Notes to readers of this Blog


NOTES TO READERS OF THIS BLOG

Thank you for dropping by to check out my blog. You will see a lot of other Blogs about birds I follow down the left hand side. I strongly encourage you to check some of these out as well, they are entertaining and I love to see birds from all over the world, I hope you do too.
Cheers,
Richard

Monday 3 June 2013

Ground Cuckoo-shrikes on the Tanami Road

Drove out to Papunya today via the Tanami Road. I stopped at an area where someone had told me they had seen a Grey Falcon in a tree over a period of years. I noted that there was a fair bit of nest building that had taken place since I was last there, but no sign of any Grey Falcons. Will continue to check on this site each time I pass. I ventured further up the road a bit and 3 birds flew from my right across the road and landed on my left on some scrubby-covered ground. I stopped the car and grabbed the camera, wondering if I was just chasing a group of Magpie Larks, although they had a different flight pattern to the M-Ls.
I have seen Ground Cuckoo-shrikes previously, but never really managed decent photos. Once I looked through the camera and realised my hunch was correct, I snapped off around ten photos, but from a decent distance and realised later the wire fence in between was beautifully in focus, the birds a lovely grey, white and black blur in the background. There was a bush between me and the birds so I crouched and hurried up behind the bush. In the meantime, they had fluttered a further 20 metres away from me. Below is a sample of what I managed to capture:

Ground Cuckoo-shrike






3 comments:

  1. Great record Rich! Another special memory!
    For me the memory will be my own visualisation of you crouching and hurrying up to the bush!

    Hey, see you Friday!!

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  2. Hi Richard, Re the elusive Grey Falcon, I'm pretty sure I've seen one (four times actually over a year or two) around the Rainbow Valley turnoff. Last time was last week when I think it flew (in a straight line)across the Stuart Highway over the car as I was driving home. Was gone before I could stop the car. If you're down that way, its always worth looking out for. Cheers Jan

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    1. Hi Jan, thanks for the Grey Falcon tip, could be a family trip to Rainbow Valley this weekend :-)

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