Please note that this is an on going blog, please come back later to see more photos and find out what we’re up to. Ollie can be found on all the pages, how many can you find him on?...

Please note that this is an on going blog, please come back later to see more photos and find out what we’re up to. Ollie can be found on all the pages, how many can you find him on?

5/4

It was 19.00 when we left Greenwood in the northern suburbs of Perth to head north. We had just returned from our trip to South America. Our friends at Greenwood had kindly let us keep our car at their place and Stephen had come out to the airport to pick us up. We drove into the night and got to Cliff Head south camp where we called it a night.

6/4

Up early, did my round and were soon heading north. We stopped at Murchison River Galena camp for lunch, there was a strong flow to the river. We arrived at the caravan park at Hamelin Pool late in the day, introduced ourselves to Trish the owner and she showed us where to camp. It will be our home for the remainder of the month.

Nankeen Kestrel Welcome Swallow

We are volunteering here at the stromatolites for National Parks, and they are paying for our site here. The place is a bit run down but nevertheless functionally sound. Our main job is to try and stop people walking out to the stromatolites and give out information to the visitors. In April of 2021 Cyclone Seroja swept through the region damaging the boardwalk here, which is still closed much to the chagrin of most visitors. I tried my hand at running a bird tour here with a few interesting birds such as Chiming Wedgebill, Rufous Fieldwren and the possibility of Western Grasswren, though I may have caught a glimpse of one I didn’t claim it. I did three surveys here over the month and got 34sp.

Crested Bellbird Crested Bellbird Osprey Darkling Beetle of genus Amarygmini

13/4

Off early and headed in to Denham. I have been struggling with the cough that I brought back from overseas so I went to the medical centre here to get some more antibacterials in an attempt to clear it up. Bev did some shopping, we bought some lunch at the bakery next to the IGA then went to Little Lagoon late in the afternoon. The shrubs here don’t look healthy and the bird count confirmed that with hardly any activity. Fowlers Bay was also rather quiet. It was late when we got back to the caravan park.

20/4

Off as early as we could manage again with first stop at Shark Bay Rd park bay but it was unusually quiet here. Clay pan Shark Bay Rd was also quiet. We got to Peron Homestead at the peak of the eclipse. Here it was like early dusk, still quite bright, many of the birds sat on top of the bushes and trees as they do at the end of a day. I caught Ollie staring directly at the sun without eye protection tch tch! We got to Big Lagoon for lunch and again could not find much bird life with only 10sp found in the hour or so we spent here. It was then back to the caravan park at Hamelin Pool.

The partial eclipse at Peron homestead. Where’s Ollie? Western Bearded Dragon, a subspecies of Dwarf Bearded Dragon

27/4

Off we set early again and stopped at Useless Loop rd 1 and got a Southern Scrub Robin calling. Fosters outstation was disappointing with only 3sp. The road into Steep Point was atrocious. In particular the stretch after the salt mine, it was so bad that the corrugation induced shuddering broke the clips holding the camper roof down, I had to get out some rope to tie it down. I let the tyres down so I had no probs getting through the sand dune stretch and pumped them back up a bit after we’d finished with the sand. The rest of the track out was a really pleasant drive. I got a few seabirds off the coast of Steep Point this time. It was nearly dark by the time we’d got back to the campground.

An Outback Orbweaver of genus Backobourkia, I kid thee not! Ascending the big sand dune on the way to Steep Point Ollie is at the western-most point on mainland Australia. Bev with her camera at Steep Point. Bev with her camera part 2

1/5

Yesterday it took us 2hrs to depitch the gazebo and tent arrangement we have and Trish was generous enough to invite us to have dinner with her. It meant that we were mostly packed so we left early in the morning and headed up to 2okm north of Overlander Roadhouse where we got lots of Budgerigars. Park bay south of Wooramel had even more Budgerigars. By Edaggee camp we’d run out of Budgerigars with only 3sp here. Bev spent 2hrs doing the shopping in Geraldton and we filled up our tanks. We had a late lunch at Rotary park Gascoyne River with the river flowing for the first time for me. We headed east and stopped at Meeragoulia Rd for only 4sp. Grid Nalbra well had some water in the dam so although there were a lot of cattle in the area damaging the immediate area there was a good variety of birds in the vicinity. We camped at Fred’s Landing just before dark.

2/5

Ended the survey with 22sp, the flowing river no doubt a factor in the bird count with 500 Little Corellas and a flock of 28 Red-tailed Black Cockatoos, and 20 Little Pied Cormorants the three most numerous. Coongarracoodoo Floodway was also busy with Redthroat, Chiming Wedgebill and 3sp of fairywren. We did a quick trip into Temple gorge in Kennedy Ranges NP and I could not find a single bird here at 9am. Bev got a few birds but couldn’t get an ID on any of them so we had a no bird count in a national park. Further north despite Howell’s Creek being dry I got 17sp, go figure! Manganoon Ck had a small pool that the cattle weren’t using so I had a steady stream of the likes of Zebra Finch and Diamond Dove using it, 17sp again. Lyon’s River Gifford Rd had some big pools and 18sp. I heard a splash and saw a Sacred Kingfisher arise from the water, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a Sacred Kinfisher fish, they usually take lizards and insects. It wasn’t successful, so perhaps it should stick to its usual diet. It was hot and dry at Gifford Rd Cobra station grid with 6sp. We stopped in at Cattle Pool and got 16sp here. We arrived at Mount Augustus Tourist park late in the day, introduced ourselves and were shown where to camp.

Zebra Finches Lyons River Gifford Rd, where’s Ollie? Long-nosed Dragon

This will be our home for the remainder of the month as we give information to tourists on the park just to the south of us. I had great success here with my bird tour, where I took participants on a walk about 500m to the north where the Lyon’s river runs by. It’s dry here but the habitat is in good condition with the cattle farm being lightly stocked here. I did 18 trips and ended with 58sp. The reason why we are here is because in September 2020 three people died on the mountain whilst attemtping the peak. The problem is exposure and heat, it not being a paticularly long or high hike, but with Uluru now being closed to summiters many are discovering this rock which is much bigger than Uluru. Uluru is the worlds largest Monolith, Mt Augustus is the worlds largest rock but it’s a Monocline. early in our stay here we had some people from overseas that wanted to climb the rock in 30C+ heat, they were both quite elderly, I advised them against it but they went and did it. The lady tripped and fell 100m from the end. We suspected a greenstick fracture to her leg as she couldn’t walk on it. They left the next day to go to Meekathara, a 5hr drive. It being the closest town with an Xray machine. This is no place to get hurt! There is a 45km ring road around the rock that gives access to all the walks. I have two survey points by the rock, one is Ooramboo walk in the south, the other is The Pound in the north. On one day we blew up our inflatable canoe and along with one of the campers we went for a paddle on the Cattle Pool. To the east it was only 500m to the end but we paddled for about 2km to the west and didn’t find the end. This is probably not normal since the river was flowing recently as Cyclone Ilsa swept its way south in April this year.

Rainbow Bee-eater Grey Shrike-thrush Cockatiel Budgerigars Tree Martins Common Bronzewing Rainbow Bee-eaters huddled against the morning cold Desert Tree Frog Orange Potter Wasp Darkling Beetle of genus Sympetes Lesser Wanderer Double-spotted Line Blue

1/6 295km

Up early and did our final packing and then went to the petrol pump to fill up the jerry cans at 240cpl it’s advisable not to have to pick up fuel here, but National parks were paying for it this time. We were on our way north at 8.15 or so. First stop was only a few kilometres north at the lookout to get the last of the early morning sun on Mt Augustus, then onwards to Creek on cattle yard track which had a pool in the creek with 18sp. Floodway Dooley Downs Rd was dry but still had 13sp in the good woodland. We turned north on the Ashburton Downs Rd and had lunch at Pingandy Ck which had a few pools. The creek north of the road flowed 20ft or so high here in the aftermath of the recent cyclone, that would have been spectacular. I got a flock of 70 Spinifex Pigeons, the largest I’ve seen. The road in the Meekathara Shire was pretty good, but as soon as we crossed into the Ashburton Shire it was evident that the road hadn’t been graded after the rains, so many of even the smallest floodways had to be taken with care. I hit a few a bit too fast with the trailer bouncing around behind me. I glanced in my mirrors at one stage and saw that the door on the trailer was open without the clips being open and the towel that I sit our drinking water container was hanging out the side, this can’t be good. I don’t know how it had managed to jump out of its strap, bang sideways into the door opening it then unscrewing the lid as it lay sideways so that about 2/3 of the water was gone by the time I stopped. I’ll have to rethink my tiedown strategy. Floodway Meekathara Rd had a Little Eagle as well as a Brown Falcon. We got to Creek and grid Ashburton Downs Rd at 16.15 and camped on the north side and just on dark we had a Spotted Nightjar flying around us, and later heard it’s call.

looking south toward Mt Augustus from the lookout off the Dooley Downs Rd small un-named creek north of Mt Augustus where’s Ollie? Black-shouldered Kite hovering looking for something to pounce on. In this case he found nothing and moved on.

2/6 293km

Got a Chiming Wedgebill calling on my morning walk. I decided to use the old dump truck that’s by the road as my where’s Ollie photo and as I rounded the truck a bird flew out from the side of the truck and alighted on the ground, it was an Owlet Nightjar that was using the truck as its day roost, sorry about that mate! First stop for the day was Kara Well, I still haven’t found where the water is but with Galahs, a huge flock of Spinifex Pigeons, a good sized flock of Cockatiels and around 150 Zebra Finches here, there must be water somewhere close. Bellary Ck Paraburdu was dry with 6sp. Gully south of Tom Price only had 3sp. Kings Lake Tom Price had the first Western Bowerbird and White-necked Heron. Floodway Wittenoom Rd had 8sp. We got to Hamersley Gorge at 15.40 and went down to the still flowing creek at the bottom. We then went to Hamersley Gorge camp nearby, a large free campsite which had lots of campers in it, a sharp contrast to last time we were here when we were the only ones.

Owlet Nightjar that I disturbed accidentaly from its daytime perch in the old dump truck. View Entire Post