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Private birding trip report Little Desert National Park. The Little Desert is certainly sandy in many sections, but it is covered in extensive areas of heathland or forest, so it is not a barren desert. A fire last summer had burned much of the eastern section of the Park, and it will take some time for this area to recover, but fire is a naturally occurring phenomenon and the area will regenerate when rain falls again. As we travel along the road from Pimpinio, Ian’s sharp eyes noted a pair of Bluebonnets flying into a stand of Bulloak trees. We had good views of these parrots, noting the blue face, yellow wing stripe and red belly. Bernie then drew our attention to a beautiful male Red-capped Robin nearby. Jacky Winters perched on a fence and Red-rumped Parrots, Eastern Rosellas and Yellow-rumped Thornbills were also seen.
At Ellis’ Crossing, we walked along the Wimmera River. Several White-browed Babblers were seen in bushes along the river bank, and both Brown and also White-throated Treecreepers were fossicking up and down the tree trunks. Our Delica van has seen some rough roads and a few muddy tracks in Southern Victoria, but we had not tested it in sandy areas before. The sand was fairly firm after some recent rain, and the Delica had no trouble getting us to a nice patch of forest on the southern end of the Park. The Yellow Gums were in blossom and this section had lots of birds. Highlights were the Southern Scrub-robin, Diamond Firetail.
There were also lots of Striated Pardalote. These birds were race substriatus which has a red wing spot and a wide white wing edge – the race we see in Southern Victoria during winter is usually striatus with a yellow wingspot. In the heathland, we caught glimpses of the Shy Heathwren as it moved about in the bushes. A little further on, we stopped again to watch at least 20 Peaceful Doves and a pair of Hooded Robins in a paddock next to the park.
We drove out of the Park and moved further west, stopping to check a few Red-capped Plover at the salt lakes at Duchembegarra. We re-entered the Park from the south and travelled east, stopping at sites where the birds were active. The best spot allowed us views of Tawny-crowned Honeyeater, glimpses of White-fronted Honeyeater more Red-capped Robins and a few White-eared Honeyeaters. Turning north, we travelled through extensive areas that had been burned in the recent fire, so there were few birds about. The salt lakes in the centre of the Park were also bird-free, so we drove through to the delightful Kiata camp ground. This site has ample room for many campers, lots of picnic tables, toilets and shady trees. A walk along tracks near the camp ground allowed us to see more honeyeaters, Grey Shrike-thrush and more White-browed Babblers. We had seen Brown Thornbills earlier in the day, and the thornbills we saw near the track appeared at first to be more of this species, but careful observation showed them to be Inland Thornbills. These birds often cock their tail, like a heathwren, the rump is a bright chestnut, there was no brown on the forehead and they were pale underneath. We finished up with a walk around the Keith Hateley Nature Walk, noting the old Mallee Fowl mound. This area had many interesting plants. Although we had spent a day in the Little Desert National Park, we had only explored a small section of the 132,000 hectares of this marvellous Mallee country. The park is about 100Km wide and 20 Km from North to South. Next time we visit, we will camp for a few days and investigate some of the areas further west. Barry |
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