Great-crested Grebe, Jabiru, Little Corellas and Whistling Kite

The cold of Alice Springs finally became too much so the family has headed north. We stopped in at an old favourite of mine, Newcastle Waters, and even though the birds are diminishing in both number and variety, there were still a couple of nice photo opportunities.

The Great-crested Grebe was swimming in the water near the road:

Although not quite as close, but always a pleasure to see were quite a number of Jabirus. I love the contrast of their green shiny head, red legs, knobbly knees with the locations they tend to prefer:

These Little Corellas were seen earlier in the morning at Bonney Creek which is where we were kind of forced to stay as the Devil's Marbles camping area was wall to wall caravans and campers. Bonney Creek Rest Stop is about 20 kms further north up the Stuart Highway, and one I have stopped at during the day a number of times previously. There are normally Black Kites and Zebra Finches as well as fairy-wrens in this location, but first thing in the morning were these beautiful Little Corellas, all sitting peacefully on the windmill at the stop. They looked content in the morning light, but once they all moved on, the cacophony was worse than children who had been in the car for three days, and the parents reading this will understand what I mean by that!:

We stayed the next night at Mataranka, and although there wasn't a lot of bird photography opportunity, I slipped away early in the morning with my youngest son and managed a beautiful series of shots of this Whistling Kite as it landed on an exposed branch and then fluffed itself in the morning light:

The next few days will be spent watching my eldest son play cricket in Darwin but hopefully there will be a few chances to get to some of the more popular birding spots around Darwin.

Happy Birding!