Ghost Gum - Endemic Eucalyptus of Central Australia (corymbia apparrerinja)
Check my birding map for specific location.
Trephina Gorge is an hour's drive east of Alice Springs and within it there are 4 campgrounds. 3 were accessible to me in my camper and as I didn't know which was best I booked to stay 2 nights at each. The gorge itself is stunning with huge orange/red cliffs surrounding the dry creek bed. The birdlife was abundant and I spent hours each day counting and photographing them. My favourite site was the Panorama Campground with big bays and a central area for picnics and BBQs. To the back of my site was an open area that had been somewhat burned in a wildfire that had passed through 6 weeks before. Not very pretty really but it seemed good for the insectivores.
I explored the campsites and the gorge, walking long the creek bed and climbing to the top of the cliffs. The views were amazing and you had to wonder at the forces of nature that created these amazing places. I cannot get over how odd it is, though, as the vast majority of creeks are dry. Some of them are huge and it gives me the shivers to think of the amount of water that must be present at times, to fill them. Central Australia is a very interesting and unusual place.
There were not many raptors present in the gorge but I did get a glimpse of a Peregrine Falcon a few times. I wondered if the other species prefer more open ground. One thing it isn't short of is honeyeaters. I saw Brown, Spiny-cheeked, White-plumed, Grey-headed, Singing Honeyeaters and of course the ever noisy Yellow-throated Miner. At the Panorama site there was a water tap (amazingly, the water was drinkable which I didn't find in the more commercial West MacDonnell Ranges) and a container for the birds. Behind that was a big bush and a cursory look indicated activity. I pulled up a chair and just sat for a while. There can't be many pastimes where sitting in front of a bush can be so rewarding! Zebra Finches flew in, drank and chatted and flew out again all day long. It was almost therapeutic to watch them. Loud as they were, the dominant noise was from the Peaceful Doves. I haven't heard their regular calling since I left Far North Queensland and it was lovely to be able to listen to them again. There were a few handsome Diamond Doves too and I laughed as a poor bird spent 10 minutes going around and around the water container and never figured out how to reach the water.
Singing Honeyeater (Gavicalis virescens)
White-plumed Honeyeater (Ptilotula penicillata)
I heard Horsfield Bronze Cuckoos calling frequently and spent a happy afternoon either photographing one out of the back of my van or creeping around the area trying to get closer to another. One morning I saw them mating and then one feeding another. Just for once everything came together and I got that on video! I was usually glad of a break though from their incessant whine though, the call not reflecting the beauty of the bird. It was good that I had got used to the call, however, here and in the Western Macs as I knew straight away when I heard a similar call that it must be the Black-eared Cuckoo. I played the call on an app to check and to my delight, a bird flew straight into the bush opposite me. An easy lifer. I got some more photos before it left and I didn't hear the call again.
Black-eared Cuckoo (Chrysococcyx osculans)
Horsfield's Bronze-Cuckoo (Chrysococcyx basalis)
In the afternoons, the Hooded Robin were active and I was thrilled when a male and female came to bathe in my makeshift waterhole. I always put out a container of water behind my van, no matter where I stay. Sometimes birds find it and sometimes they don't. The robin is a particularly attractive bird so I took a lot of photos that afternoon. The Zebra Finches and White-plumed Honeyeaters were also good customers.
Female and male Hooded Robin (Melanodryas cucullata)
Another treat was to see the Red-backed Kingfisher sitting up high and calling. For a single, repeated note is was piercing and beautiful. I saw and heard it several times during my stay but with some scrambling over rocks I managed to get close enough to it once to photograph and video. He called for 2 days and at the end of the 3rd another bird arrived and they flew off together, so romantic!
Red-backed Kingfisher (Todiramphus pyrrhopygi)
Another lifer at Trephina was the Little Woodswallow. In the open space behind my van at the Panorama site they would catch bugs in the afternoon. I have checked so many woodswallows and have always found the Black-faced variety so I initially assumed these were too. Grudgingly I decided to check again and to my delight, they were obviously smaller and darker. Bingo!
Little Woodswallow (Artamus minor)
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