Day: June 26, 2010

Hi all I’m just on my way back from a fantastic SA outback trip including Strzelecki and Birdsville tracks. Road conditions are good, the birdsville punt takes one vehicle at a time so on the way up we were the only car there, on the way back we had to wait 1.5 hrs for 7 other cars in front of us. Highlights include Short-tailed Grasswrens at Stokes Hill, Thick-bills at Lyndhurst, 6 Chestnut-breasted Whitefaces at Lyndhurst, 2 pairs of Letter-winged Kites along the Strz track, Gibberbirds and Eyrean Grasswrens all over the place, Grey Grasswrens along the Birdsville and to top it off a beautiful Grey Falcon also along the Birdsville track. Etc etc etc. Will post more details on my website when I get time next week. Everyone should head up there if they get a chance! Regards,

Peter Waanders

Southern Birding Services

PO Box 420 Waikerie, 5330 South Australia

mob.: 0409 763172

sat.: 0424 212889

SA Birding: http://www.sabirding.com E-mail1: waanders.peter@gmail.com E-mail2: info@sabirding.com ===============================

To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) to: birding-aus-request@vicnet.net.au

http://birding-aus.org ===============================

Hi to all those who are interested in the area. Have just finished a 47 day tour through the Kimberleys – did all the main tourist places – thought I’d give you some info from the trip. We were really targeting only a few of the endemics for this area. Kununurra – at the beginning of the trip (>47days ago)- water still lying around in many places – found lots (30+) of Yellow-rumped Mannikins out on the east side – took dump turnoff – excellent close views over a couple of days. Visited there today, no Mannikins seen but many mixed flocks of mainly juveniles. Wyndham – about 10 coloured Gouldians – black & red headed – at various pools about 5-7 km along King R. Rd Derby – 4 Mangrove Golden Whistlers – all males (could not find a female anywhere). Same at Broome – 2 males, 0 females. Gibb R. Rd – Mt Hart Station – a flock of approx 150 imm. Gouldians about 12 km from the homestead on the road in. Only a couple of mature black-headed with them. At Matthew Gorge there, saw our 1st Variegated Fairy-Wrens, r: rogersi – what a beautiful female; male very brightly coloured. Mornington Wilderness Sanctuary – very disappointing – a few Purple-crowned Fairy-Wrens with all males in eclipse. No Red Goshawks anywhere and no Gouldians seen until 3rd morning as we left – about 10km north – tracked down a couple of Red-headed adults with a approx 15 imm. in mixed company with Long-tails. Bell Gorge & Silent Grove – saw glimpses of what we believe were White-Lined (Kimberley) Honeyeaters – not good enough to tick off – stupid me, we should have kept looking around there, but I felt we’d see them elsewhere – not the case – searched hard – we dipped out. Mitchell R. Falls area – the elusive Black Grasswren not seen – tried all the places mentioned on Birding-aus website – we had their call on MP3 – tried that as well but only after 2 full days of searching. Found every r: rogersi in the area, climbed 100s of rocks, waded thru heaps of spinifex, sat & waited at dawn 3 mornings – not a squeak. I asked the Rangers – no one has reported any so far this year. The area near the campground has been burnt out – closer to the Little Merton Falls was OK, but I suspect that area no longer viable. We will be very interested to hear if anyone finds them this year. On a more positive note, talking to some anthropologists doing a ‘dig’ nearby (approx. 6km away & only by helicopter), a young WA Uni. student who was with them (studying botany out at the dig) told us of seeing 5 or 6 “Rock Wrens” hopping along the rocks near the dig. When I asked him to describe colour, etc., he described BGWs accurately. So, they are around – just not where I wanted them to be. Of course, the Partridge Pigeons, r:blaauwi were all over the campground, even around our feet and nearly inside the tent, so that was a good tick. On a general note, we found White-quilled Rock-Pigeons everywhere – on nearly every property. Yesterday, we also found our 1st White-browed Crake here on the lake near town – yet 7 weeks ago, we searched every day and none seen. Road Conditions: Gibb R. Rd – a city person might say a bit rough, a country person like me would call it a hwy – at least the western half. After the turnoff N. to Drysdale, the Gibb begins a lot of bends, floodways, dips & gullies, etc. which lowers the speed so the eastern half is like any typical Aussie gravel country road – slower but still very good to me. However, from the turn N. to Drysdale, there’s full road-width corrugations at least 6 inches deep in places and long stretches of bone-shaking lesser corrugations – that 60 km will take over one & half hours. The 100 km north to the Mitchell turnoff takes about 2 hours with about half being excellent smooth travel and half being severe corrugations. The 7 km in to King Edward R. is very slow and extremely rough. Past there, the 40 km climb up on to the Mitchell Plateau is continuous corrugations – so bad, in fact, that both my front shock absorbers died and I had to limp back to Drysdale for new ones. Anyway , up again, passed another car broken down on the same section (he had help already). Once up on top, the road improved somewhat – it still took approx 4 hours of constant battering to do the whole 87 km. The last 14 km down to the campground had the full 4WD range – stretches of deep fluid mud, many water crossings, lots of washouts – slow and slower were the orders. We heard that “they” might grade the main track up to Kalumburu “later” and that “they” might even get on to the Mitchell Track. The country grapevine was full of gossip but no one seemed definite about anything. Good luck to anyone going there this year. Brian & Meg ============================== To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) to: birding-aus-request@vicnet.net.au

http://birding-aus.org ==============================

Hi Folks, Just returned from a brief but satisfying trip to the Strzelecki track in SA. Participators: Steve Potter and Bert Harris.

Monday: Leaving Adelaide at 3am, we did a slight detour (300kms return) to Lake Gilles to check out Western Yellow Robin (Steve) and Rufous Tree-creeper (Bert). Also the fact that the lake was full of water!! Nice. A quick stop at Iron Knob totally failed to find local race of Thick-billed Grasswren (Myall) but did produce Red-throat. Lunch at Arid Lands in Pt Augusta was quiet but still saw Chirruping Wedgebill and White-backed Swallow – Two birds common for the rest of the trip north. 7pm We arrived at the freshened up Mt. Lyndhurst station. Nice one Bill!!

Tuesday: Up early to head up the track 270kms to the Strzelecki crossing. Various stops revealed a bag full of great birds. The country is looking amazing with a tinge of green everywhere since the huge rains in February. Highlights were, Banded Whiteface, Eyrean Grasswren and TWO pair of nesting Letter-wing Kites at one location with a Black-shouldered thrown in for good measure. Big numbers of Budgies and Zebra Finch. Black Falcon on the way up. Inland Dotteral and Barn Owl on the Track on the Way Back. The other highlight was seeing the Strzelecki crossing still with water in it, though not moving. 100+ Straw-necked Ibis, a doz. of White-necked Heron, Pallid Cuckoo and a few Cockatiel. We did the drive back (230km of dirt) in 2.5 hours. The last hour in the dark which I wouldn’t recommend. Very close call with an on-coming car as we were both in the middle of the Road!!

Wednesday: Early start at Rusty Car site produced Thick-billed GW, Chestnut-breasted Whiteface (completing the trifecta) and a few others. The two gates site gave us Cinnamon Quail-Thrush. The only real dip was Rufous Field-wren. We detoured via the Flinders Ranges on the return trip to find Short-tailed GW at Stokes Hill. The Flinders also is looking brilliant with lots of greenery and water in the creeks. Its going to be a great spring! Home via a Schnitty at the Quorn Pub.

Great trip and thanks again to Bill from Mt. Lyndhurst, and John Turner (SA) for all the good oil on the track.

Steve Potter m: 0407 398 234 e: steve@frontier.org.au

Full List: Emu Australian Pelican White-necked Heron Great Egret Straw-necked Ibis Australian Wood Duck Black-shouldered Kite Letter-winged Kite Black Kite Spotted Harrier Wedge-tailed Eagle Brown Falcon Black Falcon Nankeen Kestrel Inland Dotterel Black-fronted Dotterel Banded Lapwing Masked Lapwing Silver Gull Crested Pigeon Diamond Dove Galah Little Corella Cockatiel Australian Ringneck Red-rumped Parrot Mulga Parrot Budgerigar Elegant Parrot Pallid Cuckoo Southern Boobook Barn Owl Laughing Kookaburra White-backed Swallow Welcome Swallow Tree Martin Fairy Martin Rufous Treecreeper Splendid Fairy-wren Variegated Fairy-wren White-winged Fairy-wren Short-tailed Grasswren Eyrean Grasswren (Life) Thick-billed Grasswren Redthroat Weebill Inland Thornbill Yellow-rumped Thornbill Southern Whiteface Chestnut-breasted Whiteface Banded Whiteface (Life) Red Wattlebird Spiny-cheeked Honeyeater Noisy Miner Yellow-throated Miner Singing Honeyeater Yellow-plumed Honeyeater White-plumed Honeyeater Brown-headed Honeyeater White-fronted Honeyeater Crimson Chat White-fronted Chat Jacky Winter Red-capped Robin Western Yellow Robin (Life) White-browed Babbler Chirruping Wedgebill Cinnamon Quail-thrush Crested Bellbird Gilbert’s Whistler Rufous Whistler Grey Shrike-thrush Magpie-Lark Grey Fantail Willie Wagtail Black-faced Cuckoo-Shrike White-winged Triller White-browed Woodswallow Black-faced Woodswallow Grey Butcherbird Australian Magpie Grey Currawong Australian Raven Little Crow White-winged Chough Richard’s Pipit House Sparrow Zebra Finch Mistletoebird Rufous Songlark Brown Songlark Silvereye

===============================

To unsubscribe from this mailing list, send the message: unsubscribe (in the body of the message, with no Subject line) to: birding-aus-request@vicnet.net.au

http://birding-aus.org ===============================