We jokingly made a plan to celebrate ‘Crested Pigeon Appreciation Day’ as we drove off to Murray Sunset National Park to search for our real targets. We had seen a Crested Pigeon in perfect lighting right on the side of the road but didn’t stop to look at it which is what prompted the spontaneous creation of the holiday. The conversation shifted and soon Ross and I were talking about the common birds to be seen in Australia (or anywhere for that matter) that are downright cool-looking but because they are so common they don’t get the recognition they might if they were much rarer. (How amazing would the US’s bright red Northern Cardinal be if it were rare??) The fact that certain birds are so common can often result in just a short glance because, don’t worry, you’ll see them a hundred more times. You can always stop to look at them longer some other day. But then what if that prolonged time you spend with the common bird never happens because you are always chasing something rarer?
We pulled up to the mallee forest a bit later than Ross would have liked and immediately heard our most important target of the morning, Red-lored Whistler, singing. Unfortunately that particular bird shut up quick before we ever saw it and we were forced to find another. But with each passing moment the dry, sandy forest was getting quieter. We enjoyed walking through the open mallee habitat but we saw almost no birds at all. It was my first experience walking through the sharp, skin piercing knife grass known as spinifex. It was also my first experience seeing a grasswren species, a charismatic family of birds endemic to Australia. (I will do an entire write-up about these birds in a future post so stay tuned for that, it’s going to be GOOD.) Unfortunately the group of six Striated Grasswrens that we had dancing around in front of us were the only birds that cooperated for us that morning. We spent hours walking and searching for Red-lored Whistler and Mallee Emuwren and kept coming up empty.
Ross, who was in the beginning stages of feeling ill, was dreading taking Roger and I back to town and driving back to the mallee forest to continue the search but he was prepared to do just that if he needed to. (Roger was going to need a nap/a bit of playtime which is why he and I were going to go back mid-day.) Crested Pigeon appreciation afternoon was officially cancelled. Clearly it had already been downgraded to Crested Pigeon appreciation afternoon when our real targets weren’t cooperating. We started on the ride back to the hotel, only stopping to check one last point, when we spotted a small flock of birds fly across the road. Since this was literally the first flock of the day we decided to stop and check it out. Scarlet-capped Robin, Inland & Chestnut-rumped Thornbills, Chestnut Quailthrush and a few whistlers amongst other species made up the flock. We spent some time following these birds around before officially concluding we had seen at least three Red-Lored Whistlers! (It took some time to rule out the rather similar Gilbert’s Whistler until we realized the diagnostic rufous vents of Red-lored! Oops!) With our #1 target seen, suddenly the morning wasn’t all bad! Then, not five minutes after leaving that flock, we stopped at a point for Mallee Emuwren and had great success with a pair dancing around the spines of a Porcupine bush! Impressive that these tiny emuwrens can meander around the sharp spines with no trouble, but no wonder their long tail is as wispy as it is! Now with both of our main targets acquired, Crested Pigeon appreciation afternoon was back on after briefly being cancelled!
But as we drove back to town Ross got progressively more sick and by the time we got back to the hotel we were sleeping in that night he could do nothing more than lay in bed. Roger and I left him to sleep and attempted to have our own fun walking around the lakeshore of Barmera and watching the Eurasian Coots. Between his back injury, a knee injury from a hard fall in the Barren Grounds, and this new sickness causing extreme fatigue and general malaise, Ross was a shell of the person he normally was. He didn’t have any energy to eat let alone celebrate Crested Pigeon. Despite these ailments, and against my advice, we woke up extremely early the following morning to get to the renown Gluepot Reserve right at first light.
Gluepot Reserve, owned by Birdlife Australia, is part of the largest block of intact mallee left in the country. Grazing impact and burns have been minimal at Gluepot (where they’ve been widespread and abundant elsewhere) and thus substantial areas of mallee and Casuarina woodland contain trees that are hundreds of years old. It is known for being a great spot to go birdwatching with 190 bird species tallied at the reserve. Aside from being a great birding destination, Gluepot is the last stronghold for Black-eared Miner.
But before I continue, please allow me to go on a small tangent: I (Melissa) don’t believe in Black-eared Miner; As in, I don’t believe it is a full species. Normally I’m all for species splits — split everything I don’t care, but go ahead and lump Black-eared and Yellow-throated Miners. They interbreed heavily because they are the same bird. That’s my stance. (But I’m also known for being a bit stubborn and reckless so take that for what it’s worth.) Ross on the other day would like to defer whether or not Black-eared Miner deserves species status to the scientific community. When the scientific community goes ahead and makes up its mind on what is the definition of a species, then Ross will have his decision about Black-eared Miner. Until then, he’s not willing to say one way or the other. (Yes it is 2023 and there is still a debate on what is the true criteria for defining a species. Keep in mind that the leading definition of a species according to biologists is: a group of living organisms consisting of similar individuals capable of exchanging genes or interbreeding.)
In the case of Black-eared and Yellow-throated Miners, these two “species” are basically the same except Black-eared is slightly darker and is found in thicker mallee forest. Otherwise they sound the same and inter-breed heavily. So this is me (Melissa) suggesting that Black-eared Miner was never anything more than a color morph of Yellow-throated but I have absolutely no scientific qualifications to make such brazen claims. Instead, here’s a fascinating research paper by people who actually know what they are talking about if you’re curious to learn more about Black-eared and Yellow-throated Miners.
But in case you don’t have time to read that, I’ll summarize: Black-eared Miners mainly inhabit specific mallee types that haven’t been burnt for over 60 years. Prior to land clearing, there was minimal hybridization between the Black-eared and Yellow-throated Miners in restricted areas where their habitats were adjacent. After significant land clearing, especially after 1945, the number of hybrids in Black-eared Miner colonies increased substantially. The taxonomic status of the Black-eared Miner has been uncertain. It has been regarded as a species by some, but others now consider it a subspecies of the Yellow-throated Miner. The lack of variation in Black-eared Miners before 1940 and the sudden rise in hybrid abundance after major land clearing in 1945 support the notion of distinct species and intermediate hybrids. Genetic research is expected to clarify this taxonomic question.
According to the research paper, the birds have been hybridizing greatly since before the 1950’s when the mallee interior was thinned. Now basically the only way to see a Black-throated Miner is to find a bird that is “good enough.” (But one could make a perfectly valid argument that Black-throated Miner has been hybridized out of existence altogether. And according to the paper, a truly real Black-throated Miner, if there ever was such a thing, probably hasn’t existed since the 1950’s.) Gluepot is the last strong hold for Black-throated Miner (whatever that is) and we visited Gluepot, but not to see Black-eared Miner. In fact, we didn’t even look for Black-eared Miner at all while we were there. (Not because Ross didn’t want to but I’ll get to that in a sec.) We visited Gluepot, a fantastic birding destination, for a much better bird: Scarlet-chested Parrot.
These brightly colored nomadic desert parrots are extremely rare to see. They feed on the ground in arid bushland in response to favorable climatic conditions like rainfall, fire, and the resultant availability of food resources. To put it another way, they are driven by weather and food productivity and often move around greatly as a result, making them very rare and poorly understood.
It was -6°C when we arrived, much colder than we thought it would be, but unsurprising given mallee forest is such a sparce, sandy habitat. It’s no wonder the temperature swings just like it would in the desert. If it were just Ross and I, we would have camped in the reserve because it’s cheaper and closer to the birding site but the biggest change we’ve had to make with our normal birding schedule since inviting along a 9 month old, was slowing it down considerably, stopping mid day to give the baby time to explore the world from his belly, and getting a hotel room every night so he could sleep in reasonable temperatures. (The whole hotel situation was costing us around $100USD/night that we could normally save by camping.)
Anyway, we arrived at Gluepot super early, remarked how hardy the birds must be to live here when temps drop so low at night, and then set off to find the group of Scarlet-chested Parrots that were being reported.
Let me also pause to acknowledge Scarlet-chested Parrot as one of Australia’s rarest birds. Many Outback species are sparce and nomadic and this particular parrot happens to be both of those things making seeing this bird extremely difficult. It also happens to be extremely good looking. Again, rare birds get more recognition than their common peers at baseline just because they are so rare, but when they are both rare AND good looking then it is a real double whammy and Scarlet-chested Parrot fits that bill! Luckily over the last few months, a “once-in-a-lifetime” flock of Scarlet-chested Parrots has been feeding in an old burn at Gluepot. At times the flock has numbered nearly 100 individuals which is absolutely unheard of. Birders from all over the country were flying in to tick these rare and elusive parrots! Ross has had this day circled on his calendar for months!
He was too sick to move to celebrate Crested Pigeon Appreciation afternoon, but it didn’t matter how Ross was feeling, seeing these parrots was an instant, albeit temporary, cure! He immediately found a flock of 15 Scarlet-chested Parrots right at first light and we spent the entire morning watching them feed on the seeding bushes at our feet. The entire time Ross felt great and we watched closely and with great detail and could hear their beaks hard at work as they cracked open the tiny seeds of the ground shrubs that they were feeding on.
But once the adrenaline of seeing such a good bird faded, Ross became progressively sicker and sicker. He could barely move let alone speak. His desire to spend hours searching for an “almost good enough looking” Black-eared Miner was fading. Soon he had no energy at all and we left Gluepot altogether and moved directly onward to our next hotel for the night so Ross could sleep. Our time in Gluepot may have been cut short, but nonetheless it was a real success. Those Scarlet-chested Parrots were out of this world!
(Black-eared Miner isn’t a real bird anyway.)
This birding occurred on 18-19 July 2023
Sample eBird checklist from Murray Sunset here and Gluepot here.
For those curious minds, we concluded Ross had developed strep. His throat was swollen, he could barely swallow, he was too tired to walk, and large white spots coated his lymph nodes in the back of his throat. He started antibiotics that night which helped him gain his energy back so he could continue on with the trip without a single day lost. I urged him to rest because that is the best thing to do when you are sick, but he insisted the trip must go on as planned!
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