16/7/22 - Marree to Mungerannie
We cruised up the Birdsville Track for most of the morning, making various roadside stops with nothing of any real significance to report. The main targets for the day were Eyrean Grasswren, Banded Whiteface and Grey Falcon. We got in to Mungerannie around lunchtime and checked in… I had a quick poke around but couldn’t find my licence. I did find the portrait of a certain infamous birder on the wall however. After dropping my bags I had a sniff round the dunes behind the hotel and quickly nailed Eyrean Grasswren; the ultimate GW chook… The dunes looked interesting for nocturnals too. The real star of the show however was the pallescens Blue Bonnet. Pretty sure this wasn’t a ticklet for me but it was definitely the first time I’d ever paid the critter any attention. Crippler.
The punters assembled at the designated time and we hopped in the cars and headed out. At a nice looking dune we quickly had everyone on to Eyrean GW which was nice… if expected. Continuing onwards we stopped at a little washed-out creekline for a look around and ticked Banded Whiteface without too much drama. There were to be no glum faces today! We had some nice gibber views on the way to the tower where we parked up and waited for the GRFA to come in to roost. We eventually had two adults and two young birds on the tower. I’d been telling my pax all day not to worry, that GRFA was a chook etc so it was nice that the birds behaved
After a nice dinner and some birthday cake for Peter Dash and I headed out for a wander. It was surprisingly quiet on the dunes, though it was bloody freezing. It had been an easy day without too much driving so the batteries were recharging. For me the lifers had now dried up as well so holiday mode had been selected… The main thing now was to get Dan onto GRGR…
17/7/22 - Mungerannie area
Another cruisy day was forecast, which was nice. We headed out towards the Cowarie Station gate after brekky. We had some nice roadside birding on the way, picking up Chestnut-crowned Babbler and a few more Eyreans. Unfortuantely, all pax dipped the singing RBPA… it was becoming a bit of a bogey! A little further up the road the track was flooded. Flock Bronzewings were coming in to drink from the puddle at close range. I think they are one of the most beautiful Australian birds so it was nice to have a good look at the beasts again. Some saltbush habitat on the far side of the puddle looked perfect for TBGW and we had great success with the species again. A subspecies tick! Two Grasswren species in about 20 minutes… epic.
Some Gibberbirds were rumbled foraging out amongst the stones and we watched them for a while before rolling in to Cowarie Station for morning tea at the waterhole. Here I was excited to see a young Black Kite catch a big Spangled Perch! The Kite was seemingly as surprised as we were – he sat around clutching the fish for the whole time we were there without trying to eat it. We slowly birded our way through the station, heading out towards the Warburton River. It soon became apparent that the river was flooding so we disembarked and had a wander around. The pace had dropped off a lot, but it was good to have a couple of cruisy days after the frenetic start to the trip. After an hour or so we headed back to the pub for a spot of lunch and a little bit of rancho time. I went for a run up the track in my Chaco’s and King Gee’s.
We gathered the troops around 1500 and went up the track a bit to scope out the Mitta Murra bore. Not much to report here apart from a calf stuck in some horrible mud. When we got back to the pub I rang up Cowarie Station and they said they’d go out and get it… I never found out what happened to the beast sadly. I hope xe survived
An early dinner was gobbled and Dan and I were back out on the dunes thermalling. Again, we had no luck furwise. We were heading back to the car when I saw an orange light out near the horizon. It looked like a single headlight of a car but it wasn’t moving. I got the bins on it and basically had the same impression – a slightly fuzzy orange orb (!). I called out to Dan asking him if he could see it but he was too far down the dune. I yelled out mate get up here I’ve got a MIN MIN LIGHT! When I looked back to the east it had gone! I thought it may have been a stopped caravan but when it disappeared, I was shaken up… we checked around that area on the way back to the hotel but there were no tracks or anything. Wow! I’m ticking it.
18/7/22 - Mungerannie Hotel to birdsville
Stepping out of the door pre-dawn it was pretty frosty! There were some rotary club bash pax sleeping in swags all over the veranda and in the carpark. We gave them a swift kick in the behind and they dispersed, still half-pissed, into the night. We were off to Goyder Lagoon to look for the hardest Grasswren… the Grey ghost of the lignum. A lone Dingo broke the drive up a bit and then I noticed a chain of lights in the sky to the east… I pulled over as they were very obviously unnatural – looked basically like a chain of stars slowly drifting down towards the horizon. It reminded me of salps. We figured out later that it was the recent Starlink satellites still collocated, but at the time it was a serious head-scratching possible UFO moment.
When we got up there, Goyder was flooded and it was deeper than 2017. We had a brief look down the central channel and then marched off to the west. One of the pax thought he saw something in a dry creekbed and I was chasing it up when the call came over the radio “got them”. Fuck! I was about 300m behind the group at that stage so I legged it over there and thankfully had some brief flight views. Not everyone had managed to see the beasts and we spent about halfa trying to get onto them again, racking up some other sundries but never reconnecting with the GRGR. Eventually the decision was made to head up to the 90km site. By the time we had gotten up there it was hot and windy. Yuk!
The dam and the little lake held some water so we wandered out onto the claypan. I heard some contact calls to the right of the group, so moved to get a clear sight line and wooshka! I had a single bird make a long run across the pan and vanish into a cane grass clump. I called Dan over and Peter took the pax to the other side of the little grassy area but that was all she wrote. They never showed again I was having serious flashbacks to the three days I spent at this site in 2017. There were a few glum faces around but there was really no point in persisting through the middle of the day. We had a nice field lunch then headed up the track into “sunny” Queensland, where it was cloudy and cold.
We had some cold bevs in the Birdsville Hotel before gathering for a look round the waterhole. Didn’t see much really, but got a few tripticks. After a (strange) dinner Dan and I cruised north heading to the Long-haired Rat site. Three big cats were a yukky start but soon after a Fawn Hopping-mouse legged it across the road. Dan was frothing! We took some photos and then continued up to the rat site. There were still a few tunnels about but nowhere near as many as last time I’d been there in 2020… Dan eventually got a rat in the thermal which scarpered down a burrow. He was umming and aahing about it when it gave the ultrasonic whistle! No doubt about the ID after that. Two furticks for Dash – a nice reward for the time we’d been putting in so far. A leisurely drive back to the hotel and we were watching the blanket show soon after. Next stop – Boulia!
