Queensland's Channel Country#2: some animals

Last time I offered an introduction to south-west Queensland's Channel Country, one of our (many) favourite destinations, a vast arid and semi-arid area of wide plains and braided stream channels that ultimately empty into Kati Thanda - Lake Eyre. Today, as promised, I'm going to complete this little series by introducing some of the animals we've come across in our various visits. It's not entirely representative as we tend to go there in the cooler months (except for one April stay in Bladensburg NP, south of Winton and close to the northern edge of the Channel Country), so reptiles for instance feature here far less than they should. The mammals are largely nocturnal so we tend to miss those too but I offer a few here. So it's mostly birds and invertebrates this time, hope you keep reading anyway! It's turned out to be longer than I'd anticipated, my regular readers will not be at all surprised to learn.

We'll start with three different plovers, all of them inland specialists though one extends to the coast as well.

Black-fronted Dotterel Charadrius melanops on one of the Diamantina Channels.
This little wader can be found on any inland water body but also sometimes comes to
the coast. For a long time it was placed in its own genus, but very recently it was
reinstated in the 'general' dotterel genus Charadrius. It seems that this species
and the next evolved on the inland waterways as Australia dried out.

Red-kneed Dotterel Erythrogonys cinctus, on the same channel as the previous one.
This very pretty dotterel is definitely a bird of the inland, and retains its
single-species-genus status.

 

Banded Lapwing Vanellus tricolor west of Windorah. This lapwing is essentially
a dry-country bird, though it sometimes irrupts into the south-east. It is closely
related to the other Australian lapwing, the familiar Masked Lapwing V. miles.
I reckon this one's more attractive though!

There are some impressive pigeons and doves too.

Diamond Dove Geopelia cuneata, Morney Creek, 150k west of Windorah.
A common little dove across most of the inland, and near the coast in the tropics.

Spinifex Pigeon Geophaps plumifera, also at our Morney Creek camp.
These delightful little desert pigeons are among our favourites. Their main
needs appear to be spinifex (of course), rocks and not to be too far from
water (like other pigeons and seed-eating birds).

 

Flock Bronzewing Phaps histrionica just west of Windorah. This was an
unexpected treat. Their core range is the vast Mitchell Grass plains of northern
Australia, though they used to extend far beyond that. However they are
highly nomadic and they can still turn up unexpectedly elsewhere in good seasons.
Indeed I've only seen them five times and three of those have been
in the Channel Country. They were superabundant before the sheep arrived
but even as recently as 1968 the great Australian ornithologist Harry Frith reported
from near Katherine in the Northern Territory a flock "a kilometre long and
10-20 metres thick, flying on a front of 100m". What a sight!

Of course the channels support water birds, sometimes in huge numbers. Last post contained an image of part of a big flock of Little Black Cormorants by the road bridge over Cooper Creek near Windorah; often this species accompanies Pelican feeding flocks. Here are a couple more, and arguably another..

White-necked Heron Ardea pacifica at Bladensburg NP.
We can see this handsome heron anywhere in Australia, but it is always a pleasure.

Glossy Ibis Plegadis falcinellus in an ephemeral wetland west of Windorah. This
attractive little ibis (they were rather distant here) is found across Australia,
though it is much commoner in the tropics, and Africa. It also has populations
scattered across Asia and around the Caribbean.

Brolgas however are a bit harder to categorise; cranes are often thought of as waterbirds, and Brolgas nest and sometimes feed in wetlands, but they are equally at home foraging and display 'dancing' on the plains. It's not important how we classify them, they are truly magnificent birds either way. They are present throughout the Channel Country and you'd be unlucky to pass a day there without seeing or hearing them.

Brolga Antigone rubicunda by the road to the Noccundra Pub and Waterhole.
The latter, an excellent camp site, is on the Wilson River and the two are
within perfect walking distance of each other.

Brolgas displaying in grasslands near the Diamantina Channels.

And while we're on it, there's also another Big B Bird that you'll almost certainly encounter in a trip to the region.

Male Australian Bustard Ardeotis australis, Farrans Creek west of Windorah.
He stands about 120cm tall and weighs up to 8kg, which I think
makes him Australia's most massive flying terrestrial bird.
It's always a thrill to see them.

There are of course parrots and cockatoos; here are just a couple of them that you're unlikely to see in less arid areas.

Flock of Cockatiels Nymphicus hollandicus, Bladensburg NP.
Australia's smallest cockatoo, chattery flocks of them can turn up
anywhere in the Channel Country.

Bourke's Parrot Neopsephotus bourkii west of Windorah.
I'd not normally inflict quite such an ordinary photo on you, but I've
always found these very hard to approach and photograph, so it's a case
of something hopefully being better than nothing.
They're found across central Australia west from the Channel Country,
not really rare but shy and quite cryptic, though when seen well their
softly pink undersides and blue rump are truly lovely.

There are lots of birds of prey, especially the ubiquitous Black Kites and Whistling Kites along the waterways, but here's one that not nearly as common, though it can turn up across most of the country.

Black Falcon Falco subniger, Bladensburg NP. Other than the semi-mythical (😀)
Grey Falcon this is the least-known of Australian falcons.

And any small lizard or grasshopper would agree that a Red-backed Kingfisher is a predator!

A Red-backed Kingfisher Todiramphus pyrrhopygius at Welford NP, just showing off
its red rump. It is found across much of Australia but is an arid land specialist.
It belongs to a large genus of non-fishing 'tree kingfishers' found from the Philippines
to Australia and across much of the Pacific.

And finally for the birds, a small selection of passerines. The woodswallows are among my favourite bird groups. (Though aerial insect eaters, they are not at all related to swallows and in fact are closest to the magpies and butcherbirds.) In Australia most of the six species are nomads across the dry country, and beyond it during droughts. They often appear in large flocks near water in the evenings, and will arrive in big numbers when the eucalypts are flowering, when they feed on the nectar..

A very small part of a mixed flock of White-browed and Masked Woodswallows
in front of storm clouds west of Windorah.

White-browed Woodswallows Artamus superciliosus;
female above south of Jundah and
male below at our Morney Creek camp.
He in particular is a most striking bird.

Black-faced Woodswallow Artamus cinereus, Bladensburg NP.
This one is the most sedentary of Australian woodswallows, so rarely
forms large flocks but is commonly seen along the wires by inland roads.

Of the true swallows the most commonly seen is the pretty little Fairy Martin Petrochelidon ariel. Almost any road culvert, especially when water is present, is likely to host a nesting colony of them, such as this one west of Windorah. 

The mud nests are bottle-shaped when separate, but when the colony is crowded
the nests may merge into each other.

Here's another colony, at Farrans Creek, in a situation that I'd never seen before.

The flood monitoring equipment sits on a platform a few metres above the ground
(and the flood waters) by the creek. The Fairy Martins found the underside of
the platform to be an eminently suitable nesting site.

The Spotted Bowerbird Chlamydera maculata is one of three closely related
arid land bowerbirds, but the only one restricted to eastern Australia.
This one was inspecting our creek-side camp at Bladensburg NP.

One of the delights of arid Australia, including the Channel Country, are the tootling
little flocks of Zebra Finches Taeniopygia castanotis which come to drink at any water
at any time of day. I keep meaning to dedicate a whole blog post to them one day; I just
need one more photo... :-) The most suprising thing about this photo is that there
is just one Zebra Finch in it!

Finally, a fascinating little visitor that came hopping around our feet at the
Morney Creek camp. She is a normally shy female Black Honeyeater Sugomel nigrum,
though only he is actually black (and white). They are tiny, not much more than 10cm long.

Finally she revealed her purpose, by taking ash from our (now cold) fire. This has been
reported before but it's only the second time I've seen it. It is suggested that they are
seeking calcium to assist in egg shell formation (only females have been reported
doing so) but it's so far just speculation. A fascinating behaviour to watch anyway!

Reptiles are diverse and abundant in the Channel Country, but as I mentioned earlier we're usually there in the colder months. Accordingly most of the following reptiles were encountered on our April visit to Bladensburg NP near Winton.

Gilbert's Dragon or Ta Ta Lizard Amphibolurus gilberti, Bladensburg NP.
They 'wave' to other males to indicate territoriality. This young lizard, even if
it were a male, would not dare bring trouble on itself by such effrontery.

Yellow-spotted Monitor Varanus panoptes, Bladensburg NP, visiting camp,
doubtless based on previous positive outcomes. This large goanna is found widely
across northern and western Australia, but has suffered badly from the arrival
of Cane Toads.

Eyrean Earless Dragon Tympanocryptis tetraporophora, Bladensburg NP.
This blunt-faced little dragon is found widely across the Lake Eyre Basin.
(I, with no expertise in this genus, had previously identified it as Gibber Earless
Dragon T. intima, but on further investigation I've changed my mind. Any
assistance gratefully received!)

Central Bearded Dragon Pogona vitticeps, west of Windorah, with head comfortably pillowed on
a dry cow pat! It had braved a day that was far too cold for it, and was unable to flee from us.

Here are some obvious large mammals, for the record.

Dingo Canis lupus or C. familiaris (it really still isn't clear which, ie wolf or ancient
domestic dog) west of Windorah. Despite constant persecution, they can still be
seen or heard across most of the arid inland.

Red Kangaroos Osphranter rufus, mother and semi-independent young,
Welford NP. The largest living marsupial and Australian land mammal,
superbly adapted to life on the open plains.

Euro Osphranter robustus (and bonus Spinifex Pigeons) Bladensburg NP.
This stocky kangaroo is found across most of the continent but is especially
associated with rocky hills.

And finally some invertebrates, a pretty random selection! I'll start with an event that I've only seen once, on a trip to the Channel Country 15 years ago when it had been wet but we were able to drive west from Winton into the Diamantina Channels on a bitumen road. The event was a remarkable mass movement of slaters (or 'flood bugs' as they're also known) along the edge of the road in cracking black soil Mitchell Grass country. The thing is it only seems to happen following rain, and you don't drive in that country then, unless you have the luxury of bitumen.

Slaters Australiodillo bifrons, on the move! They are not insects but crustaceans, and
specifically isopods (like many marine and shoreline animals), and are very ancient. You'll find
some by looking in your compost heap or under rocks or wood in your garden.

More of the massed slaters on the road verge. I did a post on them many years
ago, which has a lot more information if you're interested.

And of course there are spiders, especially orb weavers near water where there are lots of flying insects.

Orbweb spider Family Araneidae, Morney Creek 115k west of Windorah.
She has a row of neatly packaged lunches above her.

The rest are insects.

Grasshopper (sorry I can't do better) and tracks on a dune west of Windorah.

Under certain conditions (which I wrote about here quite briefly long ago, at the very start of my blogging career) four Australian grasshopper species suddenly increase dramatically in number and start to move, causing great alarm in agricultural communities but a providing a massive food source to many other animals too.

Spur-throated Locusts Austracris guttulosa south-west of Quilpie,
above and below.

Moths and butterflies are of course everywhere; here are just a couple of Channel Country species. The same rain event that spurred the flood bugs into action also produced a major breeding flurry west of Windorah among very beautiful White-lined Hawk Moths Hyles livornicoides.

White-lined Hawk Moths mating, and caterpillar (below) travelling
presumably to find a suitable patch of sand for pupating. This was
an impressive event to witness.

Chequered Swallowtail Papilio demoleus, Morney Creek. I have seen this
butterfly referred to as 'perhaps the most widely distributed swallowtail in the world',
so not at all limited to the Channel Country, but I'm happy to see them anywhere.

And to end, another encounter that was due to the rains, a great gathering of water striders in an ephemeral pond between the dunes west of Windorah.

Water striders are bugs (ie members of the insect order Hemiptera, not just
'creepy crawlies'!), with very long middle and hind legs to distribute their
weight enough to walk on the water surface, where they hunt smaller animals.
We can see the long legs in this somewhat muddy closeup.

And that's probably a bit more than enough from me this time! I hope you can experience the wonders of the Channel Country and enjoy them as we have. And you only have to walk on the dunes in the morning to realise how much else goes on at night! Thanks for reading.

NEXT POSTING THURSDAY 6 MARCH

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Queensland's Channel Country#1: landscapes and plants

I've mentioned here before my love affair with south-west Queensland, a vast and varied area which is somehow noticeably 'different' from adjacent NSW and South Australia. An important reason for this is that a large part of it forms the bulk of the bioregion known as the Channel Country for the complex network of braided flood channels that cover the area of some 200,000 square kilometres. All these channels flow away from the sea, mostly ending in waterways such as Cooper Creek, and the Diamantina, Georgina, Thompson, Barcoo and Warburton Rivers, which ultimately flow (occasionally!) as far as Kati Thanda - Lake Eyre in South Australia. Waterholes may be deep and almost permanent in streamlines, or ephemeral after rains.

We can really only get a sense of the complex tapestry of the channel pattern from above; here is an aerial photograph, courtesy of Wikipedia.

 However it's only down on the ground that we can get the detail of the tapestry.

Little Black Cormorants Phalacrocorax sulcirostris massing at Cooper Creek near Windorah.

Early morning on the Barcoo River in Welford National Park.
Here, and in subsequent photos in this series, the dominant waterside
trees are River Red Gums Eucalyptus camaldulensis.

Waterhole on Morney Creek, west of Windorah.

Ephemeral waterholes in the inter-dune swales west of Windorah.

Frances Waterhole, Welford NP.

Sawyer Creek, Welford NP.

Channel Country bioregion, map courtesy Wikipedia. This post focuses on the
Queensland portion of the bioregion, which accounts for most of it.

As in many previous such posts I've got enough material for two posts, so shall do that again rather than turn this post into a marathon. So today some landscapes and plants, next time some animals.

We've looked at some water features - rivers, creeks and waterholes - that are probably the essence of the Channel Country, but there is a true wealth of landscapes in between them. I've already mentioned the River Red Gums that are quintessential to the waterways, and here are a couple of other important Channel Country habitats - arid and semi-arid woodlands, dominated by a few more key tree species, and grassy plains.

Mulga Acacia aneura east of Windorah. This habitat covers some 25% of arid Australia.

Mulga flowers; the long thin phyllodes may vary, but the flower spikes are
distinctive (though not unique to Mulga.)

Gidgee Acacia cambegei and Coolabah Eucalyptus coolabah, growing near Morney Creek,
a hundred or so kilometres west of Windorah.

Gidgee is a favourite of mine, though one of its other names is Stinking Gidgee, suggesting that others are not so keen. It does have a strong odour, especially after rain, but to me it's like vegetable compost and not especially unpleasant. I've camped near many a Gidgee stand, and it's also perhaps the best firewood I know - it's dense and burns hot and slowly, so we use very little in an evening. It tends to grow in dips where water occasionally collects, and near watercourses where it gets overflow water from time to time. Coolabah, which appears often in Australian folklore and song (though I suspect that most of us wouldn't recognise it), has similar requirements, growing by occasionally wet watercourses and out on mostly dry floodplains. 

Flowering Gidgee, Morney Creek.

And just because I can, here are a couple more photos of these trees, River Red Gums at dawn and Gidgee in the evening, at the same site at Morney Creek.

There are also swathes of grassy plains, especially to the west.

Mitchell Grass plains Astrebla spp., Welford NP. There are only four
Mitchell Grass species but between they cover a huge area of cracking clay
plains across dry Australia.

Spinifex Triodia spp., near Farrans Creek 150k west of Windorah.
By contrast with the Mitchell grasses, spinifex grows on sand,
both plains and dunes.

Such dunes can be found rising from the plains in many parts of the Channel Country (and beyond of course) and can be rich red where there is iron present or paler, yellow to almost white.

Morning dune still covered in tracks, west of Windorah.

Vegetated dune (in fact nearly all them are) near Farrans Creek.

Which seems to provide a segue to introduce some other interesting and attractive plants of the Channel Country, though obviously it will be a very random and limited selection! There are no natural barriers between the Channel Country's habitats and the surrounding deserts and arid woodlands, so many of these plants grow widely across arid Australia. Some other trees first.

Ghost Gum Corymbia aparrerinja, west of Windorah.
(Though there is a chance that this is actually Dallachy's Ghost Gum C. dallachiana.
The Atlas of Living Australia suggests that this would be too far south-west,
but the nearby Welford NP Management Plan lists C. dallachiana
as the ghost gum there. I should have looked properly!)

Desert Bloodwood Corymbia terminalis east of Windorah.

Emu Apple Owenia acidula Family Melicaceae, east of Windorah.
In the same family as Red Cedar, this small tree adapted long ago
to a drying Australia and let the rainforests retreat without it. The fruit
is apparently edible, though I've also heard that it's hallucinogenic,
so won't be trying it any time soon. It is found widely in drier
Queensland and Central Australia.

Lolly Bush Clerodendrum floribundum Family Lamiaceae. The 'lolly'
name is for its looks, not edibility. This small tree has a surprising
distribution, growing at the edge of rainforest on the east coast,
and right across the dry tropics. This one was on the edge of a dune
in a sandplain in Welford NP.

Lots of shrubs of course.

Sandhill Wattle Acacia ligulata, Farrans Creek. Found throughout the Channel Country
and indeed most of dry Australia.

Desert Rattlepod Crotalaria eremaea, on a red dune east of Windorah.
This pea shrub is always found on sand, especially dunes, throughout Central
Australia, south-east to the Channel Country.

Green Birdflower Crotalaria cunninghamii, another in this genus, also
closely associated with dunes and sandy deserts. It's one of the most
strikingly unexpected flowers I know.

And another spectacular dune-dweller, Sandhill Grevillea G. stenobotrya,
Welford NP. Found from the Channel Country to the Indian Ocean.

And one of my very favourite Australian plant groups, up there with orchids and banksias, the eremophilas (ie the 'desert lovers') are found in various habitats in the Channel Country and well beyond it. The common names often include emu-bush (for a mistaken belief that their seeds rely on passing through an Emu's digestive tract to germinate) and turkey-bush (probably a reference to bustards, which were often referred to as 'Plains (etc) Turkeys', and possibly for the same reason as 'emu-bush').

Bignonia Emu-bush Eremophila bignoniiflora, west of Windorah. It grows
throughout the Channel Country along water courses and on flood plains.

Harlequin Bush Eremophila duttonii, Welford NP. Very striking when in flower,
found on sandy soils throughout central and south-eastern arid Australia,
and scattered in the Channel Country.

Crimson Turkey-bush Eremophila latrobei, west of Windorah.
Very widespread in inland Australia and a very beautiful flower.

A yellow form of Spotted Emubush Eremophila maculata, east of Windorah.
The species grows across most of the continent, and can have flowers that range from pink
through to red, as well as yellow and even mauve (though I've not seen many of those).
Moreover they may or may not have darker spots in the tube. It is the basis of most
eremophila hybrids sold in nurseries. Below is a more typical red form.

Rose Cottonbush Gossypium australe, west of Windorah. In the hibiscus family,
this lovely shrub is also closely related to cotton and to the very similar
Sturt's Desert Rose G. sturtianum, the Northern Territory floral emblem.

And of course there are many herbs, including a large number of ephemerals that flower following the rains. Daisies feature heavily among these.

Tangled Burr Daisy Calotis erinacea near Windorah, above and below.
A very common and widespread desert burr daisy; see also in the
photo of the dune at Farrans Creek above.

Soft Billy Button Pycnosorus pleiocephalus, a plant of the south-eastern drylands,
here at Morney Creek close to its northern-most distribution.

Large White Sunray Rhodanthe floribunda, also at Morney Creek.

And finally examples of some more very attractive Channel Country herbs, albeit subtly so in some cases, from six different families. All these were growing in the Windorah area.

Flax-leaf Indigo Indigofera linifolia (Family Fabaceae) which is found in a range of habitats
across the deserts and into the tropics, as well well beyond into southern Asian and Africa.
(I don't know how carefully those far-flung populations have been compared; if not it may be
reasonable to suppose that more than one species is involved.)

Poison Morning-glory Ipomoea muelleri, (Family Convolvulaceae) also widespread
in central and northern Australia. The foliage and seeds are said to be toxic to stock,
though Indigenous people from the Kimberley are reported to eat the tubers.

Long Tails Ptilotus polystachyus (Family Amaranthaceae). This genus, widely
known as mulla mullas or pussy tails, is common and often forms extensive swathes
after rain, right across the arid lands.

Small-beard Fanflower Scaevola parvibarbata (Family Goodenicaceae)
is a herb of the eastern inland.

Lifesaver Burr Sida platycalyx (Family Malvaceae) is quaintly named for the shape
of the fruits, which form a torus when completely dry. This genus too is
widely found inland.

Nardoo Marsilea drummondii growing alongside Cooper Creek after flooding.
This herb grows in floodwaters and subsequent muds, the dormant spores having
being triggered by inundation. The spore-bearing bodies, the sporocarps, lie
dormant for decades if need be, awaiting the next flood.

Nardoo played a key role in one of the great Australian folkloric tales of heroic tragedy - the Victorian Exploring Expedition of 1860-61, better known as the Burke and Wills Expedition, which sought to find a route from Melbourne to the north coast. The tale has been told many times and you can easily find the details if you wish. However the essence for our purposes today is that it did end tragically - six of the seven remaining expedition members died on Cooper Creek in the Channel Country on the way back. It was not an inevitable tragedy though, it was very largely due to the ignorance, arrogance and intransigence of their leader, Robert O'Hara Burke.

 

While awaiting rescue on the Creek, the expedition used the abundant nardoo sporocarps as flour and ate lots of freshwater mussels and, we were always told, starved to death. It doesn’t make sense. The local Indigenous people ate both these items, and even showed the Europeans how to prepare them. And in that is the essential clue – because Burke of course could never conceive that a mere native could tell him anything of value.

To cut it short, they died amidst obvious plenty, not of starvation but of beriberi – the symptoms, of leg paralysis, extreme sensitivity to cold and breathlessness, are described perfectly by Wills in his journal. Beriberi is vitamin B1 (ie thiamine) deficiency. By coincidence both the mussels and nardoo spores contain thiaminase, an enzyme which destroys thiamine. Over time the locals had learnt this, doubtless painfully, and had worked out techniques to destroy the thiaminase. They roasted the mussels on the fire; Burke and co ate them raw. The Aboriginals made a watery paste with the nardoo spores - the water neutralises the enzyme - but the explorers made a dry flour with them. 

 

Ah well, perhaps a red herring in today's post, but hopefully of some interest. 

 

The Channel Country's story is much bigger than this one and it is grand and glorious country. If you didn't already know about it, I hope that I may have piqued some interest in you to consider planning a trip out there. Meantime I hope to see you again next time when I will introduce some of the animals of the Channel Country.

NEXT POSTING THURSDAY 13 FEBRUARY

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