Lake Gladstone, Cadjeput

Thursday 5th June 2008

Paul was off early so that he could have his coffee with Richard who had been bequeathed the Holy Grail of a coffee machine by Steve and Swanny as well as being shown the secrets of true coffee percolating before they left for Darwin.

Richard and Lynsey very kindly offered to watch out for H and K while we went off to do a spot of bird watching at Lake Gladstone and it was a long way and we were distinctly happy with the decision not to bring them! They spent the morning with Lynsey, making camps, walking up Annie Creek, colouring in all of Hannah and Gemma’s books and eating biscuits and Oops from our camper!

We were taken in Snoopy the Troopy to Lake Gladstone and although the drive was long it was still interesting with some magnificent views and at one point we followed a track that wasn’t there – good thing Richard knew where he was going! There were sizeable acacia trees growing in the middle of the track as well as large termite mounds that had to be negotiated – hmmm, glad it wasn’t my car. We managed to retrieve Holly’s beanie from the road where a crow or something similar had dragged it.

Lake Gladstone had been a muddy pit up until 2006 – a watering hole for cattle that was basically a barren mud bath but the AWC were given permission to fence it off and the difference in just two years is amazing. There is a lot of water but you can’t reach it because of the thick reeds surrounding it and the vegetation has sprung back incredibly which has in turn encouraged the bird life to repopulate the area.

Richard found us a spot where the dry(ish) ground reaches out into the lake so we had excellent views over two sections and were surrounded by the birdlife – we knew this because we could hear them but seeing them was not so easy. Now I know why ‘twitchers’ are so called – it wasn’t until a bird moved that you could see where it was. We saw brolgas, Magpie Geese, ducks, egrets, darters, honey-eaters, rainbow bee-eaters, falcons and more but the highlight was definitely a magnificent Sea Eagle who soared smoothly in as though he owned the place causing a bit of a drama for the other birds of prey who’d been circling around. He sat in a nearby tree for a long time, surveying the scene before deciding to move on a bit. The falcons were alarmed by the direction he was taking and so were trying to harass him but he was more or less unconcerned and took up a new spot on the other side of the lake.

Richard Stanley had lent me his fancy camera with big lens and I did manage to take a few good shots of birds, including the swooping Sea Eagle who was truly magnificent to watch in flight.

Once we’d had enough of the twitching business we were shuttled back to our camp where we stuffed down some lunch before rushing off to Cadjeput for swim. This spot was nowhere near as nice as Blue Bush – probably something to do with the four other sets of visitors down there, ruining the exclusive feel to the place!

I took another turn at driving to get us back for a talk on Purple Crowned Fairy Wrens by a PhD student called Anja. This time we set the kids up with pens and paper outside so we could watch in peace. The talk was great and Anja even topped it off with a live demonstration of how she checks to see if any of the PCFW (wrens) are around. She has a recording of two wrens defending their territory and when it’s played near their habitat, any that are around will come charging over to see what’s going on. And the ones in Annie’s Creek did just that – we saw three or four of the gorgeous little things, although they didn’t have much purple because that is only displayed in mating season.

After that I walked back to camp alone and another PCFW came chattering down to check me out – I wouldn’t have recognised his call before the talk.

Dinner was a BBQ outside staff kitchen of mountains of sausages, steak and chops served up with some yummy selections of salad. It was cooked by Jo who has been a vegetarian for years but now that she is pregnant she craves (and eats) red meat. Holly ate 3 sausages in buns while Katie kept Casey and Amy entertained with lots of chit chat and Hannah and Gemma quietly fell asleep.

A campfire had been lit and since it was decidedly cool it was very pleasant sitting around it chatting to Jo and Malcolm, Helen (a volunteer who is working on the herbarium), Arthur and his wife (travellers with temporary employment at Mornington) and Anja. And just before we had to take the girls off to bed Richard Kingsmill (new sanctuary manager) and his wife Julie turned up so Paul had a chat with him but I didn’t get time.