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Danggali Conservation Park, South
Australia Danggali Conservation Park in South Australia at 33*16'S,140*15'E about 75km north of Renmark. Over Easter eight of us (me, Stuart Dashper, Chris and Rosemary Lester, John, Jack and David Barkla and Charles Giffard) met up at Gluepot where we spent a night and day birding with other members of the Birds Australia Vicgroup. From here we struck out northwards to Danggali. A 4 hour trip by a necessarily very circuitous route to Danggali, which is only 56km from Gluepot, saw us arrive at Canopus in the middle of the park after dark on Saturday night. We spent 3 nights at the Canopus camp site (which has no facilities, by the way). The habitat of Danggali is mainly mallee with small stands of Belah and some chenopod plains. As you would expect, the birding is brilliant. The highlight without a doubt was a pair of Scarlet-chested Parrots initially spotted by Chris when he flushed them from cover in an area of mallee on a sand dune ridge. The mallee here had a diverse mid storey of hakea, grevillea, acacia and eremophila with extensive patches of Triodia ground cover. We were able to observe the birds a further three times. We twice had excellent views of the birds in flight although not all members of the group were able to get onto them unfortunately. Also in this particular spot we found an amazingly high density of Striated Grasswrens that are relatively easy to observe at close quarters. Another treat was a small pool of water on the side of the track which we watched for a couple of hours. The water attracted a dazzling array of honeyeaters and parrots, including very high numbers of White-faced, Spiny-cheeked, Purple-gaped, Brown-headed, Yellow-plumed and Grey-fronted Honeyeaters as well as Mulga Parrots and Mallee Ringnecks. Chris, who was trying to get some close up photos had an entertaining encounter with a pair of Major Mitchell's Cockatoos that landed within a metre of his camera lens. Other birds of note were Chestnut Quail-thrush, Apostlebirds and a Black-eared Cuckoo near the camp site, Southern Scrub-robin, Black Falcon, White-browed Treecreeper in a couple of stands of Belah and so on. I've copied a list of our records from the park over Easter below. Danggali is a fabulous area of relatively untouched mallee that any birder would certainly find rewarding. Birds recorded at Danggali, Easter 2000
Emu
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