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!!)