Birds and scenery around and near Nyirripi, Central Australia

I drove out to Nyirripi via Yuendumu yesterday for work, stopping a few times along the way to check out the wildlife and scenery. In the late afternoon I drove to the west boundary of the Newhaven Wildlife Sanctuary and this morning I checked out the local poo ponds. It is starting to dry out well and truly out this way, north west of Alice Springs, and generally speaking it is the seed eaters that are in numbers, very few flower-peckers/honeyeaters due to the lack of flowers around. The budgerigars are definitely starting to flock, a group of about 200 last night and 300 this morning would suggest there are a lot of them around out this way. Lots of Crimson Chats and Woodswallows, mainly Masked and Black-faced, and Zebra Finches who seem to be ever-present. A few nice surprises this morning included a pair of Australian Bustards near the ponds, as well as a smallish flock of about 20 Cockatiels, and one accommodating Black-breasted Buzzard patrolling the sky. Yesterday afternoon included some Varied Sittellas, a species I have seen out this way before but confused me with their calls for quite some time until I could get an ID photo looking into the sun.

Hopefully there will be more nice experiences to come bird-wise. The scenery out here always inspires with Karku, the local "Little Uluru" as some in the community call it. And then there was the sunset last night taken on the Newhaven Sanctuary western border, not to mention the lovely patterns on the side of the road made by the wind in the red sand.

Black-breasted Buzzard

Budgerigar flock

Pair of australian Bustards

Zebra Finches

Crimson Chat

Grey-headed Honeyeater

Karku behind a lovely covered sandhill

Sunset from Newhaven Sanctuary