UNDAUNTED, WE HAVE SPENT THE LAST COUPLE of days checking out the more accessible birding sites. Creeping along on the “weenie-wheel” at sixty on a 110 KPH road hardly affects traffic—we generally see only two or three cars in a hundred miles.
Zebra Finch
Orange Chat (male)
Emu Family Portrait
Wedge-tailed Eagle
There are plenty of birds right along the Outback Highway, ranging from tiny Zebra Finches and colorful Orange Chats to giant Emus and Wedge-tailed Eagles. The eagles feed on kangaroo carcasses; there are no vultures in Australia so eagles and ravens fill the sanitation department niche
An eBird Landmark
Collared Sparrowhawk
Rainbow Bee-Eater
Mostly we are searching for grass wrens, hard to find LBJs (little brown jobs) that supposedly inhabit these dry regions. Recent sightings were reported “near the rusty car off the Strzelecki Track, 26 km from Lyndhurst” as if that would help. Two futile trips netted us pipits, honey-eaters, a Collared Sparrowhawk, Rainbow Bee-Eater a beautiful White-Winged Fairy Wren. But no grass wrens, just socks festooned with difficult to remove burrs.
Black-Fronted Dotterel
Noisey Galah
Little Corella
Crested Pigeon
We had better luck nearer Marree at a man-made pond. We recorded stilts, Little Corellas, Gallahs, Black-Fronted Dotterel, Crested Pigeon, Diamond Dove and White-Breasted Wood Swallows among others.
