If you have managed to read this weblog day by day then you are probably sick of hearing about grasswrens. Well, today was my last chance at seeing a Grey Grasswren, the only dip so far on this outback trip. My directions were a bit vague but I knew that they had been seen somewhere in the vicinity of Adelaide Gate, just east of Sturt National Park. I knew that they prefered lignum and apparently healthy lignum, but I only had a vague idea of what lignum looked like. It had been described to me as a great big thing of sticks but that was only partly helpful since nearly everything was leafless here because of the severe drought. Apparently healthy lignum is greener than unhealthy lignum and water or at least mud was a good sign.
So, armed with a vague idea of what I was looking for I headed off to Adelaide Gate. After taking a few wrong turns on the unmarked station roads, I arrived in what appeared to be a field of bushes that were essentially piles of twigs, no leaves. Some bushes had greener stems than others and some even had a few leaves. I figured this had to be the spot. I parked the car and spent the next hour wandering through lignum about head high listening intently for the high pitched calls of the grasswrens. After seeing tons of fairy-wrens which also have a high-pitched call, I was ready to give up and head back to the car. Within about 60 meters of the car I heard a different squeak and knew it wasn't a fairy-wren. Another 15 minutes of searching confirmed that the squeak was coming from a particular patch of lignum but it still took another 15 minutes before Iwas able to see a Grey Grasswren as it jumped up to the top of the lignum for a quick look at me before disappearing never to be seen again. It was a brief but satisfying look and confirmed that it was indeed a Grey Grasswren. That makes 6 grasswrens (Kalkadoon, Carpentarian, Eyrean, Short-tailed, Thick-billed, and Grey) in less than two weeks and I got photos of 3 species (Kalkadoon, Short-tailed, and Thick-billed). Much more successful than I had hoped!
I spent the rest of the day on the road heading back into Queensland through the small but friendly town of Hungerford and into Curranwinya National Park. I plan to explore this park for the next few days before heading north into the mulga country.
|
