The birds and the bees - photos from Alice Springs

Recently I've been restricted to local birding, but still managed a few nice shots. Some excitement around the house was a bee swarm, not a hive, just a huge group of bees all clumped together in the lemon tree. They stayed for a couple of days then flew off. The internet was very useful to work out what was likely to happen.

The local sewage ponds in Alice Springs are being visited by the returning long-range migrants/waders, and ID can be a bit tricky as most of the time they don't stand next to each other, but there are a few I have managed to work out after seeing them in flight and hearing them as they fly off.

The Bee Swarm

Grey-crowned Babblers in the backyard

Black-winged Stilt 

Common Greenshank

Common Sandpiper

Grey Teals

Pacific Black Duck 

Red-necked Avocets

Variegated Fairy-wrens

Sandpipers in flight and on land

I took the following photo recently of 3 different Sandpipers together. Can you name them?

The Sandpipers are at Alice Springs presumably on their way further south for summer, or here until nearly winter. One of our more longer term residents is the Sharp-tailed Sandpiper:

(I think this one was just testing how cold or warm the water was, just a toe in! :0) )

The Common Greenshank is one I re-encountered a few weeks ago at Docker River. Definitive by its high "peep" as it flies, I have included some shots below which show its markings as well.

The Common Sandpiper is one I find fairly easy to identify due to its plain brown colouring and white eyering as per below

I love the iridescent colours of the feathers in the wings of Pacific Black Ducks and how they change depending on the light. You can see the purple on the left hand wing in this photo.

Red-necked Avocets seem to be a very accommodating fly-by bird as can be see by the photo below

Sanderlings, one a bit more mature than the other in the foreground, or perhaps a male and a female, not sure

And finally, a rather pinky/red coloured Yellow-billed Spoonbill. Obviously being playing around in the Central Australian dirt!