Photos of some Waterbirds from Northern Territory

The following is a number of photos from various places on a recent trip to Darwin.

Australasian Darter (Yellow Waters, Kakadu and Longreach Waterhole near Elliott)

Australian Pelican (Yellow Waters, Kakadu)

Australian White Ibis (Holmes Jungle CR, Darwin)

Great Crested Grebe (Longreach Waterhole near Elliott)

Little Black Cormorant (Longreach Waterhole near Elliott)

Magpie Goose (Yellow Waters, Kakadu)

Pied Cormorants (Longreach Waterhole)

Straw-necked Ibis (Longreach Waterhole near Elliott)

Great-crested Grebe, Jabiru, Little Corellas and Whistling Kite

The cold of Alice Springs finally became too much so the family has headed north. We stopped in at an old favourite of mine, Newcastle Waters, and even though the birds are diminishing in both number and variety, there were still a couple of nice photo opportunities.

The Great-crested Grebe was swimming in the water near the road:

Although not quite as close, but always a pleasure to see were quite a number of Jabirus. I love the contrast of their green shiny head, red legs, knobbly knees with the locations they tend to prefer:

These Little Corellas were seen earlier in the morning at Bonney Creek which is where we were kind of forced to stay as the Devil's Marbles camping area was wall to wall caravans and campers. Bonney Creek Rest Stop is about 20 kms further north up the Stuart Highway, and one I have stopped at during the day a number of times previously. There are normally Black Kites and Zebra Finches as well as fairy-wrens in this location, but first thing in the morning were these beautiful Little Corellas, all sitting peacefully on the windmill at the stop. They looked content in the morning light, but once they all moved on, the cacophony was worse than children who had been in the car for three days, and the parents reading this will understand what I mean by that!:

We stayed the next night at Mataranka, and although there wasn't a lot of bird photography opportunity, I slipped away early in the morning with my youngest son and managed a beautiful series of shots of this Whistling Kite as it landed on an exposed branch and then fluffed itself in the morning light:

The next few days will be spent watching my eldest son play cricket in Darwin but hopefully there will be a few chances to get to some of the more popular birding spots around Darwin.

Happy Birding!

Lake Woods

There is a Road Closed sign on the turnoff to Lake Woods so I decided to do the right thing and ask the local police what the story was. The local sergeant was very nice and encouraged me to take it easy on the road but head out there and if anyone asked, "tell 'em the Sarge said it was ok!"
The track was a lot better than I thought it would be from his remarks. Although it isn't marked in any way, it is still pretty easy to follow the track correctly out to the lake. Or what I thought was the lake.
After stopping the car, and realising I was the only one there, I took in the serenity. For about 3 minutes and then heard a car, which not only came to the side of the lake, but parked right next to me. A friendly fella jumped out, beer in his hand, sat down at the table I was sitting at, and proceeded to chat away for about 15 minutes. Although not overly happy that my dream afternoon of solitude with the birds had just been shattered, he was a nice guy and gave me a lot of information about the local area and birdlife. For a start, where I was sitting isn't in fact Lake Woods, that is further to the east south east from where I was. And he informed me it is the largest lake in the Territory, a fact I didn't know. And he also told me there were lots of Brolgas there. I didn't immediately get up and drive out to the actual lake as much as that appealed to me, and mainly because he pointed out some Magpie Geese way over the water in the shade. How he saw them I'll never know, although he did let on that they were one of his favourite tucker.
And the birdlife and action where we were was more than satisfying. There must be thousands of fish in the lake as lots of different types of birds were feeding on the fish, or in the shallows on food in the mud.
As I sat and watched, I saw Gull-billed Terns, Whistling Kites, Black Kites, Australiasian Darter and Great Egrets all plough into the water with beak or talons to snare a feed of fish. Brolgas, the Magpie Geese and Royal Spoonbills were staying at a distance all feeding in the shallows across the water, occasionally making there way into the open for me to see but not get great photos. At various points there would have been 40-50 birds of prey, only Whistling and Black Kites, circling above the water at various heights. The hardest thing about catching a fish was keeping it off the other Kites nearby. My companion at the table eventually took his mob home and another car that had arrived also left so I was there by myself, with this amazing bird spectacular in front of me, and above me. Various ducks and a pair of Great-crested Grebes swum around the lake, although mostly on the other side to where I was located. Nankeen Night Herons started out as just one, then another, and then there were 5 all pretty much in the one spot, occasionally barking at one another to get out of one's space. Cattle Egret were again on the far side but in beautiful orange plumage. The smaller birds on my side included another Pictorella Mannikan, Zebra Finches, Weebills, Willie Wagtails, Rainbow Bee-eaters and slightly larger Apostlebirds. For those photographers amongst you, you can imagine how many photos I took, so I've had to cut down the number shown as you would be here for hours! Even so, there are still a lot to look through. Enjoy.

Apostlebird

Black Kite

Black Kite catching fish

Australasian Darter catching fish

Diamond Dove

Great-crested Grebe

Gull-billed Tern catching fish

Whistling Kite catching fish

Zebra Finch in the late afternoon light