Having enjoyed the four Australian Painted Snipe at White's Road Wetlands we decided to have the rest of the weekend off. It was good to catch up with the kids and we were able to get some much needed cleaning and sorting done before repacking the car for another get away. We had originally intended to go to Danggali Conservation Park straight after coming out of the desert but were waylaid by the arrival of the Snipe. Such is the way of Big Year birding, you have to make the most of the opportunities that present themselves.
Neither of us had been in Danggali for a very long time and we were both looking forward to returning. It's just a bit too far from Adelaide for a comfortable weekender and to be fair there are areas closer to town with a similar species mix, but it's always nice visiting places you've hardly ever visited before. We drove up directly to Renmark apart from a brief detour via Para Wirra Recreation Park north of Adelaide. A pair of Square-tailed Kites have nested in the vicinity of the park the last few years running and we still needed that for our year lists. In fact Square-tailed Kite is the last of the birds of prey we need to see that are found in South Australia so it would be nice to see one to complete the full collection. We tried in very early January at the beginning of the year but the young birds had already fledged and had left the area so we've had to wait until Spring for another opportunity. Unfortunately there was no sign of any recent activity at the nest site nor where there any signs of birds in the area. We'll have to think hard about where to get this one in the weeks remaining.
From Renmark we drove up to Hypurna, the old homestead on the southern edge of Danggali without having seen much of note. Once we passed Hypurna we headed out on a track up towards the border through some extensive Black Oak woodland that eventually turned in to Mallee with Spinifex as a major component of the understorey. We were here for two reasons. Firstly there was some survey work going on for Striated Grasswrens in the park by DENWR staff and teams of volunteers. Through communication with the organiser Chris we had indicated we were going to be in the park during the survey period and would contribute any sightings we encountered. Secondly we still needed Red-lored Whistler and Scarlet-chested Parrot, both of which we'd seen here before. The Whistler can be found closer to Adelaide but we've failed to find any so far despite searches in Gluepot and Billiat CP. The Parrot has bred in Gluepot over successive years in recent times but seems to have decided this year to not bother!!
We found a nice spot to set up camp having found some decent habitat for both Whistlers and Grasswrens, but we were dismayed at the amount of habitat that had been burnt within the last few years or so. As the sun sunk low to the horizon we were visited by two pairs of lovely Chestnut-backed Quailthrush.
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| Male Chestnut-backed Quailthrush investigates our camp |
A few cold beers and dinner done and dusted we thought we'd do a short night drive to see if we could find anything after dark on the sandy tracks. We hadn't gone very far when a Gecko appeared on the track in the car spotlights. It turned out to be a Beaded Gecko, quite a common species in the Mallee especially where there is spinifex in the understorey.
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| Common Beaded Gecko in the throws of shedding its skin |
After seeing another couple of the same species we turned around and headed in the other direction. Just past camp I caught movement just off the side of the track so stopped the car to investigate. This turned out to be an exquisitely marked Jewelled Gecko and one both Sue and I had only ever seen once before...........awesome!
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| Sparkling in the light of the camera flash the Jewelled Gecko is aptly named |
With little else on offer we headed back to camp and hit the sack. The next morning the predawn chorus started early. It's funny how some of the birds we're familiar with seem to sound different when they start calling first thing in the morning. I was listening intently from the depths of my swag for one species in particular. We'd camped here specifically because the habitat looked good for Red-lored Whistler as well as Grasswrens. They are an early caller and tend to be most vocal at dawn. Try as I might, even straining my ears, I didn't hear anything that sounded familiar that I could attribute to that species. Eventually it was time to rise so we could go for a walk and see what we could find. At that moment a 4WD approached from the south and I think the occupants were as dismayed to find us camped out as we were at being "discovered" . Pulling up we exchanged pleasantries to find out Simon and Beau were here to do some transect survey work for Grasswrens and we just happened to be camped right on top of their site!!!. At least I felt vindicated on choosing the right spot to camp. We chatted for quite some time before going our separate ways but before going Simon gave me a map that laid out the transect sites that the rest of the teams would be surveying.
We went for a walk up the track and we passed through some nice stands of mature spinifex but didn't encounter any Grasswrens or in fact any Whistlers. There were birds around though but it was evident there had not been much rainfall out here this year. With that we came back and packed everything up before driving deeper into the park. After visiting Mulga Bore and finding two delightful Major Mitchell Cockatoos we stopped on the side of the track to check the maps to see where we were and where we were going. At that point another vehicle approached from the other direction and pulled up. It was Chris the organiser of the surveys. We chatted for some time and he told us his team had found up to four different groups of Grasswrens at a site further up the road. By the time we got there it was already midday and a hot northerly was blowing and bird activity had ceased to exist. We decided to have some lunch and just chill out for a few hours until conditions improved or at least late afternoon approached, whichever came first! We eventually carried on down the road until we found some suitable looking habitat that might be good for the Whistler so we set up camp in the late afternoon light.
No spotlighting this time just dinner and star gazing. With no moon the stars were very brilliant that night. The predawn light came up fast and again I listened intently from the depths of my swag for any sign of the bird we were seeking............and there it was!!!!! Unmistakable two note whistle that was not only convincing as our target bird but was calling from no more than thirty metres away. I nudged Sue awake and we both got up in a big hurry. Walking down towards the now earnestly calling bird the first rays of the sun were starting to peek over the eastern horizon. We located the bird calling within some regenerating scrub but it wasn't going to give itself up for good views easily. Eventually we both got enough on it to establish it was in fact an uncolored young male Red-lored Whistler. Just the bird we were looking for. In our efforts to get to grips with this individual a little better it was evident the bird wasn't just calling to hear the sound of his own voice but was actually "talking" to another bird behind us up on the dune. Well if this one won't give itself up for better views and photographs perhaps the other one will. With that we headed over to the dune behind our tent and discovered an adult pair calling away. We presumed the young male belonged to them but had already been kicked out of the territory and was trying to establish his own place?
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| Red-lored Whistler in the early dawn light |
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| Much more obliging than its offspring |
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| The young male eventually gave himself up for a photo |
We spent most of the morning watching these birds as its been a few years since we've seen any. No doubt it'll be a while before we see any again as they are sadly slowly declining in range and numbers. They prefer dune country where there is spinifex under Mallee with a reasonable shrub layer, except this site had very little spinifex at all.
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| Not your "classic" Red-lored Whistler habitat yet there were at least four birds in this one area |
Happy with our efforts in seeing the one major target for us here we opted to drive back out towards Renmark passing from the "Wilderness" zone and back through the designated Conservation Park southern section of the park.
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| The whole park is divided into two sections. The northern Wilderness zone and the Southern Conservation Park section |
We were due to go on a pelagic on the Sunday so we thought we'd travel down towards the south-east stopping off to try and find what few species we had left to find down there before going on the boat. As we hit civilization our phones started pinging and dinging again only this time mixed news. Sue had an e-mail informing us the boat was cancelled yet again!!! This time for some mechanical issue.............. we're destined not to get back out to sea this year so frustrating. That put a big dampener on our plans. I also had a message from Bernie O'Keefe telling me about a reported Pacific Koel that had been recorded calling from the southern suburbs of Adelaide. This is a notoriously difficult bird to connect with in SA with sporadic records over the last ten years or so. Usually involving no more than single individuals that call for a period of a few weeks then fall silent and disappear. We couldn't let that opportunity slip, so after having lunch in town we made the mutual decision to go home yet again mid trip and give it a try.
Getting back to Adelaide and trying to negotiate peak hour traffic to get to the other side of town was no fun and it took us more than four hours to accomplish it having opted to drive directly to the area the bird had been reported from. We sat in the car for a while listening intently. Nothing........not a thing.........not a single recognizeable note from a Koel. In fact this bird was never heard from again, despite a friend having another look the following morning it was just gone. I'm sure its loafing around down there somewhere at the time of writing but more often than not they're never in ear shot of birders!
Well that was all she wrote for this trip. We'd successfully found Red-lored Whistlers for another year tick but failed to come across any Scarlet-chested Parrots and fear that one will probably elude us now. We simply have no time left to go find them over on northern Eyre Peninsula where we'd stand a much better chance in the latter half of the year. So that leaves two more scheduled pelagic trips if we can rely on them going and ten weekends left to find a handful of species. How will the rest of the year pan out?. Stay with us and find out. Till next time.
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