Thargomindah to Cooper Creek

Drove from Lake Bindegolly, refuelling and stocking up at Thargomindah, towards the Cooper Creek crossing west of Jackson Oil Field. The drive took us over the Grey Range and through huge gibber plains - all strikingly green with forbs due to the rains.

Along the drive we stopped when Martin spotted a Quail-thrush running across the road. We jumped out to investigate and were rewarded with memorable views of a female Chestnut-breasted Quail-thrush and then her (male) partner: both had hunkered down under bushes, with the male calling incessantly to his other half from across the highway. We watched until they were safely reunited!

We checked out every accessible repeater tower en route for Grey Falcons - but no evidence was found.

We camped on the bank of the Cooper Creek at the westernmost crossing, having found an accessible spot sheltered from the biting westerly wind and out of view of gas and oil field traffic.

Though in a different river system, the area felt comfortingly familiar to the Georgina. The riverbed, banks and surrounding floodplain and levees were studded with apparently endless chunks of good quality chert and some silcrete; unsurprisingly, given this and the major status of the drainage system, surface artefacts were visible everywhere we walked, consistent with the entire area having been used continuously, for thousands of years, as an interconnected system of stone tool quarry, trading, resource and meeting sites.

We tried to walk gently, and the country was kind to us, offering a sheltered night and heightened experiences. We birded in the tall lignum north of the crossing until sundown after arriving, and then again on the southern side the next morning - when we were rewarded with glorious views of Painted Honeyeaters feeding on the fruiting mistletoe and flowering Eremophila bushes. Above us was a regular stream of migratory waterbird traffic in flight-formation: fish-seeking Pelicans and Cormorants (Little black and a few Great) moving north, and filter-feeding Royal spoonbills moving south, following the main channels in search of better conditions up/downstream, following the recent rains.

List for the area (*including the drive in from Thargomindah):

Little eagle
Painted honeyeaters - 4 birds, at least one a bit younger, all with black tips to their bills; feeding on fruiting mistletoe clumps and flowering Eremophila bushes - I had excellent views as the birds repeatedly came back to roost, sing and glean insects near to where we sat
Brown quail calling
White-necked herons
White-faced herons
Whistling and Black kites
Brown falcons
Black-shouldered kites
Nankeen kestrel
Wedge-tailed eagle
Pacific black duck
Pink-eared duck
Bourke's parrots
Red-rumped parrots
Horsfields bronze-cuckoo (2 birds, including one immature bird)
Fairy martins
Tree martins
White-plumed HE
Yellow-throated Miners
Spiny-cheeked HE
Mistletoebird
Zebra finches
Grey shrike-thrush
White-winged fairy-wren
Purple-backed fairy-wren
Australian raven
Orange chats
Crimson chats
Gibberbird
Willie wagtail
Magpie-lark
Australian magpie
Little black cormorant (flocks heading north)
Great cormorant -in with the little blacks
Australian pelican - migrating North in flocks
Spoonbill (unsure whether Yellow or Royal) - migrating south
Straw-necked Ibis
White-browed woodswallows
Masked woodswallows
Black-faced woodswallows
Jacky winters
*Red-capped robins
*Chestnut-breastfed Quail-thrush

But alas... no Grey grasswren, nor Chirruping wedgebill...Read more