Night Parrots - Great Sandy Desert/CSR

Submitted: Tuesday, Oct 17, 2017 at 23:33

ThreadID: 135766 Views:6373 Replies:3 FollowUps:1

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Canning Stock Route

The Canning Stock Route is a long-distance remote stretch of track through the Gibson and Great Sandy Deserts. No longer in use as a stock route this is now a vehicular track allowing access to the

Canning Stock Route

Section: Treks

The Canning Stock Route is a long-distance remote stretch of track through the Gibson and Great Sandy Deserts. No longer in use as a stock route this is now a vehicular track allowing travel along

The Explorer

Slightly old news but another night parrot record in the Great Sandy Desert. These (a picture and call) were recorded during survey work by the Paruku Rangers in July (but just released) with help from WWF which is fantastic.

More easily found by sound than sight - have a listen to the calls here (may or may not have been posted before but WA calls now included).

Night Parrot Calls

More info on this sighting/record on the ABC news website here

Cheers
Greg

I sent one final shout after him to stick to the track, to which he replied “All right,” That was the last ever seen of Gibson - E Giles 23 April 1874

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Reply By: Phil B (WA) - Wednesday, Oct 18, 2017 at 10:16

Wednesday, Oct 18, 2017 at 10:16

Thanks for the update Greg - any news about these rare birds is much appreciated.

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Reply By: Sigmund - Saturday, Oct 21, 2017 at 10:02

Saturday, Oct 21, 2017 at 10:02

The Warden of the Broome Bird Observatory and colleagues have also sighted one in WA.

They used Google Earth to analyse the vegetation forms around the Diamantina locatings, found similar forms in WA and went looking.

Old growth spinifex seems to be necessary. Not surprising.

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Follow Up By: The Explorer - Saturday, Oct 21, 2017 at 10:49

Saturday, Oct 21, 2017 at 10:49

Yes - they are friends of mine. That was the sighting (in March 2017) that attracted everyone's attention in WA to the fact they were still definitely around, after a population was detected in Queensland in 2013.

Night parrot sighting in Western Australia

I have been on a couple of surveys with one of the guys looking for them myself.

Over the years there has actually been a number of reported sightings (and some unreported).NatureMap shows 15 records in WA but most have a degree of doubt attached to them as there is no photographs/call recordings, just brief glimpses of what appeared to be a night parrot.

Night Parrots NatureMap

Atlas of Living Australia shows 107 records (for all of Australia) and some different ones for WA (compared to NatureMap).

Night Parrot ALA

So they have been popping up here and there over the years - its just now we have a handle on their calls and access to relatively cheap call recorders (easiest way to find them), which makes getting "believable" records easier (as apposed to "I think I heard/saw a night parrot").

As indicated in the Paruka Rangers ABC article I posted there are recent (2017) recordings of confirmed night parrot calls from two other WA locations that are yet to be made public.

Cheers
Greg

I sent one final shout after him to stick to the track, to which he replied “All right,” That was the last ever seen of Gibson - E Giles 23 April 1874

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Reply By: Member - bungarra (WA) - Monday, Oct 23, 2017 at 11:11

Monday, Oct 23, 2017 at 11:11

Hi Greg
Appreciate your post, really good information. What really caught my interest as well was the Nature map and the the Dept Website.....I had no idea it existed.!
Have now registered and logged in and checked sightings of some birds (and a few mammals) of note that I have sighted over the years (and reported) that I just assumed disappeared into a vault of nothing and some perceived disinterest at times.
I was delighted that my efforts were not in vain as there they were!.... most were noted and some credited.
The credit didn't bother me other than confirm that it was mine and reassured me that my sightings were noted and accepted as credible. I'm rapt...one recorded sighting of 12 years ago is missing ..and a really interesting one at that owing to its locality...but now I have this link I will soon correct that
Thanks again..great link
Cheers
Graeme