Entry 4 – Gluepot Reserve South Australia 26th March to 3th April.
To ensure we have your attention, we will start out with one of our pictures from our Gluepot Reserve experience.
Gluepot Reserve is part of the largest block of intact mallee left in eastern Australia. A mallee scrub reserve of 54,390 hectares, owned by Bird-Life Australia, promoted to be a bird watcher’s paradise. It provides viability for populations of threatened species, primarily due to most of their natural habitat cleared for farming. It is located about 60 kilometres north of the township of Waikerie situated on the Murray River or about 250 kilometres north east of the city of Adelaide.
Australian mallee regions are generally dry arid type areas, mostly devoid of any water sources with little annual rain fall.
Gluepot Reserve welcomes visitors whom are self-sufficient. You will need to provide your own accommodation, water, no wood fires allowed, with only gas fires permitted and it would be sensible to arrive with a vehicle fuel tank full. We fuelled up at Waikerie along with topping up our supplies of water and food. You are also required to take your rubbish with you on departure and we did find the camp grounds to be in pristine condition with everyone doing their bit.
To get to Gluepot Reserve you travel along dirt tracks through other private station properties. At the beginning of the track, we were glad we had decided to air down our tyres, reducing the vehicle destroying vibrations and lessening the chance of getting stuck in patches of soft sand.
There were the station paddocks with a few gates to open and shut.
It was about 50 kilometres of dirt track to the camp ground. It was the longest distance we had driven in a couple of weeks. We were feeling rather weary by the time we had finished driving for the day, possibly more so, due to our heightened level of alertness for road hazards, looking out for looming corrugations, pot holes, washouts, sandy patches requiring some extra grunt to negotiate, animals jumping out in front of us and the ever-present caravan denting low tree limbs.
There were three designated camping locations at Gluepot Reserve, each at different points of the property with bird hides nearby each camp ground. We started at Babblers campground and were most happy with its uncrowded set out. Below shows our setting at the three different camp sites we spent time at whilst at Gluepot Reserve.
There are 14 marked walking trails of various lengths scattered around the property, 5 elevated bird hides overlooking bird watering troughs. Most of these walking trails and bird hides required driving various distances to its starting point.
We started out early on our first morning on the Whistler Walk, commencing our walk prior to sun rise, with the sun appearing about 15 minutes into our walk.
Our aim was to get to the John Martin Bird Hide located about 2½ kilometres along this track as early as possible, with the publicized best times to view the bird life during early mornings. Wow. Double Wow. Our broad smiles were hurting our mouths. We were so glad with our punt to visit Gluepot Reserve, all our happy senses were oozing with joy!
What our photographs couldn’t show was the tree canopies around the water trough full of birds. Our estimate of about 100 plus various species of birds. Once a group of birds at the water trough had their fill, they would fly back up into the nearby tree canopy to be replaced by another mob of birds almost instantly. It was a bit like organised chaos providing some fabulous viewing.
On our walks we did seek out some of the dams to find them all dry. This possibly added to the large volume of birds, sighted at the specifically provided water troughs.
We failed to sight any Mallee fowl on the Mallee fowl Walk. We did see the remnants of many Mallee fowl mounds. We later spoke with some other walkers (twitchers) who had also not seen any Mallee fowl birds on this walk. Possibly the wrong time of the year? Even the ant trails were of interest, where we saw hundreds of tracks like little cracks in the ground surface.
A few of times whilst traversing about on the reserve we stopped at the centrally located visitor’s information centre. It was a great resource for us.
We enjoyed another early morning walk on the Airstrip Walk. We could hear the birds tweeting nearby in the bushes but none showed themselves. One thinks we may have been a bit brightly coloured, providing our position for all to see?
It was the week approaching the Easter long weekend and it was still pleasantly quiet at Gluepot Reserve. After 3 nights at Babbler camp ground, we relocated to Bellbird campground a drive of about 15 kilometres. We could have based ourselves at one camp ground during our time at Gluepot Reserve but our preference is for less driving time and more soothing scenery time. For us relocating camp was minimal disruption.
From Bellbird campground we were up prior to sunrise each morning with about a 15-minute drive to either of two available bird hides. Yes, the volume of bird life was greater in the early mornings from what we saw late afternoons, though the afternoons were still enjoyable viewing. In the comforts of the camouflaged bird hides we found ourselves mesmerized by the bird activities staying each time for nearly an hour, early mornings and late afternoons.
We did enjoy the Grass wren Walk with plenty of bird activity away from the feature water trough.
It was the Wednesday prior to Easter and Gluepot Reserve was still quiet with only two other camp sites in use. We decided to relocate to Sitella campground, about a 15-kilometre drive to hopefully enjoy more quiet time before the arrival of the Easter crowds.
At Sitella campground we continued to rise prior to sunrise making our way to either one of the two bird hides nearby.
We spent a week at Gluepot Reserve and we could have easily stayed for three. Or stayed as long as our water and food lasted. It was one of the more relaxing, pleasurable locations we have experienced. We would close our caravan curtains when the sun shone in it but left them open, all other times, constantly gazing out across a gorgeous bush setting. It was exceptionally quiet with the only background noise provided by nature and most other visitors keeping to themselves. We were all looking about our landscape watching and listening for any bird activity.
Each of the 5 bird hides were setup in a slightly different setting, each with a different volume of bird activities and different species. We enjoyed each one with the first one we visited, John Martin Bird Hide having the greatest volume of birds providing us with an introduction factor with a huge “WOW.”
Yes, it was a very dry landscape, with dusty conditions, narrow bush roads and it was hot and sticky. But it tickled all of our good senses, where we experienced the spectacle of amazing fauna supported by the flora of the mallee environment.
