AUSTRALIA ROAD TRIP 2024 -Part 4: New South Wales

 

Spotted-tailed Quoll

Crossing the South Australia border into Victoria and then NSW, we had 3 nights at the Euston Club RV Camp on the banks of the Murray River, catching up with our friend Kathy Haydon for the next week. Regent Parrot, a beautiful and threatened species, is common here and we had numerous encounters, with birds often about the camping area.

Regent Parrot

Musk Lorikeet was numerous across the river in Robinvale, Victoria. Yellow Rosella was common everywhere along the rivers.

Yellow Rosella

Musk Lorikeet

Next stop was Mamanga Camp in Yanga National Park outside Balranald. This time on the banks of the Murrumbidgee River. Western Gerygone, Eastern Bluebonnet, Diamond Firetail and Stubble Quail were among the birds here.

Eastern Bluebonnet

Western Gerygone

Pallid Cuckoo and White-winged Fairywren were in the mix.

Murray River at Euston

Pallid Cuckoo

White-winged Fairywren

We moved on to Darlington Point, again camped by the river, where Long-billed Corella was common. A couple of Pink Cockatoos were spotted on the way from Balranald roadside. 

Long-billed Corella

Superb Parrot was seen and heard around our camp with 3 birds sitting nicely in Murrumbidgee Valley Regional Park.

Superb Parrot

We overnighted in Cowra before heading north for a 3-night stay in the beautiful but poorly named Dunns Swamp Camp Ground in Wollemi National Park.

Dunns Swamp

Stunning scenery aside, the highlight was being serenaded at night by a pair of Powerful Owls.

Powerful Owl

This is a good spot for Rockwarbler and I saw them closely a few times.

Rockwarbler

Other birds included Striated Thornbill and Eastern Shrike-tit. Chestnut-rumped Heathwren showed briefly but refused to be photographed. Gang Gang Cockatoo was heard a couple of times and seen briefly. A pair of Musk Duck frequented the dam.

Eastern Shrike-tit

Musk Duck

Striated Thornbill

Mammals were scarce – Common Brushtail about the camp and Red-necked Wallaby.

Common Brushtail

Red-necked Wallaby

Our final camp was further north – Mulligans Camp in Gibralter Range National Park. Red-browedTreecreeper showed nicely during our first hike, to The Needles.

Red-browed Treecreeper

Gibralter Range

Scarlet Robin and Rose Robin - the latter singing so evidently breeding and not on migration - were about the campground.

Rose Robin

Scarlet Robin

In a heath patch on the 9km Tree Fern Loop track, a pair of Southern Emu-wren provided entertainment.

Southern Emu-wren (female, male below)

The stars of the place though were the mammals. Spotted-tailed Quoll was known to haunt the campground at night, visiting camp sites in search of food. Other vistitors were seeing them during our stay so on the final night, having failed to locate one, I put out lures. A bowl of lemon-flavoured tuna and a bowl of spicy Indian-flavoured tuna. The latter was ignored but the former did the trick. A fine male Spotted-tailed Quoll turned up. Later in the evening a second quoll showed, evidently a different animal, smaller and more lightly coloured so probably a female.

Spotted-tailed Quoll

Quoll scat

The other big highlight was Parma Wallaby. I saw 15-20 small macropods over three nights and believe all were this species and none were pademelons. There has been some debate about the identity of the animals here. The two pademelon species occur in rainforest; Red-necked happily frequents dry vine scrub but it is still rainforest. This national park is in the granite highlands of northern NSW and southern Queensland - a region not favoured by pademelons. The habitat at Mulligans is open forest with a shrubby understorey; the nearest rainforest is 1.5km away. It is not pademelon habitat.

The species is not difficult to identify. It lacks the clearly defined rufous patches that are key features of Red-necked and Red-legged Pademelons. I photographed 3 different Parma Wallabies and all were uniformly coloured although they varied somewhat from rufous-grey to grey with just a hint of rufous. They showed facial patterns, unlike pademelons – especially a white line on the face. The small white hip stripe is difficult to see but is evident in one image. The clear white – not greyish – throat and breast was to me the most obvious feature pointing to Parma Wallaby. Some of the animals I saw had white tips to the tail. A darkish upper dorsal strip was evident.

Parma Wallaby

Other mammals seen about the camp included Southern Long-nosed Bandicoot, Greater Glider and Eastern Ringtail. 

Eastern Ringtail

Southern Long-nosed Bandicoot

We moved on to Broadwater on the NSW North Coast for the last night of our road trip.

Farewell dinner with Kathy and Glenn at Cowra

AUSTRALIA ROAD TRIP 2024 – Part 3: Southern Northern Territory & South Australia

 

Western Grasswren

Heading further south through the Northern Territory, we left behind the savannah woodlands of the Top End for more arid environs, camping at the Tennant Creek Caravan Park overnight. In the afternoon I checked out the nearby Mary Ann Drive and Dam - a hotspot for Dusky Grasswren. I had heard they can be difficult here but within an hour I heard several birds and saw 3, including one grasswren that was quite co-operative.

Dusky Grasswren

Little Crow was common but not much was seen further south other than some Black Honeyeaters before we hit Alice Springs for a 2-night stay in the Alice Springs Tourist Park.

Little Crow

This town was my home for 8 months in the late-1970s. During that time I discovered Grey Honeyeater at Kunoth Bore, north of Alice Springs. That has since been a key go-to site for this rare and strange species.

MacDonald Range near Alice Springs

Dusky Grasswren habitat near Tennant Creek

I was keen to connect with the bird again. They are now known from sites much closer to town. I first visited the Alice Springs Tourist Park and eventually spotted a single Grey Honeyeater among the thornbills. The next day saw me at the nearby John Flynn Memorial Park. Here I found a pair of the honeyeaters that were shy but reasonably co-operative. Their behaviour indicated they were almost certainly nesting.

Grey Honeyeater

We headed south of Alice Springs to camp at Stuart’s Well Roadhouse. I visited the nearby Cannonball Run Monument and found another photo target – Banded Whiteface. A pair of the birds kept their distance but showed well enough.

Banded Whiteface

The next overnight camp was at Desert Oaks. Red-capped Robin and Splendid Fairywren were among the few birds seen.

Desert Oaks

Red-capped Robin

Splendid Fairywren

The following night was at Kulgara behind the pub, then it was on to Tody’s Bush Camp, north of Marla. Another Banded Whiteface was spotted. Chiming Wedgebill was another photo target and they obliged here. The species proved to be common throughout southern NT and northern SA, its call resounding seemingly at every stop.

Chiming Wedgebill

We had a couple of nights at Coober Pedy, a shabby but interesting spot with its labyrinth of underground homes and attractions of various kinds. Around the William Hutchinson Monument south of town I had Pied Honeyeater and White-fronted Honeyeater, but here and elsewhere I failed to find another target: Thick-billed Grasswren. We then camped at the Bon Bon Rest Area. I’d seen and photographed Chestnut-breastedWhiteface before but hoped to reconnect it with it here or elsewhere, but none were seen. We had another overnighter at Woomera. A few Red Kangaroos were about but were nowhere near as common as expected.

Red Kangaroo

 

Coober Pedy's underground

Plains south of Coober Pedy

Habitat near Marla

Then it was on to the town or Iron Knob. I hoped to find another target grasswren here – Western – but that had to wait. I did have fine views of Slender-billed Thornbill, Redthroat and Rufous Fieldwren.

Redthroat

Rufous Fieldwren

Slender-billed Thornbill

We moved on to Streaky Bay - a favoured destination from our trip around Australia in 2014 - for a few days. Then it was off to the bottom of Eyre Peninsula for 2 nights at Taylor’s Landing Camp in Lincoln National Park. I’d hoped to photograph White-bellied Whipbird here. Several birds around the camp were vocal and I saw them on 4 occasions – including one located with my thermal imager – but no photograph of this notoriously shy species.

Taylor's Landing

Streaky Bay

More obliging were the many Spotted Scrubwrens around the camp, Southern Scrub-Robin and Western Yellow Robin.

Southern Scrub-Robin

Spotted Scrubwren

Western Yellow Robin

We headed north to Whyalla for a couple of nights and I checked out the extensive bluebush flats on the western fringe of the city, where Western Grasswren had been reported. I soon had a pair of the birds that appeared to be seriously curious about this human interloper, approaching closely. This was my 13th and last photo tick for the trip, while I missed 4 targets. I photographed 4 of 5 grasswren targets.

Western Grasswren

We had a night in the interesting town of Burra and then camped overnight on the Murray River near Renmark, our final evening in South Australia.

Wildflowers were abundant throughout the arid centre