Noccundra to Eromanga

After leaving Noccundra, we drove north towards Eromanga, on a road that Martin hadn't previously driven, taking our time and intending to wing it for a bush camp that night.

We found an unlikely little birding sweetspot late morning, at a degraded roadside area carved out for stock watering points, and peppered with mature Mimosa bushes. There, we discovered another pair of Chestnut-breasted quail-thrush, a party of Chestnut-crowned babblers, Red-capped robins, a group of Black-tailed native hens a
clambering on top of each other to hide from us under a shrub, and - lo and behold - Sal's first ever Chirruping wedgebills! What a fantastic duet the male and female do!! We persisted for some time, striving for good looks, and left content with some not-bad-at-all views, only to stumble next upon group after group of them as we advanced along the road: the birds were clearly making the most of the local Mimosa infestations, heartily mounting the shrubs and echoing each other from the mounds, in significant numbers. Sal recorded their crazy song (uploaded here).

As we had heaps of travel time, we used the scope several times to study closely some obliging Australasian grebes (Sal getting her head around distinguishing features for Hoary-headed), Bourke's parrots, Bluebonnets, Red-capped robins and Chestnut-rumped thornbills at different stops.

We pulled off the road around 10km west of Eromanga and found a disused exploration track that led to a sheltered grove on top of a rocky rise, where we decided to camp the night. Taking an exploratory walk in the late afternoon, we pursued thornbills, red-capped robins, honeyeaters and Chestnut-breasted quail-thrush aplenty, finding ourselves some distance off track, and Sal more than a little bit disoriented, as the sun fell in the west. Thanks to Marty's inbuilt GPS, we warmed ourselves up tackling an extended, early evening, cross-country walk back to the camp site, rousing a resting Emu in the process! (Poor thing - s/he looked quite disgruntled, abruptly arising from what was clearly a sleeping position adopted for the night!) Glorious sunset views, followed by a cold night and clear dawn for Martin's birthday! 🍾🎂Baca lagi