinctive. The habitat was interesting: dominated by Desert Oak, but also very large, old Marble Gums which the birds seem to favour, and in which, I assume, they were nesting. It was not long before we came across birds landed in the trees allowing a close enough approach for photography. We spent most of the morning with these birds and it was a very special experience.
At this point I would like to say that the people from the CLC went out of their way to ensure that we got to experience everything that we were expecting. As we were the first group to be escorted to the site, they were anxious to get our feedback and to find out what we wanted to do with the time available. We decided to spend the morning with the PP’s and then to make random birding stops on the way out. It was valuable to have the traditional landholders with us, and our main guide Douglas proved to be very knowledgeable about the birdlife. Without necessarily knowing the Christitis & Bowles names for birds, he possessed the kind of knowledge that can only be gleaned from a lifetime of intelligent and interested observation, and was able to elaborate on interesting behavioural characteristics of the birds we showed him in the field guide. Douglas told us that it had been a very long time since PP’s had been on this land.
Just on the question of the $450.00 permit. I suppose like many people, I had to weigh up whether I could justify spending this amount on top of what is already a very expensive trip. Let me just say that by the end of the day the experience of a lifetime made me feel it was the best 450 bucks I have ever spent! This money might seem a lot but it doesn’t just end up in one person’s pocket, it’s distributed in about eight different directions. And, if it could contribute in some way towards helping to set up some sort of permanent nature guiding arrangement for the local people, then I think that would be a very good thing. The other thing to consider of course is how much it could cost to see them at a later date. Anyway, this how I explained it to the finance minister at home. You know how it goes: “Just think how much money I’ll save by not mounting an expedition up the Canning Stock Route.”
Finally I would like to thank all those involved, and congratulations on a job well done!
Cheers Steve Murray
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