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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Larry Sweetland" data-source="post: 1295914" data-attributes="member: 27337">To Port AugustaWell things have picked up a bit so less sarcasm should be forthcoming in this post <img src="data:image/gif;base64,R0lGODlhAQABAIAAAAAAAP///yH5BAEAAAAALAAAAAABAAEAAAIBRAA7" class="smilie smilie--sprite smilie--sprite2" alt=";)" title="Wink    ;)" loading="lazy" data-shortname=";)" />We spent the night on the gibber about 45km south of Coober Pedy at an incredibly bleak pull-in. This is the area where Mad Max was apparently filmed! The stars were amazing, and the wind dropped off by morning. As expected there were very few birds around, but this turned out to be a great spot for Cinnamon Quail-Thrush. I must have seen at least 13 different birds (including a party of 8) within 500m of the van, on both sides of the road. This cheered me up, as out of all the birds I missed around Alice, this was probably the one I most wanted to see.We then spent the night at the rest area by Lake Hart, an impressive huge salt lake. Blue Bonnet was a nice surprise here, and in good numbers too. Quite a few ground-feeding mixed flocks in this area, with Southern Whiteface predominating, but also including Yellow-rumped and Chestnut-rumped Thornbills, White-browed Babblers, Varied Sittelas and Crested Bellbirds. A few Mulga Parrots and Pink Cockatoos around too, and a few Emus en route.We headed south today to Port Augusta and had a couple of goodies on the way. A bird flying across the road a few km north of Pimba turned out to be one of two Rufous Calamanthus. Luckily they stuck around for decent views. Another stop just past the railway crossing at Hesso to check out a little brown job (never found it), ended up being very fortuitous as there was a small pool on the west side not visible from the road. This area attracted a fair few birds, including at least 2 Pied Honeyeaters ! As we left the area another flew across the road near the turn (westwards) to a station , and another bird,probably this awesome species, was seen in flight within the next couple of km. Seems there are a few along this stretch at the moment.1154 CINNAMON QUAIL-THRUSH1155 BLUE BONNET1156 RUFOUS CALAMANTHUS1157 PIED HONEYEATER</blockquote>

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