| Birding
On My Own - Australia and New Zealand 2002 Emmalee Tarry |
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The Red Center |
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In the morning after finding Gray-crowned Babbler in the campground, I drove out to Ormiston Gorge in the MacDonnel National Park. This beautiful 130 km highway runs parallel to the mountains.
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I was not just enjoying the scenery but intent on finding
two birds that Thomas and
Thomas promise are to found in the campground at Ormiston Gorge. The
campground at the end of the park road is primitive without electricity or
drinking water. It is easy to do this area as a day trip from Alice Springs.
I stopped out of the campervan and almost stepped on the Spinifex Pigeon. Within a few minutes I also saw the Western Bowerbird. Promise kept. |
| A short track from the campground leads to this delightful water hole. Along this track I saw Crested Pigeon, White-plumed Honeyeater, Magpielark, Spiney-cheeked Honeyeater, Yellow-throated Miner. |  |
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With patient waiting at the water hole I saw White-necked
Heron (left), Grey Teal, Coots, Australian
Grebe. Whistling Kite was seen overhead. |
I spent a leisurely afternoon driving back to Alice Spring stopping at the Ochre Pits. At Simpson Gap I saw the Rock Wallaby. Birds coming to the water hole at Simpson Gap were: White-necked Heron , Zebra Finch, Gray-backed Shrike-thrush, Gray-fronted Honeyeater. I did not find the Dusky Grasswren you should find here. In fact I missed all the Grasswrens in Australia. I blame this failure on the drought and my adversity to stomping around in the desert.
The Long Road North
The long drive from Alice Springs to Katherine took two full days of driving. The desert was beautiful and I saw lots of the same raptors I had seen before. The car radio was useless.
It takes a very hardy soul to do the red center by bicycle. Every day I passed several bikers usually in groups of two. In the petrol station at Uluru, I met a young man from Germany who had ridden south from Darwin and was continueing on to Port Augusta. He needed a tool to fix his bicycle. One couple from Switzerland headed north pedaling a tandem.. There are even very hardy people who tramp the distance with backpacks.
My favorite was the gentleman in shorts and hiking boots pushing all his possession in a grocery cart. I guess if you want to see your country you can find a way to do it. I figure he must stop off every time he passes a grocery store and trade in for a new model. You don't pass many grocery stores in the Australian Outback.
Almost daily I saw fires along the highway. Fires in the desert are allowed to burn themselves out. One afternoon a fire covered the highway with thick smoke. I stopped short of the fire and waited until several cars came through the smoke from the other direction before going through myself. It seemed really dangerous to me to drive into smoke so thick you couldn't see the other side.
The campground at Wycliff Wells, 368 km north of Alice was very pleasant. There was lots of shade and I picked ripe lemons from a tree. The bore (well) water in many campgrounds has a mineral taste. Each evening I relaxed with a cool glass of water to which I added a little lemon juice.
Next to the campground was an artificial lake now almost empty from the drought. A beached row boat indicated that at one time this was quite a resort. My first Rainbow Bee-eaters were fly catching over the lake. I also found White-backed Swallow, Mistletoe Bird, White-faced Heron, Coots, Australian Grebe and a Brown Goshawk here.
The day I drove from Wycliff Wells to Larrimah was a long 7 1/2 hours on the road. I stopped at the Devil's Marbles right on the Stuart Highway to look around. The Devil's Marbles are spherical boulders some balanced atop other rocks. There is a campground here with Spinefex Pigeons.
The Larrimah Roadhouse campground is cheap, but not so great. The swimming pool was green so I didn't swim here. The campground has new management so it may improve soon. The next morning I had my first Red-tailed Black Cockatoos in a tree across the highway. I put up the scope and even before breakfast attracted several people who were curious about what I was doing. Before I left I drove over to the other side of the road and had Apostlebird and Red-collared Lorikeet.
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