Our entry into Round Hill Nature Reserve was rather dramatic as a massive grey cloud rose from the ground into the blue sky and broke up into seemingly hundreds of Masked Woodswallows. Just a bit further along the road a daddy Emu dawdled across the road followed by his chicks. One look at us and he shunted his charges into the mallee/spinifex woodland where they ‘disappeared’. Charles and I were the first to arrive at Whoey Tanks (or ‘Twin Tanks’ as they’re often referred to); it was almost 40º, cold-shower temperature. Red-capped Robins did their mobile-phone calls around camp and Apostlebirds waddled by to make sure we weren’t too threatening. Later, when more COGer’s arrived, the setting up of the COG canopy became interesting as we battled huge winds and eventually torrential rain. As we all fought to hold onto the tarp we thought we’d end up being transported far from camp (Kansas?). A wet night was followed by a wet morning which made bird-watching rather difficult for a while. We climbed Round Hill and then down the other side. Just beginning to flower on the slopes of Round Hill was Sikh’s Whiskers Pterostylis boormanii, a stocky brownish-mauve orchid.
Eventually the weather improved and we were rewarded with views of Mulga Parrots and Mallee Ringnecks, a couple of Major Mitchell’s Cockatoos, White-winged Trillers, Hooded Robins, and a fleeing Owlet-nightjar which disappeared into a hollow never to be seen again – by us, that is! Nearer camp a handsome male Splendid Fairy-wren ‘strutted its stuff’ in a flowering Eremophila bush, followed by hordes of adoring females. My goodness, if I was a female Splendid Wren I’d follow him to the ends of the earth – he was gorgeous!! Just after this we saw what we all thought was a bird in a bush, but it turned out to be a Central Bearded Dragon sunning itself. In its cool condition I was able to pick it up for us all to admire its good (albeit grumpy) looks.
Back in camp, Julian Robinson shared his discovery of a Spotted Bowerbird’s bower sheltered under a weeping Wilga. The bird had collected all types of weird objects. Amongst other items was a large piece of stocky chain, the spring from a clothes-peg, quandong fruit and the elongated seeds pods of Wonga vine (Pandorea pandorana) adorning his ‘love chamber’. Of particular interest to me were pieces of purple glass. The small bottle remains included the round neck and glass stopper, probably (hopefully!) a much-prized possession. Later in the afternoon Martyn Moffat alerted us to his discovery of an incredibly spunky spider. This spider was stand-out red, with a black velvety abdomen trying to hide from us amongst the leaf-litter. I managed to capture it on film – ha, gotcha! The day ended with ‘happy hour’ under the COG canopy followed by a gastronomic pig-out.
Sunday - an early start to the day, welcoming daylight saving. At the nearby old wheat-field site in Nombinnie Nature Reserve the group flushed a Chestnut Quail-thrush after following its distinctive call. We all saw Southern Scrub-robins which are very curious – they love the noise from dangling car keys – as they checked us out time and again. A Shy Heathwren lived up to its name as it flitted fast through the undergrowth and across the road. Yellow-plumed Honeyeaters chased each other crazily through the tree-tops acting like hyped-up delinquents. We also had a fleeting view of a male and female Black Honeyeater. Some had great views of a scolding Gilbert’s Whistler, but despite lots of tramping through mallee and spinifex we were not rewarded with views of (but we did hear) the elusive Red-lored Whistler. Gotta have something to come back for - maybe Monday morning?
After a much-earned breakfast back at camp we all headed off to Shepherds Quarry on the southeast side of Round Hill but out of the Nature Reserve. This quarry was the source of the ballast for the railway line to Broken Hill (information courtesy of John Goldie, but dates and details unknown). In one flowering Eucalyptus four species of honeyeaters fed beak-by-beak. Brown-headed, Yellow-plumed, Singing and White-fronted Honeyeaters were gorging on the massive creamy blobs of blossoms. Amongst the ruins of the quarry buildings ‘tin-lifting’ disturbed a gorgeous Prickly Gecko and a very plastic-looking centipede that was definitely not synthetic! A partly demolished National Parks sign lying on the ground altered us to the fact that the broom-looking wattles were in fact a very threatened species, Acacia curranii, not found in many locations. At the nearby dam in the quarry the resident Peregrine Falcon was not a happy chappy when we all arrived. Soaring around screaming ‘rude words’ at us the Peregrine was obviously nesting in the cliff-face that had been carved out by explosions. At least the great scar is now serving a purpose as opposed to all the rubbish and introduced plants littering the area.
Lunch on Booberoi Creek was interrupted by calls of “coo-ee, owl” by Carol Macleay. The cacophony of cranky Noisy Miners led us to the Boobook attempting to hide behind leaves, where it was being constantly dive-bombed. It looked very embarrassed by all the attention it was getting. Our chauffeur was returning to camp so we parted company from the rest of the group who went ‘magnum-hunting’ into Euabalong. They did find ice-creams but more importantly they returned with an impressive list of bird highlights. Apart from Pratincoles, Zebra Finches and Banded Lapwings, to name just a few, they found Orange Chats in ‘Chat Alley’, and a kilometre or so up the road, saw Orange, White-fronted and Crimson Chats in one binocular view – “Three Chat Alley” seemed like a good name!.
Meanwhile back at camp I’d observed the signs of warm-weather behaviour - birds carrying food to demanding bubs, small lizards scurrying through leaf-litter, fat shiny black-armoured native cockroaches roaming around looking for a lover or two or maybe more. A large dark unidentified snake slinked by our tent, disappearing to goodness-knows where while I found my camera. I was fairly sure it hadn’t hidden in our roof-top tent. Later at night, but not too late, some of the still-awake COGers ventured out into the night. Apart from the diamond-sparkling eyes of spiders there was not much else, and even the spiders scampered down into their holes before we could see them. Eventually, like the spiders we too retired into our ‘holes’ to listen to the all-night calls of the Pallid Cuckoo.
Monday - the group (minus me and a few others) returned to the old wheat-field in Nombinnie in the early morning. Again, despite tramping through the bush, playing tapes and being very patient, the once-again elusive Red-lored Whistler didn’t co-operate. As I said, “gotta have something to come back for”. Later in the morning most of us departed to leave all these creatures to return to their activities uninterrupted by twenty pair of pounding feet, tents of various sizes and colours scattered over ant homes and massive four wheel-drives squashing tiny unseen critters. A pathetic squished gecko was testimonial to the latter, but at least it wasn’t wasted as ants chomped it up into take-away sized pieces to take home for their gastronomic pig-out.
Thanks to Sue Lashko for a well organised trip. Let’s do it again some time soon. After all there’s that elusive Red-lored Whistler to tick off! The weekend tally was 104. Not bad!
Margaret McJannett