THE RED CENTRE

I've just returned from a quick five day Bellbird tour of the Red Centre. What a spectacular continent we inhabit!

First, I should say that it was an enjoyable tour, with personable like-minded companions, fantastic landscapes, some lovely birds and a very knowledgeable guide, David Kowalick, who did his level best to show us elusive Sandhill Grasswren, Rufous-crowned Emuwren and a Grey Honeyeater. Now let me get my negative comments out of the way, before I tell you about the beautiful birds. I did not enjoy being cold at Kings Creek Station, where we were glamping, which seemed to me to be an excuse to provide inferior uninsulated accommodation. There were three major disappointments for me on this tour. One: since I was last at Kings Canyon in 1996, the number of Dusky Grasswren has reduced remarkably. I've been telling birders that Dusky Grasswren are the easiest grasswren to see. This is clearly no longer the case. In 1996, there were plenty, you couldn't miss them in fact. Now, we did not see one on the way up the staircase track to the top of the canyon, and were most relieved to see three birds on our way down. Clearly, it would be quite possible to go there and miss the birds entirely. (Now, I believe the easiest grasswren to see are either the Western Grasswren at Monkey Mia or the Pilbara Grasswren on Radio Hill at Newman.) Two: the number of feral camels has increased significantly. The Bellbird blurb tells us that "we might be lucky enough to see a herd or two of wild camels roaming." These are feral animals destroying our environment. It is not lucky to see them. It is distressing. And we saw plenty. And three: the wretched buffle grass is spreading everywhere, displacing spinifex, along with its natural inhabitants.

Without a doubt our most interesting sighting was a Copperback Quail-thrush, on the road south of Kings Canyon, outside its accepted range. We all saw it. There was no doubt about its identity. I thought we'd been hearing Cinnamon Quail-thrush, and perhaps we had. David tells me that the calls are very similar. Budgies are always beautiful, and it was terrific to see so many Black-breasted Buzzards. We watched Painted Finches come in for their morning drink, and saw Bourke's Parrots having their evening drink at a waterhole at night. Who knew they were nocturnal? Clearly, everyone except me. Personally, I got a lot of pleasure out of seeing an extremely large, pale Grey Fantail, with a long, white tail. This is race 'albicauda,' a new race for me. There were nine species we saw every day of the trip, all quite predictable I think: Crested Pigeon, Nankeen Kestrel and Brown Falcon, Willie Wagtail (my favourite), Magpie-lark, Zebra Finch and three honeyeaters: Singing, White-plumed and Spiny-cheeked. I had hoped to see a boobook, but all we managed on our two spotlighting expeditions, was one Barn Owl. We saw only two Pink Cockatoos, which we spotlighted when out looking for night birds. I had also hoped to see a Red-tailed Black Cockatoo (race 'samueli') but we didn't get so much as a glimpse of them. It just shows, I was quite wrong when I was sitting at home before the trip thinking Red-tailed Black Cockatoos are common birds and will be easy. There's a reason I had not seen this race before.

We saw just a couple of Diamond Doves and just a handful of Spinifex Pigeons - don't you love that crest? The Splendid Fairywrens lived up to their name and one male Mistletoebird sitting in the morning sun was a memorable sighting. We saw both Rufous and Brown Songlarks, and I learned that the Brown Songlark has a static call. Others saw Banded Whiteface, sadly, I dipped on this. I'm begining to think that the Pied Butcherbird has the most beautiful call of all our birds. We heard lots of Chiming Wedgebills, and finally saw one or two. There were Hooded and Red-capped Robins and oodles of Crimson Chats. We heard more Red-browed Pardalotes than we saw, but we did see a couple. There was one Western Bowerbird tending his bower in the Olive Pink Botanic Gardens in Alice Springs. It's always great to see both Black and Pied Honeyeaters. Of course we saw quite a few honeyeaters, but we dipped on both Grey and Grey-fronted. It was not as hot as I expected during the day, even when we were trudging up and down sand dunes looking for grasswren, but it was just as freezing cold as I expected overnight. If you haven't seen a Dusky Grasswren, my advice is, go sooner rather than later. They are not the easy bird they once were. And this is the closest I came to a Sandhill Grasswren.