214) Farewell from Bowra

Blue-bonnet Parrots

As a dry-land parrot, these were a new species for us - quite skittish and hard to approach.

 Dirk kitted out for tramping about Bowra

Abundant Crested Pigeons - they always have a bit of a Mad Max look to them - very wild and a bit heat-crazed!

Red winged Parrot (male to right; female below)- a no-brainer on naming these guys!

  Although the property is now in conservation there is still a lot of management for feral species to be done. We saw dozens of goats which are destructive to the habitat. Though they are captured and sold at times, more wander in from around the area - they will be a long-term problem.

Lots of Nanking Kestrels - lovely to see them hovering over field looking for lunch...

There were huge flocks of Galahs in the area of the lagoon. Quite a striking color - and a nice (but somewhat grating) chatter.

 Walking the fence line, red dirt, dry trees.

This is dry-land birding!

An amazing evening flight of about 50 Major Mitchell cockatoos landed in a tree in front of our tent. It was great to see so many - we have only seen them one other time in all our travels

 Checking out Halloween ideas!


















A pair of Mulga parrots bathing in the lagoon in the heat of the late afternoon

A final peak at the Hall's Babblers. We are struck by the occurrence of social behaviors (group nests; social hierarchies with enables vs breeders; family groups) that occur in multiple species of OZ birds but not with north american birds.

As we head back to the coast we check out a mural in Cunnamulla - only 800 km to go!

Cotton bales lining the roads













As the sun sets behind us we are faced with a few hundred km of night driving - 'ware the 'roos. Scary stuff but we arrived with out incident.

213) Additional Bowra Birds

Red capped Robin

These guys are just irresistible!

This would seem to be Spotted Bowerbird country. There were 2 bowers at the cottage on the property and we saw many more out in the bush. Note the purple nuchal crest which is fanned out when the bird gets excited.

Sunset on the Lagoon where the Black-winged Stilts elegantly prowled about.

Someone didn't get the memo!

Early morning lineup of Wood swallows

A Common Bronzewing displays the source of his name!

A male Mistletoe bird singing away - note the elongated and very erect posture.

As the property was quite dry we spent some time at the oxbow lakes watching birds arriving for an afternoon drink. In this one the poor fish were half-exposed due to really low water - they would be raptor food soon. This female Mulga Parrot enjoyed the water - but the quantity of suspended clay in the water made us reject the option of a refreshing swim!

A Sittella looking for bugs! (this may go in Dirk's forth coming Guide to Identifying Australian Bird-butts)




















A pair of Hooded Robins in our camp

212) More from Bowra

Australian Ringneck Parrot

Yes, the parrots really do glow when they're in the right light--they're downright luminous.  If only we could see how they see each other! There are four subspecies, the birds in this area are in the Mallee group, and have that pretty red frontal band and just a little yellow on the back of their necks. 

Six Brown-headed honeyeaters jonesing for a bath when the early morning sun hits the billabong, using the bush as protective cover before darting out into the open where they're vulnerable.  These birds are prettier than their name would suggest, with a pretty green back that shows up in the sunlight.

Babblers!  We adore all four of the different species, because they are all such characters--birds with attitude.  These are the Chestnut-Crowned Babblers.  Active, social birds, they bop around as a group, noisily going about their business nattering to each other all the while.  It was hard for Dirk to get more than one in the picture frame, because they're so quick moving between here and there, but these are 3 of this group of 8.  Each bird is busily poking around, finding a bug, or stick to take back to the communal nest, and watching each others' backs.

Here's a frisky Grey-crowned Babbler.  They're gregarious and noisy and move about in groups of 4-12 birds, normally consisting of a primary breeding pair and the rest being helper birds.  Because they make us smile to hear them yakking at each other, we even have their duet (female 'yah' and male 'ahoo') as our phone ringtone.  Ya-hoo!Ya-hoo!Ya-hoo!

A well-fed echidna strolling around the impoundment!   Amazing animals, she was snuffling about, using electrosensors on her snout to locate ants to zap up with her long tongue.  Along with the platypus, echidnas are monotremes--mammals that lay eggs.  The puggle (baby) suckles milk while in the mother's pouch. Male echidnas have spurs on their ankle, but they are not venemous like platypus.

A come-thither look from a beautiful Black-fronted dotterel.  We still can't get over seeing these 'waders' inland on freshwater locales in the deserts of Australia.










We were happy to see three Black-tailed Native Hens in residence at the lagoon near our tent.  How about that Green and red beak and yellow eye?!   Each morning, we would look to see if all three were still there--one was kind of a loner, often trailing after the other two.  We heard there previously were four, but one had disappeared, and a feral cat is the likely suspect. 

211) Bowra

Mulga Parrot

The imminent start of another term necessitated a trip to "the bush" . We headed for Bowra - a former cattle station purchased in 2010 by Australian Wildlife Conservancy to be restored as native habitat. At a mere 900 km drive, it is still the longest road trip we have undertaken. The interminable road repairs had us arriving  well after dark - as the 'witching;' hour (dusk) approached the old, new and in-the-last-hour road kills were just too much. We estimate 30 dead 'roos and 10 dead emus in the last 300 km - so we pulled over and camped before we added to the carnage. The trucks don't even touch their brakes as they barrel along...

These Black Kites, and also ravens, crows and Wedge tailed Eagles were out in force. For them the road-kill is a bounty.

You may never have heard of it, but this place is a birdo destination!

 Upon entering the station we immediately saw the pest control signs - everywhere conservation management is underway the invasives (pigs here, but also foxes, cats, goats, camels) are being poisoned, shot, captured, removed.
They are not really invasive species- at least not on their own. They were introduced by people and are now causing major problems for the native species. We can't lay the blame on their doorstep.




We arrived at Bowra early morning and set up camp next to "the lagoon" - a shallow lake maintained from the old well-bore at the homestead. The well produces significant volume of hot water that is now used to maintain a  small lake, the shallow lagoon and a long 'bore-drain' (say it as one word to get the proper inflection) - a ditch along which the birding is excellent.

 It had been a really dry summer so the lagoon was a gathering place for loads of dragonflys...












..and Restless Flycatchers.






















An oddity of bush camps are green frogs - in the toilets. Always. They live under the lip and manage not to get flushed. Or else come back up. I have no idea what they eat.

Nuff said....

The lagoon was also home to a few gloriously  photogenic Black-fronted Dotteral. Charming in their strut.

 An oddity we found along a creek bed took a day for the visiting naturalists and birdos to figure out.  We assumed some kind of bird nest - a sand/clay cup surrounded by carefully collected and placed twigs?

Nope- Mulga ants!!! They build a raised lip to their underground nests and surround them with mulga (a tree species) leaves to protect against flooding during rains! Ants.....wow

Parts of the station are in great shape despite numerous goats, some remaining cattle and sheep. But there are areas where overgrazing has taken a toll.

Not much habitat here...

Finally! We made special efforts to find the Halls Babbler. These are one of the communal species that travel in family groups (with a wonderful constant chatter), build big communal nests and are simply fun birds to watch. Seeing the Halls was a milestone for us -we have seen all (4) of the species in that genus (which for most genus here in OZ is pretty hard). We realize babblers are only 4 species, but compared to the 70+  honeyeaters and the fact that most genus have species in really isolated terrain (that we will never visit) we celebrated this small achievement by following along their foraging for an hour, listening to their contact calls and watching them interact.

Another surprise was the flocks of Major Michell's Cockatoos  One bird survey group reported a flock of 75- we watched a flock of 45 land in the trees next to our tent at sunset! We noted with some interest that they each fan their crest as they land (on the ground or in a tree). Pretty spectacular!













We were constantly scanning for raptors - on the lookout for some rarities that breed here. It was the wrong season for that but we spotted this wonderful Brown Falcon who was happy to give us a gliding fly-by.

OZ sunsets are pretty good - the combination of fires and dust makes for  great colors. Winter is on the way, its getting chilly out here (OMG - 50 F!!)