I have wanted to visit Bowra Station ever since mentioning
to my friend Teresa that we were planning a trip to Longreach and she said “oh
if you’re going up through Cunnamulla, you MUST go to Bowra!” She was right! We
spent three nights there, giving us two full days in this outback birder's
paradise. Although it probably wasn’t even the peak season to visit, we had a
fantastic time and saw a lot of birds.
We arrived at about 4pm and set up camp in the “powered van”
area in front of the Shearing Shed. I had a quick look around the lagoon a
noted a few birds. Karen and Rae, the volunteers on site for May came over
shortly after to introduce themselves and check we had settled in ok, and
invited us to attend that evening’s “bird call”. This is a quick meeting held
each evening where everyone recounts which birds they have seen that day, and
the highest count of each species recorded at one time is recorded for the
sanctuary’s records. I was able to contribute a few species that I had seen at
the lagoon, but spent most of the time getting some pointers of where to start
looking for some of my target species! I quickly found out that there hadn’t
been any finches around, so that struck plum-headed finch off the list (oh well
I’ll just have to go back!).
The
next morning, we hung around the lagoon for a while, where I got my first
sighting of a SPOTTED BOWERBIRD! It was an obliging little bird, posing nicely
for me, and even seemed to follow me for a bit as I headed back towards camp.
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| Spotted Bowerbird, Bowra Sanctuary, QLD |
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| Red-rumped Parrots, Bowra Sanctuary, QLD |
We headed out along the Homestead Circuit to Back Dam. What
a great spot! Upon arriving, there was a group of at least a dozen Major
Mitchells Cockatoos, and then we went for a wander in the trees further back
from the dam where we found eight Bourke's Parrots! They were just chilling out
in the trees, moving around a bit, then settling for a while, all out in plain
view.
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| Major Mitchell's Cockatoos, Bowra Sanctuary, QLD |
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| Bourke's Parrot, Bowra Sanctuary, QLD |
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| Bourke's Parrot, Bowra Sanctuary, QLD |
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| Five Bourkes Parrots, Bowra Sanctuary, QLD |
As we were leaving Back Dam, Karen and Rae were coming along from the
Airport Track, and told us they had seen a group of Crimson Chats, along with
three Orange Chats. We took off in that direction, and eventually found the
crimson chats, but never found the orange. However, as we were going along, I
noticed a few black and white birds a fair distance from the track. I thought
they were probably magpies but looked anyway, and they were actually Banded Lapwings! Thirteen in total! This species is noted as “difficult to find” on
the Bowra bird list, so it was a good record, and Karen and Rae were excited
when we told them and headed out and found some of them later. The next day we
were doing the Airport Track again and we found them again, more spread out
this time, but there were 20!
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| Banded Lapwing, Bowra Sanctuary, QLD |
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| Jacky Winter, Bowra Sanctuary, QLD |
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| Black-faced Woodswallows, Bowra Sanctuary, QLD |
In the middle of the day we took a break from birding to
shower and pop back into Cunnamulla for some petrol and cough syrup (of course
I had to get sick while on holidays!). In the afternoon we visited the Sawpits
Waterhole, where we found a White-necked Heron, and drove to Stony Ridge
looking for quail-thrush but missed those. We didn’t end up looking for those
again as I haven’t had much luck with other quail-thrush species in the past,
and didn’t want to spend too much time on them as we only had two days! We
drove down to the Gum holes water hole, which didn’t have very much water in it
at all, and then back towards camp. Suddenly we saw a group of babblers up
ahead, and I whipped out the binoculars to confirm what type…. HALL’S BABBLERS!
Another lifer, and the last species of babbler in Australia that I hadn’t seen.
We watched a group of 10 for a little while, and went back to camp with a great
list of 40 species to share at that evening’s bird call.
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| Hall's Babblers, Bowra Sanctuary, QLD |
The next day, having already seen nearly all of the species
we were hoping for, we decided the best course of action was to revisit the
places we had found most productive. We started with the Sawpits Waterhole, but
didn’t see anything new. We passed back through the homestead and lagoon area,
where we added Diamond Dove and Chestnut-crowned Babbler to our list, and on to
the Airport Track, Back Dam, and the Homestead Circuit again. On our way back
along the Homestead circuit, a parrot-shaped bird in a tree turned out to be a
RED-WINGED PARROT! It actually turned out to be a pair, and I got a couple of
dodgy photos before they disappeared. We also picked up Chestnut-rumped
thornbills and Bluebonnets nearby.
We cooked ourselves up some lunch back at camp and a couple
of feathered friends kept us entertained. First, a Spotted Bowerbird flew down
to a nearby log and was hanging around watching us for a little while, before
getting a bit more bold and coming close to inspect our tent, possibly thinking
of going inside to look for treasures! When he left us, a Grey Butcherbird
swooped in and landed on the edge of the BBQ, which thankfully had cooled down
enough not to burn his little feet!
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| Spotted Bowerbird, Bowra Sanctuary, QLD |
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| Spotted Bowerbird, Bowra Sanctuary, QLD |
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| Grey Butcherbird, Bowra Sanctuary, QLD |
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| Grey Butcherbird, Bowra Sanctuary, QLD |
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| Camp area lagoon, Bowra Sanctuary, QLD |
On our way back out for the afternoon birding session, we picked up White-breasted Woodswallow, Welcome Swallow and Australasian Grebe near the homestead. At Sawpits Waterhole we saw a group of three grey-crowned babblers, and a pair of Australian Wood Ducks, the only ducks recorded on site while we were there. Altogether we ended up with 57 species at Bowra, including 3
lifers. All of my lists for the different locations within Bowra (as well as many locations from this trip) are on eBird.
***EDIT*** - I had originally ID'd the bird below as a Whistling Kite, it appears to actually be an immature Black-breasted Buzzard! I have only seen this species once before, soaring over us on our way to Alice Springs two years ago. Thanks to Sam Gordon for the ID.
I have added a few more photos of the bird below. I came across it while it was having a bit of a bath in the lagoon, then it flew up onto the branch to dry off.
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| Black-breasted Buzzard. Bowra Sanctuary, QLD |
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| Black-breasted Buzzard. Bowra Sanctuary, QLD |
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| Black-breasted Buzzard. Bowra Sanctuary, QLD |
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| Black-breasted Buzzard. Bowra Sanctuary, QLD |
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| Sunrise at Bowra |
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