Ticks and Assorted Quail SW Qld P1

Thought I'd start my blog with this trip report for South West Queensland. It was a great trip in Octboer over 10 days, including 3 days at Bowra Station and 3 at Kilcowera Station.

Leaving on the Friday afternoon straight after the last day of school for Term 3, my family and I drove to Bathurst, and the next day, straight to Bourke. Not a lot was seen on the drive to Bourke, mainly Kestrels, Black-shouldered Kites and a few Brown Falcons. At one point I did see two Superb Parrots though, so that was cool. At Bourke, we stayed at Kidman’s Camp, which I recommend for any birders travelling up this way. It was here that I started to see some of the species not found in Sydney. Some of the birds around the camp included YELLOW-THROATED MINERS, Blue-faced Honeyeaters, Little Friarbirds, a solitary RED-BACKED KINGFISHER, Apostlebirds and a few water birds, since it was on the river (Yellow-billed Spoonbill and a juvenile Nankeen Night-heron being the highlights).

After packing up the camper-trailer the next morning, I got a good glimpse of a HORSFIELD’S BRONZE-CUCKOO, and straight after leaving the campsite, a BLACK FALCON on the roadside. Not a lot of action for the rest of the drive… until we got to Barrigun on the border. Within 3km, I saw no less than 6 SPOTTED HARRIERS! These are amazing birds, and I got some amazing views. The photos aren’t so good though, because it was about 12:00 and there was a lot of heat haze.

Arriving at Bowra in the early afternoon, I quickly added DIAMOND DOVE, CHESTNUT-CROWNED BABBLER and SPOTTED BOWERBIRD to my life list by walking around the camping area for 5 minutes or so. After setting up our campsite, my mum revealed that Graham (the current volunteer from Birds Queensland that was managing Bowra) had told her while I was off looking at bowerbirds that there was a GROUND-CUCKOO SHRIKE nest in the western paddock. I convinced her to drive me over there, and got some great views, and some not so good photos. On the way back, we stopped at Sandy Creek to look at some BLACK-FACED WOODSWALLOWS, when I noticed some CHESTNUT-RUMPED THORNBILLS in a small bush a few metres to my right. When they moved away from me, I tried a bit of pishing to bring them back. To my surprise, the bird that landed on the bush less than a metre in front of me was not a Thornbill but a BLACK HONEYEATER! It stayed more or less in the same spot for 30 seconds (unfortunately I didn’t have the camera), and then flew off to a distant tree. Before jumping back in the car I also ticked off a male WHITE-WINGED TRILLER.

The next morning, waking up at 6:00, proved to be one of my favourite parts of the trip. Arriving at Stony Lookout at 6:30 (a bit late in my opinion ;) ) to look for quail-thrush, my mum heard a crunching noise, which we followed to reveal a stunning pair or Red-winged Parrots (which I have seen before, but not this well). A male SPLENDID FAIRY-WREN was seen for a few minutes, then I headed off towards the calling CHESTNUT-BREASTED QUAIL-THRUSH, which was found without too much trouble. Also saw some INLAND THORNBILLS, but unfortunately no Spotted Nightjar, which turned out to be the biggest dip for the whole trip.

That afternoon, I convinced my mum to take me out again (this time the whole family came though, much to the disgust of my non-birdwatcher-sister) to look for Halls Babblers and White-browed Treecreepers. I missed both of these species, but got some great views of an adult PALLID CUCKOO and a juvenile which was not far away. At one point, when the trees started to get larger, I decided it would be a good spot to try for treecreepers. I got out of the car, and noticed next to my foot a quail (probably a Stubble) that ran into the thick grass on the left of the road and could not be located again. This was quail experience 1 of the trip. I ended up with a heap of quail sightings, with not one confident ID for the whole trip!!! As a consequence, my list is still devoid of any quail or button-quail.

Arriving back at the campsite, I was dropped off at the start of the bore drain track, which runs alongside the homestead for a km or so. After about 5 seconds of the rest of my family driving off, I flushed a BUDGERIGAR, which flew up to a branch at eye level. I found out that night that it was the first record of a budgie at Bowra for the whole month! Anyway, I continued along the bore drain after it had flown off and noticed a male WHITE-WINGED FAIRY WREN fly into a small shrub a few metres from me. While trying to locate it, a Brown Goshawk landed on the bush! It flew off after a minute, and the White-winged Fairy-wren came out of the bush unharmed and gave some great views.

One great attribute of Bowra that I had not known about before arriving there was the nightly bird count. This was an event at 6:15 (when all the birds had gone for the night) where Graham went through the bird list and everyone said what they had seen that day. This was fantastic for getting some good locations. I asked some other birders where they had seen Hall’s Babblers and Bourke’s Parrots, which ended up being my targets for the next day.

Early, I woke up and went for a walk with my dad to look for the group of 8 Bourke Parrots reported less than 500m from our camp the day before. We missed the Bourke’s, but saw some Blue Bonnets, two SINGING HONEYEATERS and the pair of Brolgas, who owned the nest in a little swamp just off the track.

As another family trip, around 2:00, we went out to find Hall’s Babblers and White-browed Treecreepers again (using the locations I’d picked up the previous night). I had another look for Spotted Nightjar (failing again) and then headed up to the northern end of the property. I dipped on the Treecreeper, but got great views of a small group of HALLS BABBLERS. We headed back to camp, and my mum and I headed out along the bore drain again for a last attempt at finding some Bourke’s Parrots. Just before giving up, I noticed two birders looking at something in a tree. While walking over, one of them came over and told me that there were two BOURKE’S PARROTS in a tree about 5 metres away. He was a photographer, and had spent the last 5 minutes taking photos. He was now done and off to find some Red-browed Pardalotes, and said the parrots were “all yours”!!!. I snuck up within about 3 metres and got some great views, and again some not-so-good photos. On the way back to our tent, I flushed two quails (experience 2), which were probably Brown.

The next morning before packing up the tent I showed my mum a picture of a Painted Honeyeater, and she agreed to take me to try and find one that was reported the previous day (she liked the look of it and became her target for the trip, but we didn’t find any). After that monumental fail (seeing nothing but Little Friarbirds), I went for a last walk along the bore drain where I got my best ever views of Striped Honeyeater and White-necked Heron. Now it was off to Kilcowera Station, which should be more interesting to everyone still reading because it is not as well known for birding as Bowra.