I had hoped to spend a couple hours at Lyndhurst Station this moring and see the handful of target species, namiley Chestnut-breasted Whiteface and Thick-billed Grasswren and then head on my way. Turns out the birds had other plans. I arrived early and while we had a nice sunrise, the sky quickly clouded over and the rest of the day was overcast and a light sprinkle fell for most of the morning. While wandering around the sagebrush plains and hills I did manage to see and photograph a Rufous Fieldwren which was one of my targets for the day but not a necessity as they can be found elsewhere.
The Chestnut-breasted Whiteface was a necessity however. This small bird is found over a small portion of central Australia but the only easily accessible and reliable site to see the bird is on Lyndhurst Station in South Australia, exactly where Ihad spent the morning. A local bird guide and his two clients had found a small group of the birds that morning and had passed along the GPS coordinates but despite my searching the area where they saw them I still came up empty. I decided to check another site across the street about a kilometer further on but again, no luck there. I decided to wait a few hours and try again in the afternoon since Iwas wet through and didn't want to wander around in the light rain anymore.
The afternoon turned out to be pretty great. I decided to work my way back to where the birds had been seen in the morning and see what I could find. The grasswrens are supposed to like the taller sagebrush around the gullies so I followed a series of gullies in the general direction of the site. Without warning, the sun broke through the clouds and turned the rather dull desert into vibrant shades of oranges and reds. Within about 20 minutes of that happening I found a family of grasswrens, likely 4 in total. Most of them flushed but I could still hear one calling in a bush so I set up my camera on the bush and waited. Eventually he popped to the top and I was able to snap a few photos. After a few minutes he followed the others but just before Imoved the camera, a Chestnut-breasted Whiteface landed on the same bush. What do you know, camera is already aimed and focused so it was just a matter of hitting the shutter. The bird sat for about 4 seconds and flew off. In a span of about 20 seconds I saw 3 individual birds and then they were all gone again. In those few minutes the sun had come out and I had seen the two birds I really wanted to see and got photos! Maybe not the world's best photos, but sharp, properly exposed frames of one of the more difficult birds to see in Australia. It's amazing how things can change in a matter of minutes and to me, thats what makes birding such an exciting past time, or obsession.
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