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Sunday, 6 October, 2013

 

Well, I have more to write than I can possibly get done tonight, so I’ll have to finish it at some later time.  I got to bed by 9 again last night, and slept great until about 2 AM.  After that, I only dozed, and finally I gave it up and got up at 4:45.  I did amazingly well today, on that much sleep.

 

I was out at 6, and I went down to the Darling River, there in Bourke.  I walked along the river path, enjoying the morning and looking for birds.  I ran into a birding tour group, but they didn’t seem inclined to chat, and we simply said good morning as we passed.  There were various birds around, but nothing new and nothing great.  I did get good looks at Common Blackbird, which I had counted in Mudgee a couple of days ago (I think it was Mudgee, but I’m not going to look it up now), but it had been a fleeting glance of a flying bird.  So, today I “insured” that tick, and here is a picture to prove it.  I had no idea that Common Blackbirds were found as far out as Bourke.

 

I saw a couple of raptors perched in a dead tree, so I approached and took pictures.  They turned out to be Black Kites, and here is a picture of a perched one.

 

Today turned out to be Black Kite Day, as I must have seen a couple of hundred of them.  One group had about 40 by itself.  They would be around road kill along the road, mostly.  I must have passed several hundred dead kangaroos along the road today, in about 3 hours of driving.  I think that the vast majority of them are hit by cars or trucks after dark, as they are nocturnal.  I don’t drive at night here when I can possibly avoid it, for just that reason.  I don’t even want to imagine the hassle and complications it would cause if I hit a kangaroo in my rental car.

 

I happened to be taking a picture just as that Black Kite took off.

 

I always like flying raptor pictures when they are in reasonable focus.

 

There were a lot of White-plumed Honeyeaters around, and I got a picture I like, so now I can quit trying to take pictures of that species.

 

That picture makes the bird look very short and squat, so I guess I do have to try for the definitive White-plumed Honeyeater shot still.  At least if shows the white plume that gives it its name.

 

I also had a good look at a dingo.  I don’t know that I have seen a dingo before.  I would have loved to get a picture, but when the dingo saw me, it took off and ran away.  It was a beautiful animal, all golden brown.  I was surprised to see it right on the edge of town.

 

Here is a picture of the Darling River as it goes through Bourke.

 

In the olden days of the late 1800’s and early 1900’s, steamships used to come clear up to Burke to haul wool away to the ports on the southern coast of Australia.  It must be well over a thousand miles.  I guess it is similar to the Mississippi in that sense, although the river is obviously much smaller.

 

So, I went back to my room after an hour or so, and I was packed up and I hit the road about 8.  I had gassed up again, too, which was good, as it was 150 miles to Cunnamulla, with no gas stations along the way.

 

I drove out on to Hungerford Road, to look for birds.  It was pretty barren out there, and I didn’t see much.  I did get this picture of a Nankeen (Australian) Kestrel, though.

 

I got another Black Kite picture, too.

 

While I was driving slowly along, I was overtaken by a bus, which was the birding tour group I had seen by the river earlier.  I stopped a couple of places, and at one of those, they stopped and we talked a little.  They weren’t seeing any more than I was.  I did see some Major Mitchell’s Cockatoos fly over, which “insured” the distant flight views I had gotten the other day.  Later, I got pictures of one, at Bowra.  See later in this report for pictures of this beautiful bird.

 

I also drove up on the levee for a big lake out there, but didn’t see anything interesting there, either.  So, after an hour or so, I returned to the main highway and headed north.  But, before I got very far, I stopped at a caravan park called Kidman Camp.  I had read about it, and it sounded interesting. I stopped and asked if I could look around, and then I drove through.  They had some very nice looking cabins, but I expect they were more expensive than I would have wanted to spend.  There are supposed to be birds around the park, but I didn’t see any in my brief drive through.  Here is a picture of the Darling River at Kidman Camp.

 

So, finally I started the 2 and a half hour drive to Cunnamulla.  It was pretty barren land.  Here is a typical picture of the land.  It obviously had not rained for some weeks, or maybe months.

 

The drive was boring, and I hadn’t had much sleep, and I soon got sleepy.  I finally stopped by the side of the road and took a five minute micro-nap, and I was much better after that.  I also opened a Diet Coke, and that probably helped, too.  There were no birds except Black Kites, magpies, ravens, and a couple of Whistling Kites.  Very boring.  After another half hour or 45 minutes, I stopped at one of the two places along the way to get a cup of coffee.  The hotel (pub) didn’t have coffee, but they directed me across the road to the Bush Tucker Café.  I wish I had taken pictures of the place, both inside and out.  It was a real classic.  I asked about coffee, and what they had on offer was some hot water and a jar of Nescafe instant coffee, and you could make your own.  So, I paid 3 bucks to make myself a coffee, and got a to-go cup, and hit the road again.  After that, I wasn’t sleepy again.  I hope I can sleep tonight.  I made it extra strong, with lots of milk.

 

I finally got to Cunnamulla about 1 PM, think.  I drove around looking for a grocery store, as I needed a few things.  I couldn’t find anything open, so I went to the gas station on the edge of town, filled my tank, and asked about a grocery store.  No, in Cunnamulla, there is no Sunday trading, and no trading on Saturday afternoon, either.  So, I was out of luck.  The woman reminded me that tomorrow, Monday, was a public holiday, so it would be Tuesday before anything was open.  I have run into this closing on Saturday afternoon and Sunday before, but I thought they had moved beyond that by now, but I guess not, in small towns.  The grocery store in Bourke was open this morning at 8, and I obviously should have stocked up then, but I foolishly thought something would be open in Cunnamulla.

 

I had enough food to get by, but lunches on the go might be a problem until I can get to a store.  I’ll probably be going into Cunnamulla anyway, to get online and send my reports, so I can stock up then, starting on Tuesday.

 

Ok, it is 9 PM, and I want to set my alarm for 5 tomorrow, so I’m going to stop this now and continue it when I can.  Heaven only knows when it will go out.  I can sort of, almost, get online here at the cottage, using my phone, but it is very iffy, and I don’t know if it will be good enough to actually upload a big email with pictures or not.  We will see.

 

To be continued…

 

I found the road to Bowra, but I was intrigued by this sign.

 

I wanted to see what a golf course looked like in this environment, and I also wanted to see if it was a likely place for me to go later in the week, to get online.  I had a feeling that the mobile phone connection at Bowra wasn’t going to be good enough to send my reports and check my email, and I wanted a place to set up my computer and phone.  Here is what a fairway looks like at the Cunnamulla Golf Club.

 

There isn’t even the pretense of grass – just dirt.  Here is a “green”.

 

Again, no grass, just some black sand.  It is hard to imagine playing golf in 100 degree heat, on that course, but there were at least a couple of groups out there today.  There was a fairly large building there, and maybe I could go inside that and get online.  If not, there were a couple of picnic tables under the building, which was raised up in the Queensland way (for ventilation).

 

I drove on out to Bowra, and things are very dry all right.  Here is the entrance road.  It was paved to here, and then dirt the rest of the way.

 

Bowra used to be a sheep and cattle station (ranch), but in 2010, the owners sold it to the Australian Wildlife Conservancy, and now it is operated as a preserve.  It’s staffed by volunteers, who spend a month here, living in the old homestead house.  I had the cottage booked; it is probably where the station manager lived in the old days, with his family, while the owners lived in the main house, called the homestead.  My Aussie buddy, Ken, and his two mates, Russ and Steve, had booked rooms in the old shearers’ quarters, where there are shared bathrooms and a shared kitchen.  People also camp here or stay in their caravans or recreational vehicles.  It is considered one of the premier birding sites in Australia.

 

I found one of the volunteers for this month, Peter, and checked in.  He gave me a map of the property and gave me some tips about where to find certain birds, and what areas had problems with driving.  I got moved into my cottage.  Here is a picture of the cottage.

 

Here is the main living area, with most of the kitchen.  The refrigerator/freezer is in the next room.

 

Here is the bedroom, with the queen sized bed.

 

You can see one of the two very old air conditioners in the cottage.  I guess they cool it some, but they are old and tired out.  The whole cottage is old and tired out, very much out of square.  Some doors won’t close, and the floor undulates.  I stayed in the cottage in 2008, and I don’t think anything has changed at all, except it is all five years older now.  I’m not complaining, mind you.  I knew exactly what it is, and I am quite happy to be staying here.  I have the whole house to myself, with my own bathroom and kitchen, so I’m just fine.

 

I wandered around outside and soon saw a number of treecreepers around the cottage.  There are two species of treecreeper here, and they sure looked to me like the difficult one, the one that would be a lifer for me.  I took some pictures, and here is one of them.

 

When Ken and his mates showed up, a short time later, they assured me that they were the easy species, Brown Treecreeper, which I had seen already on the trip.  Too bad.  I thought it was too good to be true, to have gotten a lifer so easily.

 

Also in the yard were some Spiny-cheeked Honeyeaters, which I had seen in the Capertee Valley.  I got a picture, though, this time.

 

As I mentioned, Ken showed up, and I met Russ and Steve.  They went over to the shearers’ quarters to move in, and I wandered around some more.  After a while, I went on over to that area, which is a short walk away.  There is a lagoon there that is kept filled with water from the bore (a deep well that goes down 2000 or 3000 feet to the huge aquifer that is under most of Queensland).  There were a number of birds around there, and I finally started adding birds to my trip list.

 

One of the first was RED-KNEED DOTTEREL.

 

Its cousin, the Black-fronted Dotterel was also around, but I had seen them before on the trip.

 

There were also LITTLE FRIARBIRDS in the trees, and I got this picture of one later.

 

A SPOTTED BOWERBIRD flew in.  I didn’t get a picture of that one, but I got a picture of one later, when we went to a water hole to see what birds came in to drink.

 

There were various species of woodswallows around, too, and I added BLACK-FACED WOODSWALLOW to my trip list.  There was also a WHITE-WINGED TRILLER, as well as several RAINBOW BEE-EATERS.  That last one is interesting, and I’ll get a picture eventually.  There were also three BLACK-TAILED NATIVE-HENS around, and they were surprisingly willing to let us get close.  Here are two of them.

 

One of the guys noticed a White-plumed Honeyeater feeding young at a nest.  I couldn’t get the adult feeding them, but here they are begging.

 

So, that was a nice little flurry of birds, and we decided it was getting late enough to go to a waterhole where birds come in for a drink of water at the end of the day.  When we got there, before we even approached the water, either Russ or Steve spotted some birds flying in and identified them.  They were a species we all wanted to see, so we cautiously approached the water hole, to try to see them.  As we approached, they got spooked, and they flew away, but I got pretty good flying views of BOURKE’S PARROT (lifer).  I hope to see one perched, but it was a good enough look to count it.

 

At the water hole, I added DIAMOND DOVE to my trip list.

 

We watched various birds come to the water, including a lot of White-Plumed Honeyeaters, both friarbirds, and a BROWN HONEYEATER.  I got good looks at the Brown Honeyeater, but wasn’t able to get a picture at the water.  Later I got this picture of one in the yard of my cottage, though, in the late afternoon light.

 

Here is a picture of a couple of Noisy Friarbirds.

 

A desirable bird, Striped Honeyeater, came to the water several times.  I had seen one with Carol on her property last week, but this time I got distant pictures.

 

There were Galahs around, and they made a very pretty picture in the afternoon sun with the blue sky behind them.  Here are four Galahs.

 

It wasn’t only little birds coming to the water.  An Emu came in, and I got to see how an Emu drinks.  It knelt down at the edge of the water.  Here is the kneeling Emu.

 

Note that the knees bend in the opposite direction from ours.

 

It wasn’t only birds, either.  Here is a Red Kangaroo.

 

And here is its cousin, an Eastern Grey Kangaroo.

 

Perhaps the highlight of the water hole visit, other than the flying Bourke’s Parrots, was the single Major Mitchell’s Cockatoo that flew in for a drink.  Here it is just after it landed.

 

Then, to top it off, as it bent to get more water, it raised its lovely crest.

 

Is that cool, or what?  I was jazzed.  I had particularly wanted to get a picture of one with its crest raised.

 

So, about 5:45, I threw in the towel and drove back to my cottage.  It had been a very long day, with a lot of birds and a huge number of pictures.  I arranged to meet the guys at 6:15 in the morning, and I proceeded to have a drink, sort through and process my pictures, have my dinner, and write the first half of this report.  By that time it was 9 PM, and I called it a day and hit the sack, setting my alarm for 5:00 AM.

 

So, when all was said and done, I had added 9 species to my trip list, all of them after I got here to Bowra.  One of those was a lifer.  That brought me to 175 species for the trip, of which 5 were lifers.  Even though Bowra is very dry, it was living up to my memory of it in terms of birds.  There aren’t a lot of them, but there is a great range of species, and some of the species are very special ones, difficult to get anywhere else I will be going on this trip.

 

It was hot yesterday, hitting 99 degrees F at one point.  My old air conditioners cooled it down to about 74 by the time I went to bed, though, and it does cool off at night.  The house was 64 degrees this morning (I’m writing this on Monday).  Because the air is very dry and there was a nice breeze, it really didn’t seem too hot unless you were out in the sun.

 

So, that was arrival day at Bowra.