Redbank Waterhole, Owens Springs Station

Stopped in at Redbank Waterhole on the way home from Docker River. As I got closer to the waterhole, my excitement grew and first bird in sight was a common bronzewing:

In as much as I had hoped there would be water, I was ecstatic to see so much water there:

There were bird noises everywhere, in the trees, on the ground, above and on the water, on both sides of the bank. I stopped the car before the "camping area" and had to have a closer look. Something flew from a nearby tree into another nearby tree. A young southern whiteface:

From there it just got better and better. Hardheads and Grey Teal were feeding and swimming in the water:

I decided to head up to the camping area and boil a brew. As I slowly meandered towards the clearing, I could see a pair of Nankeen Kestrels in the trees on the far side of the area. There was an older one:

and a younger one, which was happy for me to ferret around below, setting up the table and boiling the billy:

After delighting in the play and "instruction" by an adult magpie to a younger one, I meandered back down the waterside as I had seen a Sacred Kingfisher as I'd driven in and thought I'd go back to see what it was up to. It had found a nice perch about a metre and a half above the water, and returned there after an unsuccessful dive:

One of the birds I wasn't really expecting were the egrets. Their low rasping croaks really don't do their beauty justice, and there were 4 or 5 of them around the water:

I had intended to go beyond the camping area to find some of the smaller birds as the river was dry further that way, but a Ranger's car pulled up beside me and said there was a wildfire just beyond the range and with the wind the way it was, they needed to get everyone off the Station, so reluctantly I packed the gear away and continued on my journey home. A very pleasurable experience non-the-less.