Jennifer Spry's Birding Blog

Monday, May 5, 2014

Bowra unfeathered: Reptiles, Frogs, Butterflies etc

Early morning view from the tent

Bowra is renown for its birds but there are a lot of other reasons to go. I have very little knowledge of the beautiful frogs, reptiles and butterflies but there is such beauty that I just could not ignore them. I desperately need to go back with a collection of field guides and sort out all these special creatures. Bowra is so much more than birds.

The front drive - it is approx 6 km (3 1/2 miles) from the gate to the homestead.

Camped by a Billabong under the shade of a Coolibah Tree ... well, actually, lunch beside a dam in the Western Paddock

View over Bowra from the top of the escarpment

Typical birder cars; Hall's Babblers flew across the track so all out, doors left open and a dash into the bush. Afterwards, check the field guide

Dam at the farthest west of the Western Paddock

Trees in the Western Paddock

Gould's Monitor

Goulden's Monitor Portrait

Earless Dragon, fully grown adult

Bearded Dragon

Dragonfly

Blue Skimmer Dragonfly

Dragonfly

Common Bluetail Damselfly

Water spider with large black eyes on top of head ...

and when the eyes caught the sun they shone like gold

Small fish in bore drain ....

and possible an adult of the same species

Grasshpper

Grasshopper

Crucifix Toad

The toilets attracted large Green Tree Frogs and large brown frogs. Sadly I missed a photo of the Green Tree Frog. I will have to go back (smile)

Toadlet beside the bore drain

This toadlet arrived each night and sat under the lantern, feeding on anything that fell to the ground

Large moth attracted by the lantern

Wanderer Butterfly

Caper White Butterfly

A pair of Wallaroo

Male Red Kangaroo

All text & images © Jenny Spry

Bowra Easter trip - on The Long Paddock

Male Superb Parrot

I was flat out painting my bedroom, cooking and buying supplies before we left to go to Bowra so packing on Thursday was a real rush. I went to get the gas bottles for the stove filled but one was out of date so I did a quick trip to Ray's and bought a new one. Back home I opened cupboards and draws and stuffed the car with pots, food, clothes and tent. We had planned to leave at 0530 on Good Friday for the drive to Hillston for our overnight stop. We actually got away at 5:40 which was good as we were ahead of most of the Easter traffic and had a clear run all the way to Hay.

The road north

Apart from the stark beauty of the Hay Plains, the first highlight on the long haul from Melbourne to Bowra via the Cobb Highway arrives, for me, 10 km north of the Pretty Pine Pub. Just past the brick electricity sub-station marked "Nurimal" we pulled in beside the irrigation channel and the first birds we saw were White-winged Fairy-wrens. Walking south we got into the stand of Buloke trees and could hear Superb Parrots calling all around us. With care they were quite tolerant of our company and allowed some excellent views. A small family of Grey-crowned Babblers also lives in the trees and this selection of very desirable birds makes it an excellent spot for a tea break.

Superb Parrot showing long tail

According to the reports about 80% of western New South Wales is in drought and feed in the paddocks has all been eaten so all along the Deniliquin to Hay Rd we passed mobs of cattle on the Long Paddock where there is still some grass left. The "Long Paddock" or Travelling Stock Routes system of stock routes was set up in the 1850s by maintaining an unfenced strip of land about 200 metres wide along all the major outback roads. There is good information on system at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stock_route As we drove north there were four mobs, one being controlled by 2 women on quad bikes and their dogs. Other mobs were more traditional with the drovers on horseback.

Wedge-tailed Eagle standing on road-kill Grey Kangaroo. Wedgies are a seriously large bird

At Booligal, north of Hay we turned onto the dirt road to Hillston Rd and drove at fast birding speed, about 60 kph. At Hillston we had booked into the Hillston Motor Inn (02 6967 1001) and this turned out to be a magic decision and I recommend it for anyone who wants to stay in Hillston. It was $110 for the night for the 2 of us but the room was large and the bathroom was city quality with a huge, modern shower with designer fittings, which was very welcome on the return trip. What really surprised us though was that as we were checking in we were asked if we wanted red or white wine? After a moment of shocked disbelief we asked for one of each. The room comes with a complimentary small bottle of wine for each guest and a plate of home made Rocky Road chocolate!! YUM.

Wedge-tailed Eagle

As I sat in the motel sipping a cold glass of wine Joy walked to the lake in Hillston which is an excellent spot for water birds and on this occasion she found a Cotton Pygmy Goose, well outside its normal range.

Cotton Pygmy-goose. A very small goose as can be seen by the Eurasian Coot in the background

From Hillston to Cunnamulla is a serious 8 hour drive and we arrived at about 3:30. We bought petrol and 20 km later we pulled into the drive for the last 5 km to the homestead and campground. And it wasn't until we pulled into drive for the last 5 km to the homestead and camping area that I realised, in my rush to pack and get on the road, I had forgotten to pack the camp stove; gas bottles yes, burners, no. For just a moment I actually cried. But, with help from our friend Ian and the kind people at Bowra, we made it through our stay and the world did not end.

Noisy Miner

Trees at the Superb Parrot site

Map showing part of the Travelling Stock Route system

The Hay Plains

There are some trees but they are few and far between. These ones even have a name - 16 Mile Gums

Southern Cross windmill at 16 Mile Gums. Southern Cross is the iconic outback windmill brand

Woman and her dogs driving cattle

Doing it the traditional way, on horseback

Drover's accommodation

The cattle have right of way

A warning as one leaves Bourke heading for Cunnamulla

The Long Paddock sign

All photos & text © Jenny Spry

Saturday, April 12, 2014

Portland Pelagic 6th April

The Friday night before a Sunday pelagic trip is always a tense time. Because it is a 4 to 5 hour drive to Portland where the boat is it is Friday night when the final decision is made about the probable weather conditions to be expected and the final decision on whether the trip will happen or not.

Location map thanks to Google Earth

Wind can make or break a pelagic. If there is no wind the birds tend to sit on the water and are hard to find. It also means that the smell from the fish parts and fish oil that are used as berly will not travel. Sea birds have a remarkable sense of smell and can pick up the scent from berly for many kilometres and can be seen flying in from down-wind to find it.

Southern Pride returning from a fishing trip. She is a wide boat with a large rear deck and has room for 12 passengers

If there is too much wind then it can be anything from uncomfortable to being too rough to go out. In the middle there is that band of wind strength, between about 10 and 20 knots, that gives some waves and swell that the birds enjoy and also spreads the smell of berly. Of course this much wind can induce sea-sickness in some birders but it is essential for a good trip. Those who have prepared by performing whichever ritual they believe will ward off this dreaded ailment look forward to a good breeze on the day of a pelagic trip. It is not a short trip either as it is approx 45 km out to edge of the Continental Shelf where the pelagic birds are found. We leave the dock in the half-light at 0700 and get back in the late afternoon, about 1600.

Raft of Flesh-footed Shearwater

The waves may be small but the swells can be huge. Here a 9 metre (30 feet) fishing boat is all but hidden from our view by 3 metre swells rolling in from the Southern Ocean.

Last Sunday the weather was perfect with a good breeze, no rain, blue skies and a good variety of species. For most on board the wind strength was almost perfect, for a couple though it tipped over into the "too much" zone and sea-sickness took over. This was a shame as the crew on the Southern Pride know how to look after us and when the large platters of sandwiches and salad came out bird watchers turned and dove on them like a flock of starving gannets. A little later a similar thing happened to the large platter of sweet biscuits but rather than gannets the attack was more like a flock of storm-petrels. Fingers hovered in indecision over the plate and searched for the preferred delicacy; a jam tart? a chocolate cookie? a small coconut concoction? With the choice made the fingers touched down, picked up and flew off. Sigh, birding can be so hard.

The last of the salad and biscuits

On the trip out to the edge of the shelf we passed large rafts of prions and it looked like we were in for a good day, my pelagicdipphobia would be receiving excellent treatment. Out at the shelf we found large numbers of Flesh-footed Shearwaters, the occasional White-faced and Wilson's Storm-petrels, Short-tailed Shearwaters, Northern Giant Petrel and Fairy Prions. My list for the day came to 23 species.

White-faced Shearwater

The highlights were seeing 7 species of Albatross and a Brown Skua that put on a spectacular display of terrorising the Flesh-footed Shearwaters as it attempted to steal their food. An unexpected bonus on the return trip was a distant fly-by from a Cook's Petrel, an uncommon bird for the waters off Portland.