Loja Wildlife, Granada Province, Spain.: North West of South Australia.

Sunday, 26 June 2022

North West of South Australia.

A shorter drive searching for a very special little bird.

Australia, Day Eleven.

From my Swag in the Morning.

We broke camp and after packing all our kit, making sure there was no trace of us spending the night, we went for a walk into a nearby gulley where we were searching for the Dusky Grasswren (Amytornis purnelli) which we had seen yesterday but hoped for better views of.

Dusky Grasswren (Amytornis purnelli).

After a bit of a climb and some waiting we tracked a bird down and it showed much better but still remained quite distant and disappeared back into the rocks and Spinifex grass as quickly as it arrived.

Grey-headed Honeyeater (Ptilotula keartlandi).

Possibly Callitris gracilis a native Pine Tree of the area.

In the same gorge we saw Spiny-cheeked (Acanthagenys rufogularis) and Grey-headed Honeyeaters (Ptilotula keartlandi), Willie-wagtail (Rhipidura leucophrys), Torresian Crow (Corvus orru), Pied Butcherbird (Cracticus nigrogularis), Grey Shrikethrush (Colluricincla harmonica), Crested Bellbird (Oreoica gutturalis), Nankeen Kestrel (Falco cenchroides), Black-faced Cuckooshrike (Coracina novaehollandiae) and as we returned to the vechile we saw plenty of Dingo (Canis dingo) tracks around the camp and heard some again on a nearby low ridge.

Grey Shrikethrush (Colluricincla harmonica).

Spider Species.

Dingo (Canis dingo) Track.

We got back on to the main track heading north from our wonderful over night stop and went a very short distance, compaired to most of the days recently, to an area where we were looking for the recently split Sandhill Grasswren (Amytornis striatus oweni), this is a species that very few birders have seen so I was feeling very privillaged to be looking for it in some stunning landscapes.

Western Bowerbird (Chlamydera guttata).

Crested Bellbird (Oreoica gutturalis).

We spent most of the day along a single quite short track looking for the bird but as hard as Deb and Ian tried to find me one we ultimatily failed, mostly down to very windy conditions at the site we think, we still ended up with some good species but Deb was very disappointed.

Black-faced Woodswallow (Artamus cinereus).

Species we did see included Copperback Quail-thrush (Cinclosoma clarum), Brown Falcon (Falco berigora), Singing Honeyeater (Gavicalis virescens), Mistletoebird (Dicaeum hirundinaceum), Black-faced Woodswallow (Artamus cinereus), at least 4 Mulga Parrots (Psephotus varius), a heard only Horsfield's Bronze-Cuckoo (Chrysococcyx basalis), Yellow-throated Miner (Manorina flavigula), Western Bowerbird (Chlamydera guttata), Inland Thornbill (Acanthiza apicalis) and Grey-fronted Honeyeater (Ptilotula plumula).

Singing Honeyeater (Gavicalis virescens).

Grey-fronted Honeyeater (Ptilotula plumula).

We eventually gave up on the Grasswren and went to looking for a spot to spend the night, we took to another track which took us through some interesting habitat where we added Australasian Pipit (Anthus novaeseelandiae), Budgie (Melopsittacus undulatus), Zebra Finch (Taeniopygia guttata) and near the spot we decided to camp in we found several Mulga Ant (Polyrhachis macropa) nests.