Lets get serious, Elefromoz 2021 West Aus BY

[Kitsafari]

ive not seen a mistletoe as well - a stunning bird!

[michael-ibk]

Another mistletoe fan here, a beautiful bird. 

[elefromoz]

Last week we had a winter break in the bush , we headed to Lane Poole Reserve which has several basic Campsites beside the Murray River.

 

 

As promised, a quick rundown on our new Car and Camper. Its compact and easy to tow

 

When setup, which takes exactly 2 minutes, its a perfect fit for the two of us, spacious enough, good little kitchen and a warm comfy bed. It doesn't have a shower or toilet (although we have both separate Camp versions). The most important thing for us was "compact" and the ability to go off road.

 

 

 

So back to business, there were lots of Birds about, but mostly repeats

A Parladote peeks out

 

A posing Wren

 

A cheery winter Scarlet Robin

 

I occupied myself trying to photograph the Red Tailed Cockatoos and their dazzling colours, but failed

 

 

 

 

Finally a couple of new ones

109. Varied Sitella

 

110. Grey Shrike Thrush

 

So until I can get further afield later in the Year, the numbers will be a slow trickle.

[PeterHG]

What an comfortable-looking camper! Amazing that it can be put up in just a few minutes

[michael-ibk]

A very cool camper outfit. Seems to have a TARDIS-like quality, seems bigger on the inside!

[Kitsafari]

i cant believe that tiny-looking camper can house a bed for 2 and a kitchen! amazing. great setup. 

 

Love that little wren and the robin. and good effort on the black cockatoo.

[Peter Connan]

Lovely shots and a very interesting caravan!

[shazdwn]

Love the camper.  We have toyed with the idea of getting on, I really like how compact yours is (and the 2 minute set up).  We keep saying we will get one and drive the west coast - the way we are going thought it might be when we turn into grey nomads 

[Dave Williams]

Only just caught up with the shots of the caravan. It's a very nifty set up and so portable too but I have to say at my age I need a loo close by for night time usage!!

Here in the UK the demand for motorhomes,campervans and caravans has gone berserk and the prices they ask are equally mad.

A VW camper van bought three years ago has actually gone up in value...and not many cars can claim that. They fetch about £55,000 and offer little in the way of comfort too.Once you put the bed up you can't access any thing, and they don't have a loo either. The bigger the motorhome the less you can take them to places without having parking problems. I'll stick to my ancient caravan for now!!

[Kalaharikind]

Lovely set-up you have there! Lots of happy trips and many more fabulous birds! 

[elefromoz]

@Dave Williams

On 8/11/2021 at 5:56 PM, Dave Williams said:

I have to say at my age I need a loo close by for night time usage!!

Yes, going forward we'll be heading that way too. At the moment we have a "one up both up" rule, but by the time you get up, get dressed, unlock the van, head out in the dark, then get back to bed, you then find you're wide awake. This whole camping/caravan thing is a bit of an experiment for us, who knows how long it'll last. On our recent trip we did check into a 'resort' for 3 nights mid trip, en-suite, long hot showers and swimming pool, didn't miss the Camper one bit!

 

So, back to Birds. Im really dragging my feet now, not many new local Birds to find, and very tight travel restrictions. A straggler from June

 

111. Long Billed Black Cockatoo (Boudins) Endemic   16/6/21   Dunsborough garden.   Showing how he extracts the Marri seed from the nut with the long bill.

 

 

We’ve just had a few weeks away camping in the north of the state, through the Pilbara. We covered some 6000kms, which sounds such a lot and one probably imagines ‘birds everywhere”. Well not quite so, maybe if you did a dedicated bird tour with a guide and hit all the right spots, the checklist might run into triple figures.  My experience was more of a slow trickle, a few dozen new ones for the year, and a few “lifers” for me. There was of course many heard but not seen, many seen but not photographed and some that were supposedly “common”, neither seen nor heard. Such is this hobby of bird watching. The next few posts will cover what I did see, its also Wildflower season here, a distraction whilst searching for Birds.

 

[elefromoz]

 

and into "Red Dirt Country" .

 

112. Red Capped Robin.    Jibberding Rest stop.  28/7/21

 

113. Yellow Rumped Thornbill

 

114. Black Faced Woodswallow

 

and a repeat Whistling Kite in typical 'mulga" vegetation, dry and twiggy

 

We checked into Nallan Station for the next 2 nights, me with high hopes for fabulous bird sightings the next day, this Station has good numbers and some rare ones too.  Little did know the mini disaster that lay ahead for me in the morning.

[elefromoz]

I woke early in the morning full of excitement for the day ahead, that was until I stepped up into the caravan without realising that the top half of the door had opened and slammed my head into the corner of the metal door.  The long and short of it, I lifted a large "flap" of scalp, very nearly knocked myself out. We had to pack up quickly and drive 100km to the nearest hospital for assessment and suturing. What can I say other than the older you get, the more you should slow down and be careful, accidents can happen so quickly. So that was the end of our Nallan Station stay, we'll have to try again next year and Bourkes Parrot will have to wait!

 

115. Crested Pigeon  Yalgan River camp  29/7/21

 

116. Horsfeilds Bronze Cuckoo

 

117. Mulga Parrot   The only good thing to come out of today. We bush camped out as our original plans had gone out the window, my OH excitedly told me he'd seen a very colourful Parrot land nearby, and indeed he had! It was one possibility that Id missed at Nallan Station, and here it was, a lifer for me. Sore head forgotten for a while.

 

Wedgetail Eagle is a repeat for me, but I just love these huge Birds. Theres a lot of them out here and the saddest sight of the trip was seeing one dead beside the highway, roadkill, what a tragic sight seeing that huge Bird laying lifelessly there. This family were finishing off a Kangaroo carcass.

 

 

 

 

 

[Dave Williams]

Ouch! I hope the damage isn't too serious. Sounds like a very nasty bump. 

What a shame you had to abort the holiday, some excellent birds being spotted too.

[PeterHG]

I'm sorry to hear about your accident. I do hope the effects will wear off rapidly. I love your shots of the Wedge-tailed eagle. What an impressive bird!

[Galana]

So sorry to hear of the accident and curtailed trip.

Hopefully your Mulga Parrot helped the recovery.

[Zim Girl]

On 8/31/2021 at 8:11 AM, elefromoz said:

The long and short of it, I lifted a large "flap" of scalp, very nearly knocked myself out.

Ooh, sounds painful!  Hope it heals up quickly.

Great Eagle pictures.

[elefromoz]

On 8/31/2021 at 3:44 PM, Dave Williams said:

What a shame you had to abort the holiday,

not aborted, just a change of plans en-route, could have been a lot worse, so all OK. Thanks for the well wishes.  I had planned to have the sutures out in 10 days "somewhere", being very remote that wasn't necessarily easy, a course of antibiotics, OH attending the suture line twice daily and me just taking it easy as I was a bit out of sorts. After a rotten nights sleep, we were packed up and on the road toward Mt Augustus, our next stopover.

 

118. Budgerigar  30/7/21.  Carnarvon-Meekatharra road.

I was thrilled to see these little guys again, we were to see some mega flocks later in the trip

 

 

 

119. Banded Lapwing

 

We'd started to collect a bit of mud, and I can tell you, that red mud sticks like glue but much worse was to come.. The "rig' wasn't looking so pristine and new anymore. Maybe we should have ordered red or orange instead of white?

 

120. Brown Falcon, we managed to get both at this rest stop  (dark morph)

 

and then a 'Pale" morph landed

 

 

they just seem to disappear into the mulga

 

121. Brown Songlark (new one for me)  what a racket this little guy made, never shutup in the air or on the ground

 

 

 

 

and then a little further down the road, another songster, and another new one for me

122. Rufous Songlark

 

I'd been hoping for this one, sometimes you're lucky sometimes not, but just as it was getting late in the day, right beside the road, and we never saw another..

 

123. Australian Bustard

[xelas]

2 hours ago, elefromoz said:

Maybe we should have ordered red or orange instead of white?

Why pay extra when you can DIY?!

 

Lovely birds, and as others also I am wishing you a quick and full recovery.

[Kitsafari]

ouch that sounded like great pain, and I hope you're on the road to full recovery. 

 

Glad you continued the journey with great shots and great diversity of birds! that's an awesome wedgetail eagle. 

 

[elefromoz]

Some unseasonal rain persisted, luckily we got through before roads closed around us. This whole area is a massive flood plain during the "wet", so roads become a red mud slick very quickly. Not the sort of conditions you want to be caught out towing a caravan in. Equally, it dries very quickly leaving river ways and gullies with water sources. Thes are full of flocks of Budgies, Honeyeaters, Galahs and a little favourite

 

124. Zebra Finch (male). Gum Walk,  Mt Augustus 31/7/21

 

(female)

 

125. Spiny Cheeked Honeyeater enjoying the flowering Erimophilla

[Peter Connan]

Beautiful birds.

Another one wishing you a quick recovery!

[elefromoz]

We had a few nights at Mt Augustus, and before the 'europeans" fall about laughing at 700M being called a mountain, the plan was to do the 6hr return hike to the summit. Unfortunately my head injury put an end to that so OH teamed up with another bloke and they headed off together. I just did a birding stroll with friends.  To keep it all in perspective though, last summer 3 people died on Mt Augustus, a combination of getting lost and heat exhaustion, its a brutal landscape out here. 

 

126.White winged Triller (f).  MtAugustus road.  1/7/21    To be honest, Im a bit unsure of this ID, I guess someone will correct me if Im wrong but nothing else seems to come close

 

 

 

rpt Spiny cheeked honeyeater, lovely blue eyes

 

View on the way up

 

127. Little Woodswallow

 

128. Western Gerygone

 

129. Redthroat

[pedro maia]

I hope you recover soon, nice trip anyway!

[elefromoz]

not for the first time this trip, we commented on the similarity to some of the terrain in Namibia

 

 

Could be on the hilltop at Erongo Wilderness Lodge???   Maybe its just me...

 

130. Spinifex Pigeon.  Dooley Downs Road  1/8/21. With its colouring melding into the red dirt and a clump of "spinifex" on its head, you often didn't see them til the last minute

 

even the birds are dirty out here

 

131. White Plumed Honeyeater, the commonest bird of the trip