Click here to return to 2013 Australia Trip Reports:  http://barry15.com/2013_Australia_Trip/Reports.html

 

 

Monday, 7 October, 2013

 

I slept well last night from 9 PM until about 2 AM.  I woke then, went to the bathroom, and then couldn’t get back to sleep, despite having taken half a sleeping pill last night.  After about a half hour, I gave it up and got up and turned on my computer.  I finally tried out my scheme of using my smartphone to connect my laptop to the internet, via a USB cable and the Telstra mobile network.  The signal sometimes shows as 3G with no bars, and sometimes shows as “H”, whatever that means (it means GSM, I found out later, which is the generation before 3G).  I thought that wouldn’t be good enough, but by golly, it did connect.  I sent off the first half of my report for yesterday, to my pleased surprise.  It is still going to be marginal, but maybe I can make it work well enough to keep checking my email and getting out my reports.  Updating my web site might have to wait for a better connection, we will see.  Anyway, I went back to bed after about 45 minutes, and I managed to doze a bit, and I finally slept until my alarm went off at 5.

 

I boiled some eggs, cooked some Aussie style bacon in the microwave, and had a Greek yogurt.  I didn’t need to make a lunch, since we planned to be back here for lunch.  I was ready by about 6, so I went outside to see what I could see.  I got this picture of a Mallee Ringneck.

 

There were also Rainbow Bee-eaters around, and I got this picture, which still isn’t the definitive picture of a Rainbow Bee-eater, but it shows the long feather in the middle of the tail.

 

At the appointed time, 6:15, I wandered over to the shearers’ quarters, and we headed out about 6:30.  We had a particular species to try to get, one of the special species here at Bowra. 

 

On our way to where we were going, we stopped a few times, and I picked up WHITE-WINGED FAIRY-WREN for my trip list.  It was a female, which doesn’t have much color and looks like other fairy-wren species females, but the opinion of the experts was White-winged.  I went with that, and later we had great views of a couple of male birds, and there was no doubt at all about the identification of those little cuties.  I think they might be my favorite fairy-wren species.  The males have dark blue heads, with black and white bodies.  Very striking, in my opinion.

 

At another stop, we got onto a male HOODED ROBIN, our only one so far (this is being written at about 1:30 PM on Monday).  There was also a fly-over of a male RED-WINGED PARROT, and I got a great binocular view of that one, easily identifiable.  Maybe I can get a picture later.

 

At still another stop we saw CHESTNUT-RUMPED THORNBILL.  It was a short view that time, but we saw a number of them during the rest of the morning, and I got better looks later.  No pictures, though.

 

Eventually we made our way to the area called Stony Ridge, and we set out on a walk.  We walked through the scrub about 40 feet apart, in a line, looking for birds on the ground.  This was the habitat where we were walking.

 

It was very slow for a long time, and we didn’t see anything much.  Eventually, after half an hour or so, we headed back toward the car, which was well out of sight by then.  It wasn’t too hard to know which way to go though, as we had the sun to guide us, as well as a slope to the land, with some higher trees along the road.  I wouldn’t have wanted to have been out there on my own, though, and there is no way I would have done all the walking we did this morning if I hadn’t had the experts along with me.

 

One of the guys called out, and we hustled over there to see one of the Bowra specialties, WHITE-BROWED TREECREEPER (lifer).  That was the one I had thought I had seen by my cottage yesterday.  I took a lot of pictures, and this is about the best of them.

 

As we were getting back close to the road, there was another call from one of the guys, and we all got great views of a night bird, SPOTTED NIGHTJAR (lifer).  They roost on the ground during the day, and we happened on a pair of them.  When flushed, they don’t fly far, so we saw them on the ground.  Well, I saw one of them, at least.  I tried for a picture, and this was the best I could do.  It really blends in, the lighting was poor, and I was a long distance away.  I’m sure full of excuses, aren’t I?  I think my dad used to tell me that.

 

It sure does blend in to the background, doesn’t it?

 

Two lifers in a row – was I pumped, or what?  We got back to the road, but set out again on the other side.  We soon came to a fence, but our map showed that it was Bowra property on the other side, so we went through the fence.  We were continuing to hunt for our target species.  Here is a picture of Steve, Ken, and Russ (left to right) in the area of the fence.

 

There were Red-capped Robins a few places, but none of my pictures is worth showing, after the great one I had a couple of days ago.

 

A little while later, another call from one of the guys went up, and we gathered to see a group of another classic Bowra specialty, HALL’S BABBLER (lifer).  Wow, three lifers in a row, and we hadn’t even found our target species.  I tried for pictures, and this was the best I could do.  They don’t sit still for long.

 

 

The broad white eyebrow is the key feature.

 

We turned back then, and made our way back up the hill toward the road and the car.  As we approached the fence again, Steve (I think) called out another bird, and I got good views of a CRESTED BELLBIRD.  I had only seen that one once or twice before, and it was a lot larger than I had remembered.

 

So, three of us got to the road and we started up the hill to the car.  Steve stayed out in the scrub, though, near the fence line, and before we got to the car he made the call we had been waiting for.  We rushed up there and all had wonderful, prolonged views of a pair of CHESTNUT-BREASTED QUAIL-THRUSH (lifer), another special bird here at Bowra, and the one we had been looking for all morning.  We followed them through the bush, and I took a number of photos, and I got this one I like very much of the male.

All the species of Quail-thrush are difficult, and this was my first quail-thrush species.

 

I was amazed.  We had walked in the scrub for about two hours and had seen very few birds, but I had gotten four lifers and one other excellent species for my trip list.  I would have been very lucky to have seen any one of those birds on my own, so thanks, guys, for letting me tag along.

 

While we were chasing the quail-thrushes through the scrub, we saw a male SPLENDID FAIRY-WREN.  I got this picture, maybe later when we saw them again.  I always say how I like blue colored birds, and this one is about as blue as you can get.

 

From there we drove around some of the other station tracks, stopping when we heard or saw something interesting.  We did see a Gould’s Monitor right next to the car.

 

Someone spotted some babblers, and this time they were CHESTNUT-CROWNED BABBLERS, which are supposed to be common here.  They led us a merry chase through the bush, but we never got very close to them.  Later we saw a couple of SOUTHERN WHITEFACE, and we chased them for a while, too.  I got these two pictures.

 

 

I forget the exact timing, but at one point we found Gumholes, which is a long body of water, a remnant of a river or creek, I guess.  There was water in it, but it was much lower than it had been, you could tell.  Here is a picture of Gumholes.

 

There weren’t any birds there, so we went back to the car.  Somewhere along in there, we saw another group of babblers, and these were also Hall’s Babblers.  Seeing them in two places in one day is fantastic.

 

About that time someone called Common Bronzewing, and I got this picture.  The bird was in the shade, so there isn’t much contrast, but it does show it.

 

We were headed back to the homestead area for lunch, and at one point, Ken, the driver, called out Wedge-tailed Eagle up ahead, high in the sky.  We happened to get out of the car there, for some other reason, and he took another look, and it wasn’t a Wedgie after all, it was a beautiful BLACK-BREASTED BUZZARD, a species I had seen only once before, on my very first trip to Australia, back in 2002.  I had good binocular views of it, and then it ended up flying our way, and I got even better views.  I even tried for some pictures.  I like this one very much.  It isn’t professional quality, but it shows the white wing patches that characterize this species.

They told me it was probably a young bird as the breast was mottled, rather than pure black.

 

I had especially wanted to see Black-breasted Buzzard on this trip.  What an amazing morning it was.  Bowra had not disappointed.  The other night at Bourke, I had looked at my spreadsheet and my Bowra list, and I had decided that if I added 25 species to my trip list while at Bowra, I would be doing fine.  Well, after one afternoon and one morning, I had added 23!  Incredible.

 

We were back at the homestead area by noon, and I came into my cabin to have lunch and finish yesterday’s report.  I got Part 2 of October 6 done, and I’m currently sending it off, while I write this.  It is a very, very slow connection this afternoon, but it keeps cranking along, so far.  I hope it goes.  Now I have written up this morning, but I haven’t looked at my pictures from this morning yet, so I’ll have to edit this when I see the pictures, I’m sure.  I’ll finish this later, I hope.

 

Okay, it is Monday evening now, and I’ll attempt to finish this report.  At about 3 o’clock, I drove over to the shearers’ quarters, to see what the guys were doing.  I found them doing what I am calling “relaxed birding”.

 

They were sitting there, watching the Lagoon area.

 

The only new bird that had shown up was a Yellow-billed Spoonbill, sitting up in a tree.  Here is a picture I got of it later.

 

It looks funny to me to see a bird like that up in a tree.

 

I took this picture of a Black-winged Stilt then.

 

I got a close up picture of a Rainbow Bee-eater, too, showing its amazing colors.  It was in the shade, very backlit, so I had to process it heavily, but it does show the colors.

 

When you see one in the sun, it is stunning.

 

So, we decided to drive around and see what else we could see.  We went south, toward the airport area.  We didn’t see much, but we did see six Major Mitchell’s Cockatoos fly in to a tree with two Galahs and start feeding.  I couldn’t get a picture of one with its crest raised, like I had done last night, but I did get this one I like.

 

It was great to see six of this species, feeding in a tree for so long.

 

Later, on our way back, we saw a kingfisher fly across the road and land in a tree, directly into the sun.  Since I am looking for a lifer kingfisher here at Bowra, we stalked the bird, but it was just another Sacred Kingfisher, not the one I need.

 

By that time, it was getting on for five o’clock, and I was running out of gas.  The others were going to go on looking for another hour and a half, maybe, but I just wanted to sit down, have a drink, and work on my pictures and this report.  So, since we were driving right by the homestead area anyway, I bailed out.  As I got out of the car, Ken pointed out two Black-faced Woodswallows that were out in the sun, posing for pictures, and I took this one.

 

The males and females look the same in that species, and I assume this was a couple, as they were preening each other.  Very cute.

 

I also took this picture of the Lagoon, in the late afternoon light.

 

So, it had been another incredible day.  I had seen far more than I would have ever seen on my own, and I had gotten some pictures I really like.  I can hardly believe all the special Bowra species we saw today, especially considering that there weren’t really very many birds, all things considered.  We spent a lot of time seeing nothing, and then would hit the jackpot from time to time.  I think that Bowra was much more “birdy” when I was here in 2008, but I didn’t see any of the special birds.  Maybe it is a case of selective memory, too.  At any rate, it has been extremely successful this year.

 

Tomorrow the guys want to head west to Lake Bindagolly (not sure of the spelling of that).  It is at least a couple of hours of driving to get there, but there are some species we could see there that don’t come to Bowra.  We plan to leave about 6:15 again, so I need to settle down early and set my alarm.  I’m running out of food, since the stores in Cunnamulla weren’t open yesterday, so I’ll have to be creative tomorrow, but I’m sure I won’t starve.

 

I saw 13 more species for my trip list today, of which 4 were lifers.  What an amazing day.  I am now at 188 species for the trip, of which 9 are lifers.  Are there any more to get in this area?  Will I see anything new tomorrow?  We will see.  Time now for dinner and trying to send this off with my marginal cell phone connection.  What a life!