Finke Stories - the Little Eagle who Walked

I was at the Finke Poo Ponds. (see the other posts of Finke Stories from the following links Finke Stories - Plethora of Birds and Finke Stories - Australian Hobby )

There were storm clouds on the horizon. The wind was blowing from the south and it was strong and hot. I had been entertained by the Major Mitchell Cockatoo, trying to fit in with the Corellas and Galahs.

I had seen the Little Eagle the day before, it had flown up from some reed beds near where I was watching, but had been too close and too quick for me to get any decent photos.

I had seen the Australian Hobby the previous day, and a part of me was hoping it would return for another enjoyable display. Instead, the Little Eagle was the one who made me pinch myself after it had left.

It flew down into the wind, gliding in a tucked formation, but without speed normally associated with this position. It landed on the muddy flats, about 30 metres from me. It stopped, propped, looked around, and then hopped. I hadn’t seen this behaviour before. It then walked and I could see its beautiful “trousers”. I kept taking photos and then a few short videos. And even though I am sure the bird knew of my presence due to its continual glances towards me, it certainly wasn’t prepared to fly off until it had had a decent drink.

Little Eagle

Enjoy your Bird-watching!

Finke Stories - Australian Hobby

It was late afternoon. The hot wind was breathing a fiery heat from the desert to the east, blowing the deep aroma of the water treatment area as an added bonus. The sun was at my back and I had front seats to an awesome display of deception by an Australian Hobby. I have been very lucky this year with my experiences with this bird species. You can find some other photos and stories here.

The first indication the Hobby was around was the panic it engendered in a large flock of Galahs, mixed with some Little Corellas, as well as some waders including a group of 11 Sharp-tailed Sandpipers. Initially I thought the Hobby was coming for a drink as it didn’t seem to take much notice of any of the birds. It flew slowly compared to the speeds I have seen in the past, and then land on the shoreline, just looking around, almost aimlessly. Eventually it flew off, causing another flurry of panicked fluttering by the other birds. I watched as it flew off to a nearby low hill and disappeared. The sandpipers returned in small groups, first 4 then another pair, and then the final 5.

Ten minutes later, the same scenario occurred. Loud squawking by the Galahs and Corellas and scrambled fleeing by the waders. Again, the Hobby seemed fairly disinterested. Again the sandpipers returned, although there were only 7 in the group I could see. I wondered if the other 4 had decided they might find a different camp for the night.

For the third time, this time about 20 minutes later, the Hobby flew in and settled eventually on a fence post rimming the south of the ponds. It looked as though it had a bit more intent this time. The light was fading as the sun had finally dipped below the western horizon. I could still see the Hobby quite easily, but the waders on the ponds were harder in the greying evening light. As I alighted from my perch atop the car, I noticed movement to my right – the Hobby had taken off. This time the Sandpipers voiced their high-pitched  terror although they remained as a large group. I watched as they rose above the ground level, fleeing to the north-west, while the Hobby headed to the north-east. As the sandpipers wheeled towards the north, the Hobby wheeled into the same flight path and smashed into the small flock, taking one of the sandpipers with its talons and flying directly over my head, not very far above. I think my presence had been forgotten as it immediately dropped the sandpiper, all of 10 feet in front of the car. I’d already put my camera back in the car as the light had become too low for any decent photos, so for once I was just bird-watching, not taking photos. The poor sandpiper was helpless, trying desperately to get to its feet but it was too badly injured from the initial onslaught. It flopped towards me twice before the blue-grey shape sped down to claim its prize. It didn’t stop and say hi, or pose for an imaginary photo, it just snatched the prey in its talons and took off. I was left dumbstruck by what had just happened, and in the car on the way back to my accommodation, wondered whether or not I could have saved the sandpiper if I had been more alert to what was happening, rather than being frozen in awe of this raptor. I decided eventually that I had to let nature take its course without interference from me even if I didn’t enjoy seeing a living creature get taken. 

Here are some photos:

Australian Hobby

Nankeen Kestrel, a few Solar Cars, a Sand Monitor and a Storm to Remember

Followed up my sojourn to Finke yesterday with a trip back there via Imanpa (work things). Upon arrival at Imanpa, a lovely Nankeen (or Australian) Kestrel welcomed me by sitting on one of the roadside poles:

The trip then proceeded down the Stuart Highway towards Kulgera. I passed each of the below Solar Cars taking part in the 2011 Solar Car Challenge, and then managed to get some photos as they arrived at Kulgera:

Turkish team - not much room in the driver's seat

Canadian team

Swiss Team

Turkish Team

On to Finke down the 150 kms of dirt which was quite a comfortable drive as the road must have been graded I think since Tuesday. (They'll have to grade it again soon but more on that below.)

On the return home a couple of things happened. I came across a beautiful Sand Monitor:

and then about half way back to Kulgera I ran into firstly a dust storm, followed by an amazing Thunder Storm which lit up the sky with lightning, as well as shooting bolts down to the ground. The rain started to hit at about 50 kms east of Kulgera and absolutely pelted down. So I had two occasions where driving was difficult - the first was the dust storm which made visibility of the front of the car impossible for a few minutes and then the driving rain was too much for even the fastest windscreen wiper setting. With the storm coming from the west, the road waqs quite slippery and wet and already the grooves of smooth driving from the middle of the day had turned into ice-like laneways. I was very happy to finally make it to Kulgera and seek the safety of shelter and the welcome return to the bitumen for the drive back to Alice.

Finke delivers some surprises

I should have known it was to be a special day bird-wise after I received a text at Erldunda from Peter Shanley ( read the WFS Twitch blog here ) about some Brolgas in Victoria.
After leaving Erldunda, I was treated to a parallel flyby by a Wedge-Tailed Eagle. I slowed the car down to match its pace - lazily flapping at 100km/h!
The purpose of the day was to do a reccy for work, down to Finke and then up to Alice via Titjikala. I was a little surprised by the lack of Birds of Prey in the Sky, although I did see Black Kites, Whistling Kites, Wedge-tailed Eagles and Nankeen Kestrels on the drive to the Kulgera turnoff. There isn't as much of the countryside burnt south of Erldunda as there is north of Erldunda, and on parts of the drive between Finke and Titjikala, there was quite a lot of green reflecting rains from a couple of weeks ago.
So, onto the surprises. I arrived at Finke close to lunch, not a good time as everything shuts down for a couple of hours between 12 and 2. I decided to fill the car with fuel on the off chance the peo0ple I was to meet may have worked through lunch. After waiting until 20 past 12, there were still no signs of life so I decided to go for a bit of a drive. Amazingly, I chanced upon the water treatment area of Finke (damn! :-)) After having a few goes at driving around the ponds, and noticing ducks, as well as hearing lots of Zebra Finches, I parked the car and grabbed the camera. My first impression was that two of the ponds were full and the third was empty, but on closer inspection the third pond did have a low cover of water, with areas for waders. I started to get a little excited as I saw a White-necked, or Pacific Heron:

Not a bird I would have associated with a place near the absolute middle of Australia. The ponds had Hardheads, Grey Teal and Hoary-headed Grebes, as well as a number of species hanging around for the water including Little Corellas, Crested Pigeons and Diamond Doves, Red-backed Kingfishers, Yellow-throated Miners, Splendid Fairy-wrens, Willie Wagtails, Singing Honeyeaters, Rufous Songlarks and Galahs. At various point most of these birds came to the waters edge to drink. the Fairy Martins simply swooped down for a quick gulp and then off again.
As I walked around the ponds, the Zebra Finches were by far the most in number, well into the hundreds:

At one point, despite the cacophony the Zebs were creating, I could hear another sound. A young Painted Finch was calling to its parents who were hard to catch in the lens. the below is my best effort so you can imagine what the rest of the photos were like:

It was soon time to head back to find my contact people within Finke, and after finishing the purpose of the trip there, headed up the track to Titjikala:

You can just make out the Willy Willy on the top right hand side, which I managed to drive through and the car copped a decent spray of dust and dirt marbles. Always on the lookout for a sprinkling of bird life, I had stopped to look at a Red-backed Kingfisher and Black-faced Woodswallow fight over the top part of a dead tree on the left hand side of the road. Scanning across onto the right hand side, I noticed something hopping along in the shadows. At first I thought it was probably a Crested Bellbird, but the crest seemed wrong. Unfortunately the two birds I saw and tried desperately to get a good photograph stayed in the shadows and in and under the overhanging branches of the surrounding shrubs. The differences in the bird books I have between a chirruping and chiming wedgebills don't really identify much beyond the calls to be able to tell them apart. the area I was in is right on the edge of both species' distribution maps so that didn't help either. And alas, even though I waited for some time, neither of the two I could see were making any noises. One for the "could be this" file.
a little further up the road I saw a huge bird of prey drop below a sand hill. I stopped and walked up the hill but couldn't see any sign of the bird. Its size suggested a Wedge-tailed Eagle. On the way back down the sand hill I startled this beautiful Long-tailed Sand Dragon:

 and then a little further came across this Bearded Dragon on the road:

As the sun was setting, I pulled into Ewaninga Reserve. I checked the claypan thinking there may be water, but it was dry. Apart from a few Australian Ringnecks, Crested Pigeons, Yellow-throated Miners and some fairy-wrens, the last rays of the day provided a photo opportunity I've entitled "a sign of sunset":