Wild Goose: November 2015

Travelogue 2015/2 Bilung Pool #9

G’day,

img-2019 Whistling Kite

Oct 11th, 2015. With reluctance we packed up and headed east from our two day stay at the very rewarding bird watching and photographing spot at the eucalyptus pool on Butchers Track. Within minutes we came across an Emu with his chicks crossing the road. This is an interesting spectacle to watch if you ever get the opportunity. Dad parks his chicks in the scrub on the side of the road and crosses over to the other side to ensure everything is to his liking then he calls his chicks across. He waits until all of the chicks are safely across they then head off in a family group with Dad leading the way. Unfortunately we arrived in the middle of this scene and there was much scurrying of chicks as the whole family took off in to the scrub, Dad leading, after being rudely frightened, by a huge grey monster. I did manage to get a couple of photos of the back end of the chicks.

img-2020 Emu and Chicks

img-2021 Emu Chick
Tail-end Charlie scurrying away.

Dad waited until all of his chicks were in front of him before he too took off.

img-2022 Emu (male) and Chicks

Emus are normally an inquisitive bird and are more likely to walk up to a vehicle with an inquisitive look about it than tear off in a mad panic. I suspect that this was the same family that took off from the pool of water and that, maybe, he had lost a chick or two to a passing vehicle and had developed a keen dislike to humans and their vehicles?
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
After driving 45 kms east we arrived at the Tee junction with the Carnarvon Mullewa Road. Then north for 140 kms and we duly arrived at Bilung Creek and Bilung Pool. Bilung Pool is about half way between the small town of Gascoyne Junction (population 250) and the much smaller community of Murchison (permanent population-nil) a 310 km trip between the two communities. The Carnarvon Mullewa Road is 674 kilometres in length with only the two small communities mentioned above and nine cattle stations in between. In other words Bilung Pool is fairly isolated.

Butchers Track/ Carnarvon Mullewa Tee Junction

Reproduced from Google Earth (hence the yellow line)

img-2023 Perentie Bilung Pool

img-2025 Australian Bustard male

These fellas stand over a metre tall.

img-2026 Australian Bustard

img-2028 Australian Bustard

img-2042 Peewit

img-2044 Peewit and chick

Note that the adult on the right has a grub in its beak ready to feed the chick.

img-2046 Peewit with grub

img-2048 Peewit chick

img-2053 Peregrine Falcon

The Falcon spent about 15 minutes quietly standing in the water and when it decide all was safe it took a bath which lasted another 5 minutes or so. First time I have seen a raptor taking a prolonged bath with much flapping and splashing. It was a hot day.

img-2056 Peregrine Falcon

img-2058 Peregrine Falcon

img-2062 Whistling Kite + pair of Zebra Finch

The significance of the next five photos is not the raptor in her nest which I concluded is a Whistling Kite. Not because I can tell from the photo but because we saw many Whistling Kites in nests and every one of them had one or more boarders and they were all Zebra Finches. A close look at img-2064.1 shows a pair of Zebra Finches and their nest which is a bunch of lighter coloured sticks just to the right of the bird on the left side of the raptors nest.

img-2064 Zebra Finch Nest

img2064.1 Zebra Finch Nest-- bottom left

img-2067 Zebra Finch pair

There are two Finch nests in the above pic. One next to the Finch and the second high up on the right next to the large feather which is most likely part of the Finch nest.

img-2067 Zebra Finch male

img-2063 A family of Wieros

At least two of these birds are juveniles.

img-2070 An extremely savage and dangerous Australian Carnivore

Bonnie is a Maltese Shih Tzu cross and is exceptionally well behaved around birds and lizards.

img-2078 Spinifex Pigeon

img-2080 Spinifex Pigeon

img-2082 Spinifex Pigeon

Bilung Pool is a plunge pool located at the bottom of a 20' waterfall. Bilung Creek is a short watercourse about 30 kilometres long with about 10 kms flowing through a 100 metre wide gorge and in to the Wooramel River. 100 years ago it was a vital watering point on the De-Grey Mullewa Stock Route. A sign indicates that over 100,000 sheep plus many thousands of cattle were watered here in good years. The stock had a devastating effect on the nearby Mulga as there is very little in the way of perennials growing within 350 metres of the pool. Below is a view looking north standing at the top of the pool where our caravan is in the following picture. The view is the same for virtually 360 degrees.

img-0061

img-2136 Bilung Pool Campsite

img-2136 Bilung Pool

img taken from Google Earth from a height of 5,620 ft.

The image shows the scarcity of vegetation surrounding the pool, the eucalypt forest growing in the gorge west of the pool and the nearly dry 20 metre wide pool just below my yellow pin. The plunge pool is surrounded on three sides by cliffs and is 100 metres wide when full.

img-2086 Little Eagle and chick

The following few photos were taken in the creek directly above the plunge pool.

img-2092 Perentie

img-2093 Perentie

img-2097 Perentie

img-2105 Little Corella

img-2109 Australian Hobby???

Bilung Pool is a difficult site to take photos of birds due to the height of the trees and the birds tend to be on the other side of the pool and difficult to see. Or the birds are hidden behind the thick eucalypt foliage. Poor excuse eh?

img-2112 Australian Grebe

img-2115 Whistling Kite

img-2117 Little Corella

img-2121 ??? Little Eagle ???

img-2125 White-browed Babbler

img-2127 Twenty Eight male- or Australian Ringneck if you prefer.

img-2130 White-browed Babbler

img-2134 Whistling Kite

It was beer o'clock and I was sitting by the waters edge enjoying a couple of coldies when I became aware of a Perentie approaching me from behind. He came around behind a tree tasting the air with his tongue as he approached me. When he got to within three feet of me and was still approaching I decided he had invaded too much of my personal space so I stood up and backed off a bit. He showed no concern with me at all. I wasn't concerned either but they have a nasty bite and can scratch like hell if upset. It was me and not the lizard that maintained a couple of feet of separation. They are the largest goanna in Australia and the fourth largest lizard on earth. They grow to 2.5 metres long and can run like the billy-oh when disturbed. A similar goanna is the Bungarra which grows to 1.5 metres.

img-2148 Perentie

img-2149 Perentie

img-2150 Perentie

img-2153 Eucalyptus camaldulensis River Gum
The most widely spread eucalypt naturally growing in Australia

img-2155 Zebra Finch nest in a Whistling Kite nest

img-2156 Pied Butcherbird

img-2158 Pied Butcherbird juvenile

img-2162 Purple Mulla Mulla

img2164 Galah

img-2167 Blue-winged Kookaburra

At the very southern extent of its range. Blue-winged Kookaburras sound nothing like their cousins, the Laughing Kookaburra, but are easily reocognised, even if you can't see them, as they sound all for the world like a tribe of screeching monkeys high up in a tree.
Sometimes you can have your camera pointing in exactly the right direction with your finger on the trigger and the lens focused and capture a shot in a million. The next shot was just such a shot.

img-2169 Blue-winged Kookaburra + Torresian Crow

img-2170 Crow attacking Kookaburra.

The Kookaburra would eat the crows eggs and or chicks given half a chance. The scene lasted all of a second before the Kookaburra took flight. I wasn't quick enough to capture both of them in flight although I tried I missed.

img-2173 Bilung Creek below the Plunge Pool

img2177 Native Hibiscus growing in the creek

Although it's common name is hibiscus it is not related to the Hibiscus's that grow in your garden.

img-2181 Pink and Grey Galah female
This Galah seems to be a much darker shade of pink than its southern relatives?

img-2185 Peregrine Falcon and Chick

img-2188 Peregrine Falcon and Chick

img-2191 Wood Duck juvenile

img-2194 Perentie
This fella was digging for tasty morsels of food in the soft sand..

img-2198 Pink and Grey Galah

img-2203 Galah juvenile

img-2207 Peregrine Falcon and Chick

img-2212 Bilung Creek
Up stream from the plunge pool and west of the road

img-2214 Bilung Creek

Google earth incorrectly call this pool Bilung Pool. It is at least a kilometre long when full and is located on the east side of the Carnarvon Mullewa Road 500 metres east of the plunge pool. The pool is created by a natural rock barrier which the creek crossing has been constructed on.

img-2215 Whistling Kite

img-2218 Little Corella

This brings to and end the birds of Bilung Pool but if you would like to see more images of the area surrounding Bilung Pool plus some more birds then click on this link:

Travelogue 2015/1 continued Bilung Pool

This Travelogue was from May 2015

Next is the birds of Ballinyoo Pool: Below is a sample of birds to come.