I drove up to the Barkly Highway from Lake Nash this afternoon, passing through Austral Downs Station. On previous trips I had seen maybe 5-6 Australian Pratincole, but on this occasion there must have been close to 50 along the road over a 10 km stretch. After trying hard to get a decent photo, I had almost given up when I came across a group of 7-8 together. Finally I managed a few nice shots:
Australian Pratincole
The later afternoon sun certainly made the breeding plumage even more vibrant. Another group of birds in the same location were about 10 Horsfield's Bushlarks. After waiting even longer for one of these to come close, finally one did for a fleeting moment.
Horsfield's Bushlark
I continued up the road and was almost to the windmill about 7 kms from the highway when a Brown Falcon took off from the right hand side of the road and flew onto the left hand side. I was cursing the dust that followed through the car after I'd stopped and lost sight of the falcon completely, but when the dust settled, right where I thought the falcon had flown, was an Australian Bustard!
Australian Bustard
Enjoy your Bird-watching!
Nice set of pics Richard, those Pratincoles have much longer legs than I thought, great finding the Bustard that way too :-)
ReplyDeleteLovely serie of some lovely birds
ReplyDeleteHave a nice weekend
/Ingemar
Hola Richard magnifivas imagenes de la Pratincola,aqui en España tenemos otra especie pero la cola no es tan larga.Un saludo
ReplyDelete