Glen Helen to Haasts Bluff Road - Banded Lapwing juvenile and others

The stretch of road between Glen Helen and Haasts luff to the west of Alice Springs has often been a good bird-watching spot for me. I normally see Bourke's Parrots during the day, as well as normally finding Australian Ringnecks and Mulga Parrots. This trip was no different.
An additional find has been Banded Lapwings along a particular area about 1 km in length, and this trip there was a small family group, one of which was a juvenile, slowly sauntering across the road. I don't normally drive very fast through this part anyway, and I was going quite slow, and the juvenile walked up the side of the road and unlije the adults didn't fly off. I wound down the window and took the chance to get some photos much closer than is usually the case. Normally the adults are under a tree off the road a bit, so it was nice to get shots u close.
There were also a lot of other young birds in the same area of different species. The Centre has had a true Spring with lots of rains and lots of new birds.

Banded Lapwing juvenile

Chestnut-rumped Thornbill juvenile

Cockatiel

Red-capped Robin juvenile

Rufous Whistler

Southern Whiteface

Wild Cockatiel family fun in the backyard

The Cockatiels are one of those birds that are easily identifiable by their calls. Recently they have returned to visiting my back yard, and occasionally I grab the camera and take a lot of photos, hoping to capture a few of those magical interactive moments as well as some "portrait" shots. The young ones are not as loud as some of their cousins in the parrot world when it comes to begging, but they still make a fair bit of noise. Generally I find Cockatiels to be very flighty out bush, but this family of 6, mum, dad and 4 juveniles, seemed fairly relaxed in the backyard. The first two photos are of the adult male telling the juveniles there is no room on his perch.

Cockatiels

Painted Finch, Cockatiels, Yellow-rumped Thornbill and a couple of reptiles

The rains have disappeared at least for the moment and the countryside around Alice Springs is drying out. Puddles only last a day or two, and the birds need to find new water sources. I saw a group of about 1000 budgerigars heading west along the Macdonnell Ranges over the weekend.

I also saw a small group of Indian Ringneck Parakeets, not good for the local parrot populations. Hopefully the parakeets will be caught soon.

On the brighter side, there have been a few good photo opportunities recently, starting with this delightful Painted Finch who decided to land nearby as I was looking for a different bird. Always nice when these occasions happen along.

Painted Finch

Another delightful experience recently was a visit to the back yard gum tree by 4 Cockatiels, 2 males and 2 females. I feel very fortunate to have these lovely birds to watch without leaving home!

Cockatiels

Another nice and close encounter recently was a small group of Yellow-rumped Thornbills. Here was one that I managed to photograph without leaves or branches in the way.

And as the air and surrounds dry out, the reptiles seem to become more common, Below is a Long-tailed Dragon and a Sand Goanna.

Get your bum on a plane to the Central Australia - soon!

To regular readers of this blog, my apologies. Sometimes the world beyond blogging gets in the way.
I have been travelling to Atitjere, Harts Range, for work. It is only 210 kms from Alice Springs, and, with recent rains, opportunities for taking photos should have been excellent. Time slips away occasionally doing that other thing (work), so my chances have been limited thus far this year.

However, there have been a few occasions where the burst of the shutter has prevailed.
Some recent highlights have been Banded Lapwing on the Plenty Highway, a Wedge-tailed Eagle family of 3 on the Stuart Highway near the Plenty Highway turnoff, some Bourke's Parrots during the day about 50 kms north of Alice Springs next to the Stuart Highway, Budgerigars, Cockatiels and Major Mitchell Cockatoos at waterholes both north and south of Alice Springs, and, there are quite a few families of Brown Falcons around at the moment, young, lovely chocolate brown ones included. The Honeyeaters are back again, not your run of the mill ones either. Pied, Black, White-fronted, Grey-fronted, Grey-headed are all noisily occupying the trees just beyond the town boundaries.

If you don't live in Alice Springs then you should be watching the weather events in the Centre. There was a lot of rain over the Christmas-New Year period, as well as follow up rains since then, the last good downpour on Thursday night. These rain periods translates to flowering grasses and soon, flowering trees (some have started already). With flowering events, and ground water readily available, the birds in the area are flocking, nesting, feeding, and hunting. Rather than go to your usual Easter hide-away, book a ticket and head to the Centre. You won't be disappointed.

Here are a few photos from the past couple of weeks.

Budgerigars

Cockatiels

Crimson Chats

Diamond Dove

Major Mitchell (or Pink) Cockatoos

Zebra Finch

White-fronted Honeyeater

Brown Falcon

Spotlighting Buttonquails and backyard bird visitors

Buttonquails are annoying birds in the wild. Or so I thought. During the day you can almost step on them, then they flush and fly only 10 or so metres away and then scurry off along the ground, well away from where you saw them land. I have had this experience on many occasions. The only way to tell what you just saw and I.D. them is if they call after landing. Last week I saw and heard Red-chested Buttonquail. After discussions with a friend, we decided to head out spotlighting over the weekend. There is a stark difference in their behaviour from day to night.

Although we didn't manage to see the Red-chested, we did stumble across a number of Little Buttonquail. They might fly when flushed, but not 10 metres, normally under 5 metres, and easy to follow with a torch. Then they just sat in that spot. A very different night time experience, allowing for (finally) some photos of Little Buttonquails in the wild.

Little Buttonquail

After the excitement of the spotlighting, I was in for a few more treats over the weekend. After many overhead noisy flights, one male Cockatiel decided to check out mybackyard. It was hard not to notice he was there, constantly calling. I love these birds, strikingly patterned on their faces.

Cockatiel

Next was a Black-faced Cuckooshrike. There have been a small family of these flying around the neighborhood and occasionally they sit in the large gum, normally up high, but this one came in for a closer look.

Black-faced Cuckooshrike

While the Cuckooshrike and Cockatiel were hanging around, I had a third visitor, although this one was up high in the gum. I watched as the Pied Butcherbird listened and then found the cicada. All the White-plumed Honeyeaters were sounding tempered alarm calls, but I was thinking, "if you get rid of a few cicadas from the tree mate, go right ahead". The cicadas have been very noisy. The butcherbird managed to get rid of this one.

Pied Butcherbird 

Love Central Australian colours and Parrots!

One reason I love taking photos of bids is get together a scene of the red dirt, late afternoon sun, reflections, and those beautifully coloured Parrots of Central Australia. Here are a few from today.

Australian Ringneck

Cockatiel

Galah

Mulga Parrot