More Easter in Arid SA

On Good Friday we drove up to Lyndhurst and onto the Strzlecki Track. Within a couple of hundred metres we spotted a few Cinnamon Quail-thrushes, but they were camera shy and kept their distance. A little further along the track I stopped first for a Brown Falcon, and then Black Kites. Jokingly, some people call the Strzlecki Track the Strzlecki Highway, and I can see why!! For lunch, we headed back to Lyndhurst and up the Oodnadata Track to Farina, a town started by a group of wheat farmers who thought they could make it the wheat capital of SA. Eventually it failed, for the same reasons as Kanyaka in my earlier post. An Australian Kestrel was perched on a post, and a couple of Galahs kept us company at the old Post Office. Finally, just before we headed home, I noticed this Harrier quartering a paddock. It stayed directly into the sun, so identification was tough, but I reckon it is a young Spotted Harrier. Next morning we popped back to Aroona Dam, before heading to the Flinders Ranges. Here I noticed this small blue butterfly on a succulent like flower, and then a couple of Wedge-tailed Eagles Next stop, Whyalla and the Australian Snapper Competition......

Easter in arid South Australia

Maryann and I headed north this Easter. As we drove towards the Strzlecki track, we stopped en-route at Old Kanyaka Homestead. This sheep station was built in 1851, but the owner drowned in floods here in 1852. The new owners quickly grew the station to over 50,000 sheep, but then lost almost half of them in the drought in 1864. This flood/drought cycle continued until the homestead was abandoned in 1888. At it's height, it employed over 70 men and their families. We stayed overnight in Leigh Creek and made a quick visit to Aroona Dam before sunset. On the way home we spotted this Common Wallaroo (Euro) grazing by the side of the road.

Outback - Part 5

So we said goodbye to "the Alice" and headed South on the Stuart Highway. We stopped at a few likely looking spots but didn't find anything of interest until we tried a site near Erlunda. We had tried this site on the way up without success. We could hear a few birds in the scrub, and with some pishing and squeaks from the Audobon bird call we soon had an audience as first Southern Whiteface, and then Banded Whiteface, (our target for this site) posed briefly. We stopped the night in Coober Pedy, and just had time to look for Cinnamon Quail-thrush at the eastern end of town. Light was fading fast, so the ISO had to be cranked up to the detriment of quality. In near darkness, we noticed a small ditch with a Spotted Crake on it, so determined to return at first light to investigate. This we did, and found 7 Spotted Crakes along a 15M (50ft) stretch. We also saw a Black-fronted Dotterel there. Continuing South we stopped at an area of Gibber. We had been tipped off that there was a small population of Chestnut-breasted Whiteface here. This was one of the key birds we were looking for on our original itinerary. After walking for a while, we spotted one creeping around a scrubby area. Not an easy task, as they are very well camouflaged. Keeping South we entered the desert area of the Woomera Rocket Range, and even in the few days since we last passed through we could see a difference. More flowers, and the scrub seemed alive with large grasshoppers. Once again South, this time moving into an area of sparsely wooded sand dunes. Here there were some beautiful daisy type flowers, and the trees were alive with White-winged Trillers and Chestnut-rumped Thornbills. Just as we were leaving I noticed a Spotted Jezebel butterfly. Final birding was back in Port Augusta, at the Arid Lands Botanic Gardens. No Cuckoo this time, but I did see this cuckoo Bee, so called because it lays it's in other bees nesting chambers. There was a noisy pair of Nankeen Kestrels on the roof of the cafe, and in the courtyard a beautiful display of more Sturt's Desert Peas. Irresistible!! And so to the stats. Over the 8 days we travelled 4,700Km (2,800 Miles) saw 132 species (but this is liable to change as I keep remembering others!) of which 10 were new for me. The outback is in totally stunning condition at the moment, and if you get a chance to see it, do not delay!!

Outback - Part 4

Our last day in Alice dawned bright and sunny!! At last we were going to be able to do some "proper" birding. We headed out early, going McDonnell Ranges west of Alice. 1st stop was Simpson's Gap, a tiny gorge through the range. We were the second car there, and hoped that the birds hadn't been disturbed too much. But the sun wasn't shining into the gorge yet, so it was still bitterly cold and hardly anything was moving. We spotted a small movement in the rocks, and there was a Black-flanked Rock-wallaby. As the sun started to warm the gorge, so the tour buses started to arrive, and signaled that it was time to move on. On the way back to the car I flushed a pair of Collared Sparrowhawks, one of which wheeled around behind a large ghost gum, but didn't come out the other side. Investigation showed he/she was sitting on a nest.

As we drove west we stopped at an interesting creek. The hillsides were full of flowers, and also a few birds including this stunning Red-backed Kingfisher. West again, the next stop was Ormiston Gorge. The gorge goes through to a natural pound, and the slopes and valleys here are full of interesting birds. At the beginning of the gorge were some Grey-headed Honeyeaters busily investigating the flowers. As we walked along the first valley, we could hear the high pitched calls of Dusky Grasswrens. I spotted one, then a pair, but they would not come too close. I tried "pishing", but ne response, so I played a short snatch of their song, and they immediately came to see who was on "their patch". We continued along the track, and eventually got to the rim of the pound. The view was stunning, as was the walk back through a lovely valley. We spent much more time at Ormiston than we had planned, and so had to head back to Alice to begin the journey home.