Azzy
Well-known member
(Just as a note, I've bolded a species the first time it's seen, and also italicised life birds. I have not bolded birds that I only heard.)
On Tuesday 3rd of May, I left of on a trip to Gluepot, South Australia. Gluepot is owned by Birds Australia, publicly funded and run entirely by volunteers. The quality of the habitat is fantastic and the facilities, campsites, walking trails and visitor centres are top notch. I've always wanted to go to Gluepot and I was going as a volunteer on a Uni camp which provided the perfect excuse to get there for a week, even if I wasn't going to get a lot of time to just go birding. I had a few target bird species (well, many target species) including striated grasswren, splendid fairywren, regent parrot and chestnut-crowned babbler. My target species which I have seen before included the apostlebird, chestnut quail-thursh, crested bellbird and major-mitchell's cockatoo. I basically busted out on all my target species, but I still got some lifers along the way. I did manage chestnut-quail thrush and crested bellbird again, but not as I would have liked.
We left at 8am and arrived in the early afternoon (had to make a few stops along the way). I was watching for wildlife as we got out from Renmark (and after we missed the turn off for Gluepot and all three vehicles, 4wd, van and minibus with trailers in tow had to pull a u-turn) I saw a couple of birds of prey, thought that they perhaps may have been whistling kites, and I'm reasonably confident, but we were driving fast, they were a fair distance away and don't want to put them down as 100%. As nice as it would be as I've never seen or at least ID'd them before.
To get to Gluepot you have to drive through privately owned stations, on those stations I started seeing hundreds of grey and brownish birds, darting here and there fairly low in the sky. I eventually worked out that they were woodswallows, though I couldn't ID them down to species till I saw more of them again in the park. There was also one emu which ran full-speed straight along the track in front of us for a good length of time before it crested a hill and I guess once we were out of sight it finally decided that it was safe to veer off track.
The first afternoon provided me with a few reminders in birding. I heard time and again the call of the grey butcherbird. I was stumped for a while, the call was very familiar to me from Danggali and I'd listened to 'Mallee bird calls' before the trip but couldn't pin it down. It wasn't until one picked a prominant perch at the campsite and I wandered over with my camera to snap it that I knew what it was. Once I saw it, it was easy to ID. Again I saw more woodswallows, this time I thought that perhaps they could be white-browed woodswallows, but again, couldn't be sure.. too high up. As the afternoon progressed I distantly heard white-winged choughs, and crested bellbirds (which appear to be very abundant) and as I lay in my tent that night, I fell asleep to the sounds of a southern boobook, what I thought could have been (but was unlikely) to be a barking owl and also the Australian owlet-nightjar. I've never seen the aus owlet-nightjar before, but I was hearing calls and I knew it wasn't the spotted nightjar (which I have been dying to hear for years now) and now that I've listened to them again since I got home, I know it was the aus owlet-nightjar. Not a sighting, but still, it's nice to hear.
Wed 4th: A 6:30am start had me dreading getting out of bed, but I was easily lured out by the sounds of calling crested bellbirds. Breakfast was followed by the organisation of the student's projects. And I believe we spent some time that day locating and setting up bird survey plots and scouting out suitable locations for other projects. Bird activity that day included thousands of woodswallows, 11 mulga parrots, a pair of red-capped robins and a pair of galahs at the homestead along with an australasian grebe at the homestead dam. I also heard Australian ravens, white-browed babblers, crested bellbirds, a brown treecreeper, and once again the southern boobook.
Thursday 5th. 6:30 am, it was definitely getting colder... we were having beautiful days, but a lack of cloud cover at night meant very cold temperatures. It was another day of helping out students with their projects, setting up plots, putting in stardroppers, hunting down particular plant species etc, but there was still plenty of bird activity to be had. I was quite excited in the morning because as I was getting up I heard a chestnut quail-thrush, along with the crested bellbird. Once again, the grey butcherbird was up on its perch at the campground calling. Throughout the day I managed to spy Australian ravens, 9 black-faced cuckoo-shrikes, red-capped robin, 2 mulga parrots eating casuarina seedpods (that seemed to be a favourite), thanks to my camera I saw and managed to ID both the inland thornbill, and 2 chestnut rumped thornbills which were a lifer for me, which was pretty exciting. I heard another brown treecreeper and striated pardalote and saw a spiney-cheeked honeyeater, 2 grey butcherbirds (adult and juvenile), and at our campsite as I was getting something out of my tent, 2 emus were making their way through the scrub, nibbling a bit of this and a bit of that. Towards the evening, there was a black and white bird around the campsite which I first wrote off as a butcherbird, but after further research, I realise that it was a pied honeyeater because of the display flight. So plus another sighting and life bird for me. That night, we saw our first mouse in our rubbish bin
and yet again, I fell asleep to the southern boobook.
Friday 6th. 6:30am, 3.5degrees C... yep, definitely getting colder! The early morning brought sightings of 2 spiney-cheeked honeyeaters, and gave me a lifer out of 2 striped honeyeaters which were distant and against the rising sun (of course), but we managed an ID. We were also hearing white-browed babblers, 2 browntreecreepers, and 2 grey butcherbirds. This was a great day on the trip though, the Gluepot rangers were burning off a firebreak along one of the triodia dune crests in the Birdseye block restricted area which left me with some free time to take one of the nearby walking trails. I was lucky in that the walk gave me two more lifers, and quite a few other species that I hadn't seen at gluepot yet. The walk starts in casuarina and slowly opens out, cuts through a mallee triodia dune to mallee on the other side, before cutting back through again and returning to the casuarina. Species seen were (at least) 2 white-browed treecreepers which once I'd seen, I started seeing everywhere, 2 gilbert's whistlers (a pair, or a male and immature bird, I'm not sure), a pair of red-capped robins, several mulga parrots, weebills, chestnut rumped thornbills, one red wattlebird, 3 spiney-cheeked honeyeaters, a juvenile grey butcherbird with a skink, brown treecreeper, more woodswallow species..., a fan-tailed cuckoo, 2 grey fantails, 1 grey shrike-thrush and I heard a striated pardalote and a fairy wren species. Probably variegated.
At the campsite the same day, I heard more crested bellbirds, saw 2 mulga parrots and heard yet another as yet elusive chestnut quail-thrush. Probably not even an hour later, we were out doing an opportunistic search for caterpillars and cocoons and I flushed a bird from between triodia. It didn't fly too far off and I was curious so I took a few cautious steps forward. After a minute I was rewarded with a split-second look at a chestnut quail-thrush. A species which when I went to danggali, I saw at least 2 or 3 times a day and I had finally seen again at gluepot. Unfortunately I couldn't spend any time stalking it down, but I got another glimpse of the same or perhaps the 2nd bird of a pair across the other side of the vehicle track when we returned to the van.
Saturday 7th. 6:30am, 2degrees C... told you it was getting colder. I slept with as many layers as possible on that night and actually slept pretty well, but it was hard to get out of that sleeping bag. The cold morning seemed to keep the birds a bit quieter, though I was lucky to again see 2 striped honeyeaters, 3 white-browed treecreepers and to hear yet another grey butcherbird and also saw a female or immature rufous whistler and some elusive white-browed babblers. After lunch, we were setting up a plot for BSC (biological soil crust) when I saw a bird perched on dead branch. I could hardly believe my eyes, I was actually seeing a crested bellbird instead of just hearing it, and then a moment later, both the male and female of a pair. About 5mins later, away behind where the bellbirds were, I noticed that woodswallows were perched on a distant dead tree. I grabbed my camera only look through the viewfinder to an empty perch. Devastated I sat my camera down and walked back to the plot we were setting up. Of course, almost instantly, the woodswallows were back again. I managed to snap some images and got lifers out of white-browed woodswallow and masked woodswallow. I also heard more brown treecreepers and red-capped robins. Walking back from the plot, I also found some malleefowl tracks on the road. We had a black-faced cuckoo-shrike pass over the campsite, along with a pair of australian ringnecks and I heard grey currawong calling in the distance. That night was warmer as we had some cloud cover and like other nights, I heard the aust owlet-nightjar again and the southern boobook.
Sunday 8th. 6:30am, a beautiful and balmy 6degrees C. Our last full day of the camp, and I did a lot of walking and bike riding. The van was getting low on petrol and we wanted to be sure we made it back to Waikerie, so we walked and rode a lot to our plots, carrying star droppers and other bits and pieces with one working bike and one that only had one pedal. It certainly made life interesting. It was a warmer day, so there seemed to be different sort of bird activity about, more red-capped robins, 4 mulga parrots eating casuarina again, 7 spiney-cheeked honeyeaters, more woodswallows and a 1st year brown falcon. Of course we also heard crested bellbirds and I'm pretty sure I saw a female close-up later in the day. I also saw yet more red-capped robins (I lost count), black-faced cuckoo-shrikes, 10 mulga parrots, a grey fantail, a wedge-tailed eagle and I'm pretty sure I heard a black-eared cuckoo, but didn't get the chance to track it down so I'm not sure. Also that day while walking (of course it was when I didn't have my camera with me) we came across processionary caterpillars. I have been wanting to see these things for years, ever since I first saw them on a documentary when I was little. And there they were, only 7 or 8 of them, in a long line, just making their way along the road verge. At the very least, it explained the track that one of the students and I had discovered at the campground the day before.
Monday 9th, 6:30am, someone had packed away our thermometer (too efficient), but it was colder than 6 again. I heard the usual things in the morning, and I really didn't see anything as we were packing up, but I did see 2 nankeen kestrels as we were driving out. Though not to be outdone, I actually got a lifer on the river, just before the ferry at Waikerie. I saw a white-necked heron as we drove past, very easy to ID and I was quite pleased with it. Also somewhere along the week I saw a willie wagtail and a common bronzewing, but didn't write them in my book, so who knows when that was... but I've made a mark next to them on the gluepot bird list as an indicator that I saw them.
So in total, I saw 33 species
Heard an additional 5 species
And manged 7 lifers
Plus the white-necked heron that I saw near waikerie on the way home
Having stayed for a week, seeing 33 species doesn't seem like much, but considering I spent most of my time in particular areas helping set-up monitoring projects, I did pretty well. I would have loved to have spent some time at one of the bird hides but didn't get the chance. There is certainly plenty to see and explore at gluepot, and I know I barely scratched the surface, but it was fantastic to get to go and it was also a great experience having to help with the students and try and answer their questions when they had them. In short, I miss it already.
I have three photos in the gallery from my trip, plus I've attached some more here. The official Gluepot website is here: http://www.riverland.net.au/gluepot/
1. Chestnut-rumped thornbill
2. Male red-capped robin
3. Female (or possibly immature) Gilbert's whistler
4. Male mulga parrot
5. Female crested bellbird (a usually very tricky species to get in the open, the male is very striking in appearance, but he was perched too far away)
On Tuesday 3rd of May, I left of on a trip to Gluepot, South Australia. Gluepot is owned by Birds Australia, publicly funded and run entirely by volunteers. The quality of the habitat is fantastic and the facilities, campsites, walking trails and visitor centres are top notch. I've always wanted to go to Gluepot and I was going as a volunteer on a Uni camp which provided the perfect excuse to get there for a week, even if I wasn't going to get a lot of time to just go birding. I had a few target bird species (well, many target species) including striated grasswren, splendid fairywren, regent parrot and chestnut-crowned babbler. My target species which I have seen before included the apostlebird, chestnut quail-thursh, crested bellbird and major-mitchell's cockatoo. I basically busted out on all my target species, but I still got some lifers along the way. I did manage chestnut-quail thrush and crested bellbird again, but not as I would have liked.
We left at 8am and arrived in the early afternoon (had to make a few stops along the way). I was watching for wildlife as we got out from Renmark (and after we missed the turn off for Gluepot and all three vehicles, 4wd, van and minibus with trailers in tow had to pull a u-turn) I saw a couple of birds of prey, thought that they perhaps may have been whistling kites, and I'm reasonably confident, but we were driving fast, they were a fair distance away and don't want to put them down as 100%. As nice as it would be as I've never seen or at least ID'd them before.
To get to Gluepot you have to drive through privately owned stations, on those stations I started seeing hundreds of grey and brownish birds, darting here and there fairly low in the sky. I eventually worked out that they were woodswallows, though I couldn't ID them down to species till I saw more of them again in the park. There was also one emu which ran full-speed straight along the track in front of us for a good length of time before it crested a hill and I guess once we were out of sight it finally decided that it was safe to veer off track.
The first afternoon provided me with a few reminders in birding. I heard time and again the call of the grey butcherbird. I was stumped for a while, the call was very familiar to me from Danggali and I'd listened to 'Mallee bird calls' before the trip but couldn't pin it down. It wasn't until one picked a prominant perch at the campsite and I wandered over with my camera to snap it that I knew what it was. Once I saw it, it was easy to ID. Again I saw more woodswallows, this time I thought that perhaps they could be white-browed woodswallows, but again, couldn't be sure.. too high up. As the afternoon progressed I distantly heard white-winged choughs, and crested bellbirds (which appear to be very abundant) and as I lay in my tent that night, I fell asleep to the sounds of a southern boobook, what I thought could have been (but was unlikely) to be a barking owl and also the Australian owlet-nightjar. I've never seen the aus owlet-nightjar before, but I was hearing calls and I knew it wasn't the spotted nightjar (which I have been dying to hear for years now) and now that I've listened to them again since I got home, I know it was the aus owlet-nightjar. Not a sighting, but still, it's nice to hear.
Wed 4th: A 6:30am start had me dreading getting out of bed, but I was easily lured out by the sounds of calling crested bellbirds. Breakfast was followed by the organisation of the student's projects. And I believe we spent some time that day locating and setting up bird survey plots and scouting out suitable locations for other projects. Bird activity that day included thousands of woodswallows, 11 mulga parrots, a pair of red-capped robins and a pair of galahs at the homestead along with an australasian grebe at the homestead dam. I also heard Australian ravens, white-browed babblers, crested bellbirds, a brown treecreeper, and once again the southern boobook.
Thursday 5th. 6:30 am, it was definitely getting colder... we were having beautiful days, but a lack of cloud cover at night meant very cold temperatures. It was another day of helping out students with their projects, setting up plots, putting in stardroppers, hunting down particular plant species etc, but there was still plenty of bird activity to be had. I was quite excited in the morning because as I was getting up I heard a chestnut quail-thrush, along with the crested bellbird. Once again, the grey butcherbird was up on its perch at the campground calling. Throughout the day I managed to spy Australian ravens, 9 black-faced cuckoo-shrikes, red-capped robin, 2 mulga parrots eating casuarina seedpods (that seemed to be a favourite), thanks to my camera I saw and managed to ID both the inland thornbill, and 2 chestnut rumped thornbills which were a lifer for me, which was pretty exciting. I heard another brown treecreeper and striated pardalote and saw a spiney-cheeked honeyeater, 2 grey butcherbirds (adult and juvenile), and at our campsite as I was getting something out of my tent, 2 emus were making their way through the scrub, nibbling a bit of this and a bit of that. Towards the evening, there was a black and white bird around the campsite which I first wrote off as a butcherbird, but after further research, I realise that it was a pied honeyeater because of the display flight. So plus another sighting and life bird for me. That night, we saw our first mouse in our rubbish bin
and yet again, I fell asleep to the southern boobook.Friday 6th. 6:30am, 3.5degrees C... yep, definitely getting colder! The early morning brought sightings of 2 spiney-cheeked honeyeaters, and gave me a lifer out of 2 striped honeyeaters which were distant and against the rising sun (of course), but we managed an ID. We were also hearing white-browed babblers, 2 browntreecreepers, and 2 grey butcherbirds. This was a great day on the trip though, the Gluepot rangers were burning off a firebreak along one of the triodia dune crests in the Birdseye block restricted area which left me with some free time to take one of the nearby walking trails. I was lucky in that the walk gave me two more lifers, and quite a few other species that I hadn't seen at gluepot yet. The walk starts in casuarina and slowly opens out, cuts through a mallee triodia dune to mallee on the other side, before cutting back through again and returning to the casuarina. Species seen were (at least) 2 white-browed treecreepers which once I'd seen, I started seeing everywhere, 2 gilbert's whistlers (a pair, or a male and immature bird, I'm not sure), a pair of red-capped robins, several mulga parrots, weebills, chestnut rumped thornbills, one red wattlebird, 3 spiney-cheeked honeyeaters, a juvenile grey butcherbird with a skink, brown treecreeper, more woodswallow species..., a fan-tailed cuckoo, 2 grey fantails, 1 grey shrike-thrush and I heard a striated pardalote and a fairy wren species. Probably variegated.
At the campsite the same day, I heard more crested bellbirds, saw 2 mulga parrots and heard yet another as yet elusive chestnut quail-thrush. Probably not even an hour later, we were out doing an opportunistic search for caterpillars and cocoons and I flushed a bird from between triodia. It didn't fly too far off and I was curious so I took a few cautious steps forward. After a minute I was rewarded with a split-second look at a chestnut quail-thrush. A species which when I went to danggali, I saw at least 2 or 3 times a day and I had finally seen again at gluepot. Unfortunately I couldn't spend any time stalking it down, but I got another glimpse of the same or perhaps the 2nd bird of a pair across the other side of the vehicle track when we returned to the van.
Saturday 7th. 6:30am, 2degrees C... told you it was getting colder. I slept with as many layers as possible on that night and actually slept pretty well, but it was hard to get out of that sleeping bag. The cold morning seemed to keep the birds a bit quieter, though I was lucky to again see 2 striped honeyeaters, 3 white-browed treecreepers and to hear yet another grey butcherbird and also saw a female or immature rufous whistler and some elusive white-browed babblers. After lunch, we were setting up a plot for BSC (biological soil crust) when I saw a bird perched on dead branch. I could hardly believe my eyes, I was actually seeing a crested bellbird instead of just hearing it, and then a moment later, both the male and female of a pair. About 5mins later, away behind where the bellbirds were, I noticed that woodswallows were perched on a distant dead tree. I grabbed my camera only look through the viewfinder to an empty perch. Devastated I sat my camera down and walked back to the plot we were setting up. Of course, almost instantly, the woodswallows were back again. I managed to snap some images and got lifers out of white-browed woodswallow and masked woodswallow. I also heard more brown treecreepers and red-capped robins. Walking back from the plot, I also found some malleefowl tracks on the road. We had a black-faced cuckoo-shrike pass over the campsite, along with a pair of australian ringnecks and I heard grey currawong calling in the distance. That night was warmer as we had some cloud cover and like other nights, I heard the aust owlet-nightjar again and the southern boobook.
Sunday 8th. 6:30am, a beautiful and balmy 6degrees C. Our last full day of the camp, and I did a lot of walking and bike riding. The van was getting low on petrol and we wanted to be sure we made it back to Waikerie, so we walked and rode a lot to our plots, carrying star droppers and other bits and pieces with one working bike and one that only had one pedal. It certainly made life interesting. It was a warmer day, so there seemed to be different sort of bird activity about, more red-capped robins, 4 mulga parrots eating casuarina again, 7 spiney-cheeked honeyeaters, more woodswallows and a 1st year brown falcon. Of course we also heard crested bellbirds and I'm pretty sure I saw a female close-up later in the day. I also saw yet more red-capped robins (I lost count), black-faced cuckoo-shrikes, 10 mulga parrots, a grey fantail, a wedge-tailed eagle and I'm pretty sure I heard a black-eared cuckoo, but didn't get the chance to track it down so I'm not sure. Also that day while walking (of course it was when I didn't have my camera with me) we came across processionary caterpillars. I have been wanting to see these things for years, ever since I first saw them on a documentary when I was little. And there they were, only 7 or 8 of them, in a long line, just making their way along the road verge. At the very least, it explained the track that one of the students and I had discovered at the campground the day before.
Monday 9th, 6:30am, someone had packed away our thermometer (too efficient), but it was colder than 6 again. I heard the usual things in the morning, and I really didn't see anything as we were packing up, but I did see 2 nankeen kestrels as we were driving out. Though not to be outdone, I actually got a lifer on the river, just before the ferry at Waikerie. I saw a white-necked heron as we drove past, very easy to ID and I was quite pleased with it. Also somewhere along the week I saw a willie wagtail and a common bronzewing, but didn't write them in my book, so who knows when that was... but I've made a mark next to them on the gluepot bird list as an indicator that I saw them.
So in total, I saw 33 species
Heard an additional 5 species
And manged 7 lifers
Plus the white-necked heron that I saw near waikerie on the way home
Having stayed for a week, seeing 33 species doesn't seem like much, but considering I spent most of my time in particular areas helping set-up monitoring projects, I did pretty well. I would have loved to have spent some time at one of the bird hides but didn't get the chance. There is certainly plenty to see and explore at gluepot, and I know I barely scratched the surface, but it was fantastic to get to go and it was also a great experience having to help with the students and try and answer their questions when they had them. In short, I miss it already.
I have three photos in the gallery from my trip, plus I've attached some more here. The official Gluepot website is here: http://www.riverland.net.au/gluepot/
1. Chestnut-rumped thornbill
2. Male red-capped robin
3. Female (or possibly immature) Gilbert's whistler
4. Male mulga parrot
5. Female crested bellbird (a usually very tricky species to get in the open, the male is very striking in appearance, but he was perched too far away)
