Kilcowera Station - Life on an outback Queensland Cattle Station » Birdwatching

Miss Lucy – newest resident at Kilcowera

zenonie — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 04:59:47 +0000

: Miss Lucy our little Australian Silky Terrier

A busy August at Kilcowera.

It started cold but gradually warmed up until we were in shorts and t shirts, eating salads and warning the visitors to keep an eye out for snakes. We’ve had several changes in the weather that promised a slight chance of rain but it didn’t happen, so the drought continues for us. A large chunk of south west Qld is still drought declared and we have been constantly advising would be visitors that it is dry here still. They all seem to think that, as the channel country rivers ran earlier this year the drought is over. All we have had here are dust storms and a measly 26 ml of rain this year.

With the unappealing threat of a long, hot, dry summer ahead of us again, Greg has been repairing stock waters around the place. One tank and trough had not been used for about 5 years and we have refurbished it so it holds water again. A windmill broke down some months ago and it too is being fixed, he thought it was a write off but the problem is not as bad as first thought, thank goodness.

We have had quite a lot of visitors throughout the winter, mainly birdwatchers and campers also a few fly in people. One bloke was flyiyng a little Cessna 150 to Thailand and he stayed here on his way there and back. Brave man!!!! Many of our guests were on their way to Lake Eyre to see the spectacle. It must have been pretty busy out there over the winter months.

Both Greg and myself had a little trip away for shopping purposes – his purchases were mainly for water improvements, he’s got pumps, pipes, fittings, compressors, motors and all manner of things in an endeavour to make our stock waters more dependable and not so reliant on wind.

I had a week away mainly to visit a daughter and to see her graduate from Uni. I was soo happy for her that she passed as she has worked so hard to get through Uni and hold down a job as well. The other big job on my agenda was to come home with a puppy as my little Chihuahua died last year and it has been a lonely existence without a little companion. Someone to talk to.

So Lucy has joined the family, she is an Australian Silky Terrier and what a bundle of energy! She loves our visitors and is getting more confident and cheeky as every day goes by. She is also the scruffiest little animal that I have ever seen and it is nearly impossible to groom her as she just wants to play all the time and won’t stay still. She has been a bit crook today and looks very pathetic.

Catalogues this week – Innovations, Damart, Retravision, Cellar Masters.

zenonie — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 06:13:59 +0000

Wedge Tailed Eagle - Photo by Peter Strutt

A bit more on catalogues……. Then there were the electrical and white goods catalogues. Very drool worthy too. Specialist lingerie ones and those for all things babyish, then along came wine and alcohol catalogues, office supplies, jewelry, Avon, shoes and RM Williams ones (too expensive!!!!!)

My silliest purchase was an expensive ring from Magnamail. I ordered this diamond ring from a picture, paid up front and waited about 5 months before I received it. Really thought that I had done my dough. When I did get the ring I was very happy with it though. Thinking back, all I can say in my defense was that I hadn’t had a shopping splurge for a very long time. And I do love jewelry!

But that’s not all, then there were the blokes catalogues. Have you ever seen a bull catalogue? The pages are strewn with cows and bulls backsides and bulls testicles. Impressive stuff!! Then there’s the machinery trader full of dozers, graders, trucks and bits and pieces that lift or push, dig or plough, water or cut something.

Greg especially likes the camping, fishing, 4WD type of catalogues, poor bugger he doesn’t get away much to use our camping gear. Our last big trip was maybe 5 years ago when we had a good look around WA. He also likes tool and power tool catalogues, I try to make note of what especially interests him in these for future present giving. Blokes are so hard to buy a pressie for – I mean you can’t give him a shirt or belt or socks – too boring. But it’s gotta be something he lusts after. I draw the line at a $7000 welder though . I did buy him a Lindsell hoist one birthday cause his back isn’t as good as it used to be. The doctor told him he should reassess his capabilities after G strained some back muscles while lifting batteries out of his dozer.

Other super interesting ones he gets are water tank catalogues. I tell you the makers of poly ethylene tanks have really branched out. Did you know that you can have a dog kennel made out of poly ethylene? Or a water dish? A calfateria? Yes – they make tanks and troughs and poly pipe and poly pegs and things for chook food and water, bins, garden edging, pools, tool boxes and wheel chocks? AMAZING!!!!!

We also get a newspaper free each month and it’s basically a catalogue for aeroplanes and all things pertaining to. Lincott Linen have a catalogue full of work clothes, boots, coats, blankets, sheets, mattress covers, socks and singlets. I buy our mattress covers there still and Greg’s special woolen socks. We’ve got an old windmill catalogue too. They are all there to tempt us and then there’s the internet – the window to the world.

Lake Wyara’s water birds.

zenonie — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 05:43:14 +0000

: 10,000 odd pelicans call Lake Wyara home in 2008.

In the first half of 2008 there were approximately 10,000 pelicans breeding on the western shore of Lake Wyara. It was a magic sight and sound and smell to stand out there seeing all those pelicans that had come all this way from the coast to breed. In the 28 years that I have been here it is only the second time that I have seen them breeding on Lake Wyara. They could have been there at other times though.

They kinda snuck up on me this time as I did not think there was enough water in the lake for anything much to be happening there. Then out of the blue a journalist rings me up and asked “ How’s your pelicans going?”

Says I “No pelicans here mate”.

Journo “Well the National park ranger reckons there’s about ten thousand on Lake Wyara.” “Hmm, I’ll ring you back tomorrow when I check it out.” So a quick fly out over the lake confirmed this amazing news. Here’s some pictures.

Greg and National Parks are currently working on a new boundary fence that will keep stock out of the park and enable us to use our 70,000 acre Lake paddock again. We have had no stock in it for 5 years as a part of the old boundary fence was pushed down for a road to the lake from the Currawinya side. This little guy just came right up to us to check us out and then waddled off to his mates.

Lake Wyara a Wetland of International significance.

zenonie — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 03:37:57 +0000

In 1991 National Parks and Wildlife took over the grazing property Currawinya, our eastern neighbour. They also took Lake Wyara a 6000 ha salt lake classified as Vacant Crown Land which was our eastern boundary and physically on Kilcowera.

When Lake Wyara is full it’s a beautiful blue saline expanse of wetland that supports enormous numbers of birds, fish, turtles, crustaceans and sea grasses. It is filled by 5 big creeks, 3 of which start and end on Kilcowera, Benanga, Youlaingee and Kihi creeks. The lake has been listed by RAMSAR as a wetland of international significance.

Lake Wyara had some water in it in 2008, this picture taken from the north and at 1500 feet.

We have an interesting scenic drive which is a 60 km round trip out through our Lake paddock. It goes over the highest country on Kilcowera and offers great views of Lake Wyara and the creeks. The lake has been pretty much dry for about 4 years now but surely it will fill again soon.

Kilcowera has many different types of vegetation and land types, ranging from dunes to gibber plains, out around the lake is sort of like channel country with small dunes.

The image above shows Pink Eared Ducks on one of the creeks that flow into Lake Wyara. We see some interesting birds out there not seen around the Homestead, like the gibber bird and orange chat. Of course when the lake is full it is teeming with water birds. These beautiful birds below are Red Necked Avocets. To be continued………….