A group of 10 had a great week away in the Wimmera of Victoria and the Riverina in NSW with Richard and Roz from Emu Tours, covering a variety of habitats and providing good learning opportunities for many on the trip. Everyone had new birds, including me, with Letter-winged Kite a very big tick. Although some areas are still not out of the drought, we recorded a very good tally of 157 species.
We began the trip with a run down to Echuca, through Wagga Wagga, Jerilderie and Deniliquin, with a couple of stops on the way, getting Brolgas in a flooded paddock near Jerilderie, and Grey-crowned Babbler and Singing Honeyeater other highlights along the roadside patches of Boree (Acacia pendula – a common species on the plains). Our overnight stop at the Steam packet Inn on the Murray Rive was comfortable as usual, Yellow Rosellas, hundreds of Long-billed Corellas (recognisable by their reddish plumage on the throats – we thought a better name is Cut-throat Corella) coming in to roost in the Red Gum around the river.
The next morning we set out for Terrick Terrick National Park, a good stopover for a camp, plenty of birds and usually quiet in terms of people around. Ringnecked Parrot, Hooded Robin, Red-capped Robin, Gilbert’s Whistler, Chestnut-rumped Thornbill were among the birds here, as well as the usual friendly Brown Treecreepers in the camping/picnic area. After a morning in the park we set off through the flat country of central Victoria with lessons on identifying Brown Falcon on the way, to the Little Desert in the Wimmera. Here we had a very comfortable three nights at Whimpey’s Little Desert Lodge with excellent food and the whole of the lodge to ourselves. The Little Desert area must be one of the best kept secret in Victoria – it’s got an amazing heath wildflower flora on the white sandy soils in Mallee habitat. Of course, spring is the optimim time to visit, but there were still plenty of flowering plants around, Common Correa with its bright red flower, Hibbertia and Astroloma (a red heath) to name a few.
The Little Desert Lodge is on the edge of the national park, and has a varied habitat and good birding in its fenced hectares. On getting out of the bus, I heard what I thought sounded like Grey Currawong, but a little different in tone. This is the black-winged form of this species and is much darker than our light grey bird around Canberra – they were quite common around the Lodge. Southern Scrub-robins were also common in the Mallee and heath areas, Scarlet and Hooded Robin, Diamond Firetail, White-browed Babbler and Purple-gaped Honeyeater (associated with mallee).
On our first day there, we went out with guide Whimpey Reichelt, to his Mallefowl preserve, an enclosure with electric fences designed to keep out the predatory foxes and cats and other ferals like rabbits which compete with Malleefowl for food.
Whimpey took us to meet his fairly tame, but free living Mallefowl, which have mounds in the enclosure. One mound belonging to Di and Romeo found both birds around – they are used to Whimpey’s reassuring voice and he provides supplementary feed for them, but they are free flying birds. We all gathered around for 10 minutes or so with the birds until they got a little spooked by something and melted back into the scrub.
At one spot, an almost tame Southern Scrub-robin kept our cameras busy, most people saw the elusive Shy Heathwren, Tawny-crowned Honeyeaters put in an appearance (we did not expect to see this species around mallee, but it was in a couple of places we visited), and the Variegated Wrens were elusive. In the afternoon, a visit to a property regenerating from grazing where Blue-winged Parrots had been reported, but unfortunately they were not around. That evening we went spotlighting; there was not a lot around as is often the case with spotlighting trips, but in the aviary and enclosure, we did enjoy the two Bettongs (Woylies), excess animals from another Sanctuary, a family of Sugar Gliders, the Bush Stone- curlews (Bush Thick-knee) and the Malleefowl at roost high up in a tree.
The next day we decided to do a tour through the Grampians; this is the western edge of some eastern species like Gang-gang Cockatoo, which we saw and heard there. On the way, the Lodge Manager, Brendan, took us to an amazing patch of flowering, roadside mallee full of honeyeaters and other nectar feeding birds. We had an enjoyable half hour here watching White-fronted Honeyeaters (usually found further inland and no doubt affected by drought there), dozens of New Holland Honeyeaters, Brown Honeyeaters, Musk Lorikeets and Purple-crowed Lorikeets (a mallee associated species).
Our week was more than half over, but still the Riverina to come. Tullakool Saltworks was next on the agenda on the way to Deniliquin; this is a series of ponds into which is pumped the salty water from the surrounding agricultural areas, a way of getting rid of excess salt. Unfortunately, this part of the country has significant salinity problems, exacerbated by the flooding of dryland paddocks to grow rice – if only governments were to buy up the water licenses to eliminate this environmentally unsustainble agricultural practice. Tullakool was a good spot for introductory wader watching, with Red-necked Stint, Sharp-tailed Sandpiper, Curlew Sandpiper, Double-banded Plover (they come in from New Zealand) Red-necked Avocet, Red-kneed Dotterell, and Black–fronted Dotterell. There were thousands of Australian Shelduck there, which took off in a huge cloud, and a good sighting of a Black Falcon, plus Zebra Finches and White-winged Fairy-wrens, and every bush fly in the district attended our picnic lunch.
We went birding around Deniliquin the next day with Phil Maher, after good views of Blue-faced Honeyeater and Little Friarbird around our motel in the morning, and an inch of rain overnight. We went to a number of spots in the area and although the affects of the drought are still not over, managed to find Superb Parrot, Striped Honeyeater, Bookbook Owls at a roost, Black-faced Woodswallow, Singing Honeyeater, Blue Bonnets and White-winged Fairy-wrens.
Then on to the open plains country where Phil took us to see the 3 Letter-winged Kites which had been in the area for several weeks; these birds are usually found on the Mitchell grass plains much further north where they specialise in Long-haired Rats, but they likely had moved south due to the dry conditions and were apparently getting enough food on the Hay plains from Fat-tailed Dunnarts (there were certainly plenty of these around when we went spotlighting later). These are very attractive birds with a buoyant flight and much cleaner plumage than the Black-shouldered Kite. They were on the top of my hit list!! We also saw Inland Dotterell and Banded Lapwing, the resident Tawny Frogmouths, and Western Grey and Red Kangaroos.
After the traditional chicken and potato salad dinner al fresco, together with some celebratory champagne (for the Letter-winged Kites), we headed out in three vehicles to look for Plains Wanderers. Phil had told us that there were less around than usual and some of the paddocks they are normally found in were sparse due to the drought conditions. We did enjoy good views of Singing Bushlarks and a pair of Stubble Quail, plus many Dunnarts, a Planigale (a tiny marsupial carnivore) and a Curl Snake out in the balmy weather. The hours moved on and still no PWs; those of the group standing in open vehicles were starting to get tired and were about to pack it in at 10.30pm. But with a little luck and persistence, by 10.45 Phil had spotted a male bird with four small chicks. Several people almost asleep in the vehicles by then thought they were dreaming when they heard John, one of the other drivers say, “Phil’s got one”. It took nearly 10 minutes for the other vehicles to get across the paddocks, but everyone finally saw the birds.
This was a most enjoyable week with a small group. Subject to the Committee’s agreement, it is intended to offer it again next year in late March/early April (probably 28 March to 4 April), with an extra day in the Grampians, and a dual focus as an introductory tour in different habitats for a small group (limit 12) together with some special, hard to find birds. Hopefully, the drought conditions will be long gone and conditions and birds will be even better. This is expected to be advertised with an itinerary in a few months, but Jenny Bounds will take expressions of interest on ph 6288 7802.
Jenny Bounds