The morning light caught us beautifully on the shores of Lake Broadwater. The previous night’s wind had died down to a tepid breeze which ruffled through the wings of hundreds of newly-metamorphosed dragonflies sitting on the short-cropped grass by the lakeside like fleets of biplanes. Again, the birding disappointed: apart from the regulatory Black and Wood Ducks, Moorhens and Swamphens, the only notable thing was the flock of Black Swans, including one which managed to dump an immense load of excrement on Jeremy’s tent while flying overhead.
We decamped and drifted into Dalby, and from there into Toowoomba and familiar territory. Desperate to end on some sort of high, we turned off at Gatton into the University of Queensland campus to check out the lakes, where a Brown Honeyeater (Lichmera indistincta) greeted us: we were well and truly home. Our last detour took us across the highway and onto Lake Clarendon dam, where at last we hit on something we could call decent: a Black Falcon (Falco subniger), one of Australia’s rarer raptors. We also watched an Australian Hobby hunting Tree Martins (Hirundo nigricans) over the dam wall, making the swift plunges into the wheeling flock that is the falcons’ signature, while in the marshes beneath the dam wall we saw, amongst others, a Plumed Whistling-duck (Dendrocygna eytoni), Magpie Geese (Anseranas semipalmata) and four Cotton Pygmy-geese (Nettapus coromandelianus), while the reeds bore us Tawny Grassbird (Megalurus timoriensis) and Golden-headed Cisticola (Cisticola exilis), and a Red-bellied Black Snake (Pseudechis porphyriacus) swam across the marsh. That last sojourn was also notable for our encounter with Superb and Red-backed Fairy-wrens (Malurus superbus & M. melanocephalus), which brought our fairy-wren count for the trip to five, and meant that we had seen every species of fairy-wren in Australia, apart from the two western and two far northern species.
We had the fitting end to the trip that we wanted, an excursion that brought us innumerable memorable experiences and on a personal level, taught me a thing or five about myself. Many men have made lighter work of harder circumstances, but I had pushed several personal boundaries and am nothing short of grateful for the privilege of the past three-and-a-half weeks.
Sunset and storm cloud over White Cliffs entrance to Paroo-Darling
***
Post-script
We had logged 25 species of reptiles, the vast majority new for both of us. We saw 15 species of mammals, including introduced species and four of the six threatened species introduced to Scotia. Between us we had seen 185 species of birds, 61 of which were new to either one or both of us.
Big misses- The Dirty (Baker’s) Dozen:
These are new species which we stood a chance of seeing but, for various reasons, contrived to miss:
~ Australian Shelduck (Tadorna tadornoides): A dry-country specialist, we probably could not have found the outback any more propitious for waterbirds. We managed to pull off finding a Freckled Duck, but somehow missed this one. Would have been new for both of us.
~ Letter-winged Kite (Elanus scriptus) and Grey Falcon (Falco hypoleucos): One can never really expect to see these, the two rarest raptors in Australia, anywhere with certainty without going into Australia’s very core, north of Lake Eyre. This was Jeremy’s second big stab at finding them; his failure means he has now traversed in excess of 30,000km of road in ‘suitable’ territory without seeing one. We failed, but not for a lack of trying. Would have been new for both of us.
~ Brolga (Grus rubicundus): We mostly weren’t in the right area for them, but Paroo-Darling has Brolgas and once into Queensland, anywhere well-watered would have been fair game. They are much more common further north, which is the only consolation for me, and I count them as a big miss. Would have been new for me.
~ Inland Dotterel (Charadrius australis): Not common anywhere, but a bad miss, given we traversed vast swathes of suitable habitat, especially the claypan and gibber regions out of Paroo-Darling. The biggest constraint was that you can’t actually expect this bird near to water, so in all probability we’d driven past several without ever having realised it. Would have been new for both of us.
~ Australian Bustard (Ardeotis australis): For me, the biggest miss. We can give NSW a pass seeing as they are uncommon through that state, but once we hit Queensland, and particularly the Mitchell/buffel grass plains out of Cunnamulla, we were thoroughly banking on seeing at least one. That we didn’t is inexplicable and a hanging ‘what-if’ in my head to this day. Would have been new for me.
~ Regent Parrot (Polytelis anthopeplus): Scotia sanctuary did its best to jazz up our hopes of seeing these before our arrival, their media stating their case as an important harbour for this state-listed species. In the event, we never had a sniff, and were subsequently told that the most recent sightings of this species had an air of dubiousness. We would have been better served going south past Mildura for these. Would have been new for both of us.
~ Red-browed Pardalote (Pardalotus rubricatus): Another on Scotia’s list whose presence was likely dubious, we weren’t to expect them there, but once on the road, we had several stabs at decent habitat for this dry-country specialist and came away with nil. Would have been new for me.
~ Western Gerygone (Gerygone fusca): This one sort of snuck by under the radar; they weren’t at Scotia but were certainly to be expected elsewhere. I hadn’t been looking out for them, though, and by the time I realised we had missed them, we were already leaving their prime area. Would have been new for me.
~ Painted Honeyeater (Grantiella picta): Like the Spanish Inquisition, no one ever expects a Painted Honeyeater, though with the outback so green and all the mistletoes in flower, we probably would not have had a better chance to snag this, one of Australia’s true grail birds. Would have been new for both of us.
~ Hall’s Babbler (Pomatostomus halli): We had no reason to expect these highly localised birds anywhere, except perhaps at Currawinya NP where they have been recorded. In the event, we didn’t stay long enough to try earnestly for them, and once we left, our best chance of seeing this, the last of the babblers, to complete the full list in one trip, was gone. Would have been new for both of us.
~ Red-lored Whistler (Pachycephala rufogularis): This one was definitely at Scotia, indeed the sanctuary provided key protection for one of two disparate populations of this, the rarest of the Australian whistlers. We didn’t get one, partly because we were inexperienced and probably couldn’t differentiate its call from that of the Gilbert’s Whistler, and partly because no one ever gets six straight flushes in one night. Would have been new for both of us.
~ White-backed Swallow (Cheramoeca leucosterna): Next to the Australian Bustard, probably the most inexplicable miss of the trip. It’s one thing to hope for uncommon species and miss them anyway, and another to drive through thousands of kilometres of suitable habitat for a fairly common species and miss it entirely. All the effort for no return [and I have been looking for this species for some time now, even before the commencement of this trip] makes this one of my true ‘bogey’ species. Would have been new for me.
No comments:
Post a Comment