PETER WAANDERS WESTERN SPECIALTIES AND SPLITS TOUR MAY 2022

I have just returned from Peter Waanders Western Specialties and Splits tour - a remarkably successful trip. There were six of us on the tour and I believe all of us came away satisfied. We were all a bit disappointed that we did not visit the Arid Lands Botanic Gardens in Port Augusta, as this was mentioned on the itinerary and we'd been looking forward to it. However, that is a minor complaint in the great scheme of things and you can't often boast 100% success. Most people wanted photographs of birds which can be extremely difficult to see, let alone photograph. All I wanted was to see a Rufous Grasswren. I saw that - and a whole lot more. I'd done this tour before - in July 2017. On that occasion all I wanted to see was a Naretha Blueboneet. We had excellent views of bluebonnets so I came away quite pleased with myself on that occasion too. This time I needed the Rufous Grasswren, which wasn't recognized as a separate species in 2017. On this occasion the tour started in Adelaide, stayed overnight in Port Augusta, Kimba, Ceduna, Nullarbor, then back to Ceduna and finished with two nights in Port Lincoln. I saw a total of 105 birds for the trip. Others managed more: the trip total was 124. Of course the highlight for me was the Rufous Grasswren, my 830th Australian bird. It wasn't easy, but grasswren are usually notoriously difficult. My grasswren was in dense mallee in Yumbarra Conservation Park, and it took us a few hours of very patient looking and listening and waiting. I had a very good (but VERY brief) look at the bird. Peter Waanders made a disparaging remark about my sighting being merely 30 seconds, but in fact it was a lot less than that - perhaps 10 seconds, perhaps less. But it was a good unobstructed view of the whole bird in good light and I was very pleased. Afterwards I had several glimpses of the bird hopping between vegetation and I was quite delighted that I didn't have to rely on them to tick my lifer.

Apart from the Rufous Grasswren, I had wonderful views of the Western Grasswren at Wild Dog Hill in Whyalla Conservation Park. I had less perfect but still acceptable sightings of the Naretha Bluebonnet (not nearly as good as in 2017) and the White-bellied Whipbird (which we didn't see in 2017, but which I saw with Phil Maher in Innes National Park in 2011). Other great sightings were of Southern Scrubrobins, Rock Parrots, and Tawny-crowned and Purple-gaped Honeyeaters. We glimpsed Southern Emuwren, enough to admire the male's pretty blue throat, but not really a good enough look had it been a lifer. I was interested to watch Inland Thornbills with their cocked tails - I'd forgotten this behaviour. We had wonderful sightings of Western Yellow Robins on more than one occasion, although we initially had some difficulty in locating one. Major Mitchell's Cockatoos are always spectacular - even the western race without yellow in the crest. Of course we saw quailthrush - both Nullarbor and Copperback. We had poor views of Nullarbor Quailthrush at night, then saw nine more the following morning. I'm afraid it was a matter of quantity not quality: none of my sightings were particularly good. However, I had the best possible views of a family of Copperback Quailthrush - parents with a young bird still sporting some down and being fed by its parents. We also had a fascinating experience when we were looking for the Copperbacks. We heard the call. It sounded fine to my amateur ears, but Peter Waanders shook his head doubtfully: 'It doesn't sound quite right,' he declared. We tracked it down and, sure enough, the quailthrush call was coming from a young Striated Pardalote! Apart from birdlife there were two interesting phenomena on this trip. One was seeing fogbows, which we did twice. The other was: there was water in Lake Gilles. I'm not sure how often this salt lake actually contains water - I've never seen it before - but insects were attracted to it, and large numbers of Black-faced Cuckooshrikes were attracted to the insects. We saw dozens and dozens of the empty shells from the insects (like miniature empty cicada shells) by the shore of the lake.

Altogether a great trip. What better way to spend a week in May?