WHEN STUPIDITY STARTS TO PAY OFF...

Well, after searching for Scarlet-chested Parrots on two earlier visits to Gluepot in July I finally got myself an eyeful of these amazing little birds! I had scoured the north-western corner of South Australia looking for them, in habitat quite similar to that found at Gluepot & Taylorville Station, without luck over the last few years. Even considering the 800km return trip from the APY Lands to dash up to Docker River in the Northern Territory to see them when they were reported in that area twice last year. But patience and perseverance (and a good deal of stubborn-minded stupidity....) finally paid off with good views of 6 birds in total in the Gypsum Lunette area of Taylorville Station.

Unlike my first visit to Gluepot during the height summer, when the place was empty, this last visit felt like visiting a birding shopping mall. I arrived at dawn and pulled in to see the place was empty but by midday there were about 6 of us looking for these parrots in one small area of perhaps a half-square kilometre or thereabouts. Not exactly 'teeming' with people but when you're all there looking for the same thing the place suddenly feels a bit 'small'.

Interestingly, I was about to give up and have some lunch after about 2 and a half hours of walking the area back and forth, alone, when I bumped into Colin Rogers and John Cox, heading in for a look as I was coming out. I told them of my third unlucky attempt and mentioned that it felt like looking for a 'needle in a haystack' despite having some great, almost pin-point accurate descriptions of where to look for these parrots. I suspect they sensed in me that I was about to throw in the towel  (or throw a monumental hissy-fit) as they agreed that three sets of eyes searching the area would rate us a better chance of seeing them and they kindly allowed me to tag along as they wished to photograph the Scarlet-chested Parrots. I owe them a big thanks, so...thanks John and Colin!

It was still close to an hour before we had our first glimpse of the Parrots, John suggested sticking close to the recently burnt patches of Mallee as these birds are noted for having a preference for this kind of environment...and this was where we found them. Sure enough, I spied one sitting as a silent sentinel while a second bird fed on the ground below. The second bird popped up momentarily before they both flew off 20 or 30 metres to perch again. Great views of a male but we were unsure of the second bird.....a juvenile or perhaps a female....we all had different views.
They didn't appear to be too fussed by our presence, as each time we got near they would take flight rather unhurriedly and fly a short distance away, all the while maintaining a bit of a buffer. Each time they flushed they did so in silence....breaking the time-honoured Parrot code of bush-etiquette...

Article 2A : When flushed by biped hominids, proceed to squawk maniacally whilst flying like a scalded cat.

I was really surprised at how quiet they were and how luminous they appeared to be. Amazing....

We managed to locate another pair closer to the Gypsum Lunette walk carpark, just south of the carpark. And, just like the famed tourist t-shirts of the 1980's "My grandma went to NYC, and all i got was this lousy shirt!"....I stalked these Scarlet-chested Parrots for hours......






Scarlet-chested Parrot Neophema splendida

....and all I got was this one lousy photo!

Well, at least a painter like Monet or Arthur Streeton would appreciate the 'impressionistic' sensibilities of my photography. Maybe they'd just sense I was a hack? Who knows?

But, if you stare long enough at the picture above you may get a real sense of the, "JESUS!!! It's just landed there!...heart's racing too fast...palms too sweaty to really operate this bloody camera, ahhh, the Auto Focus is on.....shit! Why are my fingers so bloody thick and stubby? Now, focus, focus...oh double-shit! It's gone!" madness that flashed through my mind in those brief seconds. At least that's the 'cleaned up for public consumption' account of what went on.....

Alas, we finally caught up with a third pair about 1.5 km's from the Gluepot road along the Gypsum Lunette walk itself but they weren't so obliging. Oh well, I was beginning to feel exhausted as by this point I had been on the go for close to 8 hours without eating or drinking much....strange how the lure of seeing something like this can drive you a bit nuts.

Despite finally getting great views of these birds, the other highlight of the day for me was a very close encounter with two Striated Pardalotes. They were checking a small nesting hollow and gave me a very good looking over as I walked past, sitting obligingly while I fired off a couple of pictures. I moved on quickly as I did not really want to disturb birds that were obviously busy preparing to nest or already nesting. When I got home I was really pleased with how the pictures came out. A couple of my best photos so far, I reckon.





Striated Pardalote Pardalotus Striatus

Striated Pardalote Pardalotus striatus

I also managed to fire off a couple of 'record' shot of two other species I had until this point been unable to get decent pictures of. The photographs included a momentarily sedentary Brown Treecreeper and Jacky Winter, one of many seen throughout the course of the day.

Brown Treecreeper Climacteris picumnus



Jacky Winter Microeca fascinans

So, despite not really having much to show for it, it was a pretty monumental day for me, almost on par with my stumbling across Princess Parrots in the middle of last year near Nyapari.

Now, if I could just get out there again and try and get a picture of those parrots that really does them some justice.....