The north side of Emily Gap can be accessed from Undoolya Road, that is so long as you know the right track to take (better to ask a local if you don't live in Alice) but pretty much all tracks to the right of the road heading out of Alice Springs probably end up somewhere near or there-abouts!
I headed down towards the river (dry sandbed most of the time) and stumbled across a pair of Cockatiels in a tree next to the track. I often have this same thought "if they just sat there quietly, I would never know they were there, why don't they just sit still and quiet?" Lucky for me, they chirped as I was just past the tree, looked back and spotted the male sitting in a hollow formed by a broken branch, and then the other one perched above on another branch:
Next was a group of Budgerigars high in one of the trees in the river. They decided that I was getting too close even though they were a long way up the tree and I was still a fair distance from the tree. I eventually got back into the car and headed back up the track. My first inclination that there was a lot of feeding happening was the flurry of activitiy as I approached in the car. Birds of all different shapes and sizes were scurrying everywhere, finches, Budgerigars, honeyeaters, babblers, songlarks and what I thought was a few button quails. I continued on a bit further back towards the road and just couldn't help but stop. Flocks of Busdgerigars were going everywhere, some 5 - 10, others up to 50 and the occasional burst of 100+ out of the grasses. I saw a likely spot near a corkwood tree and crept up slowly as to try to not disturb them. Little buggers had sentries on the lookout, but they didn't fly away en-masse as I was expecting, just a few fluttering up from the grass and to a tree beyond. But some of them sat in the corkwood, and I could see, some of them were younger than adults, see if you can spot the difference for yourselves:
Finally a Southern Whiteface sat still and close enough for a photo just near where the above budgies were playing:
After thinking I had seen button quails earlier, I had decided that I wasn't likely to get a photo and had given up trying. As I was walking back to the car this time, I almost stepped on one. It ran behind a little bush, and I quickly slipped the camera to the close focus setting. I knew where it was, and I backed up a bit, ready for it to fly off or wander out. The minutes ticked by, I waited. More minutes and I was starting to worry I had missed my opportunity. Stupidly, I stepped towards the bush only to watch in dismay as the quail flew from a clump of grass to the right of the bush I had been watching and my reflexes were too slow to get the camera up and shooting. Another missed chance. One day I will get a photo I'm sure.
My last photo for this post is of a beautiful Splendid Fairy-wren I took the other day. I could lie and say I took it with these others, but what would be the point. I really liked the photos:
I headed down towards the river (dry sandbed most of the time) and stumbled across a pair of Cockatiels in a tree next to the track. I often have this same thought "if they just sat there quietly, I would never know they were there, why don't they just sit still and quiet?" Lucky for me, they chirped as I was just past the tree, looked back and spotted the male sitting in a hollow formed by a broken branch, and then the other one perched above on another branch:
Next was a group of Budgerigars high in one of the trees in the river. They decided that I was getting too close even though they were a long way up the tree and I was still a fair distance from the tree. I eventually got back into the car and headed back up the track. My first inclination that there was a lot of feeding happening was the flurry of activitiy as I approached in the car. Birds of all different shapes and sizes were scurrying everywhere, finches, Budgerigars, honeyeaters, babblers, songlarks and what I thought was a few button quails. I continued on a bit further back towards the road and just couldn't help but stop. Flocks of Busdgerigars were going everywhere, some 5 - 10, others up to 50 and the occasional burst of 100+ out of the grasses. I saw a likely spot near a corkwood tree and crept up slowly as to try to not disturb them. Little buggers had sentries on the lookout, but they didn't fly away en-masse as I was expecting, just a few fluttering up from the grass and to a tree beyond. But some of them sat in the corkwood, and I could see, some of them were younger than adults, see if you can spot the difference for yourselves:
Finally a Southern Whiteface sat still and close enough for a photo just near where the above budgies were playing:
After thinking I had seen button quails earlier, I had decided that I wasn't likely to get a photo and had given up trying. As I was walking back to the car this time, I almost stepped on one. It ran behind a little bush, and I quickly slipped the camera to the close focus setting. I knew where it was, and I backed up a bit, ready for it to fly off or wander out. The minutes ticked by, I waited. More minutes and I was starting to worry I had missed my opportunity. Stupidly, I stepped towards the bush only to watch in dismay as the quail flew from a clump of grass to the right of the bush I had been watching and my reflexes were too slow to get the camera up and shooting. Another missed chance. One day I will get a photo I'm sure.
My last photo for this post is of a beautiful Splendid Fairy-wren I took the other day. I could lie and say I took it with these others, but what would be the point. I really liked the photos:
Happy Birding!
Buenas capturas,me gustan mucho las de la ultima ave.Saludos
ReplyDeleteBeautiful light in the Fairy-wren photos the splash of blue offsets it nicely! Well Done!
ReplyDelete