Month: August 2024

After a couple of successful days around Townsville it was time to hook up the caravan and head west. After our hijinx climbing mountains the night before we had a later start and headed towards Charters Towers. Towers Hill is on the edge of town and provides views of the town and surrounds. Here we were after Allied Rock-wallaby and after a few Euro found them to be common and reasonably approachable even though it was the middle of the day. There was one scavenging for scraps at the lookout and after a bit of a poke around we were able to get decent pics in a wild setting. A new mammal for all of us! As with the Shaman I might struggle to pick this out of a line-up of other east coast rock-wallabies although it did seem darker and more like a Brush-tailed.

From here we continued west passing through Prairie where there was an impressive Little Red Flying-fox roost before ending at Hughenden. We checked in to the local caravan park and hit the pub for a steak dinner and a couple of beers. From here we headed north towards Porcupine Gorge. Almost immediately upon leaving the town limits we had a Spectacled Hare-Wallaby run off the edge of the road. I had only seen a couple of times before and was new for the others – major target of the night ticked off already. Unfortunately just up the road we found a very freshly dead Black-headed Python which was rather depressing. Around Porcupine Gorge we found several more Hare-wallabies as well as plenty of Rufous Bettong which are always great to see. In the campground we had an unexpected Swamp Wallaby and several more Allied Rock-wallabies as we explored the gorge itself. Unfortunately it was too cold for and reptiles to be out and about. When we cruised back into Hughenden it was already around zero degrees!

After finding a bakery we headed west to Winton where we dropped off the caravan for a few days exploring. A quick drop into the Winton Wastewater Treatment Plant which yielded a few wetland birds before we picked up some supplies and headed into Bladensburg National Park. I have great memories of my last visit to Bladensburg over 10 years ago as being very birdy so was pretty pumped. We found lots of nice birds as we birded most of the afternoon with things like Spinifexbird and Spinifex Pigeon always good for us southerners. We found a good place to light a fire and cook some steaks before heading out spotlighting. Almost immediately I had a hotspot on thermal which turned out to be a Kultarr!! This was new for Isaac and Owen and we had great views of it hiding in the spinifex before it bolted away at high speed. In quick succession we found another one and then a Stripe-faced Dunnart and the night was off to a great start. It was quiet for a bit until I had another hot spot in thermal and this time it was a Long-haired Rat – a lifer for me! This is an irruptive species which can reach plague numbers in good conditions but here was a single animal that wasnt moving much – we were even able to move the grass away from its face for photos. While visually looking in good condition I did feel along its back and could feel its ribs and spine easily – it was clearly not long for the world. We moved on and eventually found a very big extended colony south of the homestead – we would have seen hundreds of rats on thermal and many on the road as we moved through this area. Of course with any influx of rodents there were plenty of predators with Boobooks and Barn owls prevalent. A very good night and we slept well in our isolated campsite.

Up reasonably early we birded a bit before heading back to Winton for some bakery breakfast. From here it was run down to Lark Quarry where the main target was the Opalton Grasswren. The comms tower at the turnoff is reputedly good for Grey Falcon but much like my last visit over ten years ago they were not in evidence despite us checking the tower many times. Just up from the tower we explored the mature spinifex and quickly found small groups of Rufous-crowed Emu-wrens. Back near the car I was able to get onto a nice group of Opalton Grasswrens which is a fairly recent split from the widespread Striated Grasswren – a new bird for me and one I was happy to get. They didn’t really stop for photos but also did not want to smash them with playback in this well known site for them. Last time I was here I only heard them! Birding was good around the whole area with things like Hall’s Babblers and Chestnut-breasted Quailthrush putting on a show. Near camp I was out exploring and climbed up a jump-up when my dodgy knee gave way…. I fell straight on my arse into a big mound of spinifex – I tried to get up and fell in again – two weeks later and I am still trying to get spines out of areas that shall remain nameless! We spent a couple of hours spotlighting after dark without any real success.

Up early we headed again back to Winton for fuel and another bakery stop before heading out towards Brighton Downs station and the start of the Diamantina area. Unfortunately we really did not have time to do it justice but spent our time birding and exploring. There were good numbers of Black Falcons and Spotted Harriers which showed conditions must be pretty good. Isaac needed Gibberbird so we headed to a single pin in the middle of a large area of gibber where someone had found one years ago. The good thing about gibber is its bleak and does not change much so the boys were pretty quickly onto a confiding pair. From here we kept birding all the way to Brighton Downs station entrance. The Grey Falcon is an enigmatic arid adapted raptor that can be scarce and hard to find, however it does like comms towers which are scattered throughout the outback. Here we found no less than three birds perched on the tower which gave us walk away views. We sat and cooked dinner and had a beer watching them through a scope. On dusk they all flew down to roost together near the base of the tower – very cool. We had high hopes for spotlighting that night but after an initial rush of Fat-tailed Dunnarts it was very quiet.

Unfortunately our time for exploring was at an end so we headed back to Winton to pick up the caravan and start to head back to Melbourne. We travelled down through places like Longreach, Charleville, Bourke and Griffith birding where it made sense and seeing some nice things. It was pretty bloody cold most nights! One thing to call out was the sheer volume of goats between the Queensland border, through Bourke and down to Cobar – ridciulous – there must have been thousands beside the road on this stretch.

As always I would like to thanks Simone and Lucas for letting me go. Isaac and Owen for being fantastic travel companions and everyone who helped with gen for the trip!

Bird list – see the eBird Trip report – HERE!

Mammal list

Echidna – no live ones – just plenty of roadkill all over
Kultarr – 2 maybe 3 animals in Bladensburg NP
Fat-tailed Dunnart – 3 at Brighton Downs Station
Stripe-faced Dunnart – 1 only at Bladensburg NP
(Northern) Long-nosed Bandicoot – 1 young animal at Jourama Falls
Mahogony Glider – 3 different animals at a bush block south of Ingham. My trip highlight!
(Northern) Greater Glider – a single animal behind Paluma in Flooded Gum forest – seemed smaller and more patchy than Southern animals I am used to
Green Ring-tailed Possum – 1 animal behind Paluma
Broad-toed Feather-tailed Glider – poor views of a couple of animals on road down from Paluma – species called on range
Rufous Bettong – common on roads around Porcupine Gorge
Allied Rock-wallaby – Common on the big hill at Charter’s Towers – several also seen at Porcupine Gorge
Sharman’s Rock-wallaby – Several glassed at Mount Claro – closer encounters back towards Mount Fox
Spectacled Hare-wallaby – One just outside Hughenden – several more near Porcupine Gorge
Western Grey Kangaroo – pretty common when we passed into their range in southern QLD and NSW
Eastern Grey Kangaroo – seen on and off from Townsville to home
Agile Wallaby – two to three billion suicidal animals between Jourama falls and Townsville 🙂 Common anywhere else in range
Whip-tailed Wallaby – two near Mount Claro
Common Wallaroo/Euro – Seen in rocky habitat where expected – Mount Claro, Charters Towers, Porcupine Gorge, Bladensburg NP etc
Red Kangaroo – Common once past Charters Towers
Swamp Wallaby – single animal at Porcupine Gorge – roadkills as we headed through NSW
Fawn-footed Melomys – a couple around Paluma
Giant White-tailed Rat – 1 animal at entrance to Jourama Falls
Long-haired Rat – a few random animals at Bladensburg NP until we found a super colony of hundreds south of the homestead
Rabbit*
Hare*
Black-Flying Fox – Jourama Falls and Paluma
Little Red Flying-fox – a large and impressive roost at Prairie
Diadem Leaf-nosed Bat – one at Jourama Falls
White-striped Freetail Bat – heard everywhere
Large-footed Myotis – fishing at Jourama Falls
(microbats in general) – large numbers seen everywhere – no time to try and use detector etc
Dingo – heard at Lark Quarry
Feral Cat* – too many
Feral Pig* – too many
Feral Goat* – ridiculous numbers from southern Queensland through to Bourke and beyond – literally thousands beside the roads
Rusa Deer* – a couple of larger deer crossing the road near Bourke probably this species