Alice Springs and surrounds - where the birding just keeps on keeping on

Alice Springs must be the Australian birding mecca at the moment. A few weeks ago a Grey Falcon was spotted during the BirdLife Central Australia/Red Centre Bird Festival Twitchathon. Add to that a credible sighting of Brolgas flying over one of the suburbs (yes we have suburbs in Alice Springs), and in the near future a Princess Parrot tour will head out of Alice Springs with some very lucky participants (see the link here). For those of you waiting for the trip report, I can't remember the last bird I saw when I wasn't on site!

The Twitchathon gives you a good indication of what you can see without too much effort - 71 species in a 12 hour period was the winner, but the last placed team saw 64. I imagine most who don't live in the Alice Springs region would have seen over 10 lifers in just that one day. Get up to Alice Springs!

Today I went out on one of our close-to-town dirt roads. This was to test out how my hand would manage driving on dirt roads as I am keen to resume work as soon as I can. Result - not yet! And the road was not at all bumpy/corrugated. However, whilst nursing the fingers, I decided to pull over and let a water truck go by. I pulled into a nice horseshoe pull-over area and decided to get out of the car as the truck was going quite slow. I saw a bird fly up onto a nearby tree. It looked a bit like a "TREECREEPER!" I raced around the other side of the car and got out the camera, complete with monopod. All thoughts of my now aching fingers were gone as I hurriedly got back to a position where I could get a photo. Varied Sittellas often catch me out, not to mention other birds that would like to be a Treecreeper, but my first suspicion was correct. I watched as it "clawed" its way into a more favourable photo position, hoping that my hand would holdout. It sort of did. Good enough photos for an ID. Just in time as the truck then went past and the bid flew off. I returned to the car, pretty chuffed. As I was putting the camera back in the car, the Treecreeper flew onto a tree almost next to the car. This time it wasn't quite in the sun as much, but much closer, and much better chance of getting a decent shot. I clicked away, aware the trunk was getting the focus most of the time, but I was curtailed in movement by my monopod-assisted one-hand operation. After about 10 minutes, the bird finally flew beyond photographic usefulness.

White-browed Treecreeper

In this stretch of outback road, the Budgerigars and Cockatiels were around but not in huge numbers. Weebills were busy collecting nesting material, a female Hooded Robin sat on the wire fence no more than 5 metres away, Masked Woodswallows, Black-faced Woodswallows, Southern Whiteface, Zebra Finches, the list would fill the page but instead here are a couple of photos:

Hooded Robin

Masked Woodswallow

Southern Whiteface

Variegated Fairy-wren

Weebill

In total about 30 species. All in woodland that most people just drive past. If you are reading this you are probably a birder. If you haven't ever been to Alice Springs, or haven't been for a while, come and enjoy the smorgasboard of birds that are on offer now. We never know how long it lasts.

Young birds and little bird photos

Unusually, the middle of Australia is having a normal Spring boom for birds. I haven't noticed this in previous years, and it is nice to experience similar events to the rest of Australia. The juveniles have thrown me quite a bit, and thankfully the parents have been around to give me a clue. The Masked Woodswallow was one that really confused me until the parent flew onto a branch beneath the juvenile.

Masked Woodswallow juvenile

A few moments later a young Budgerigar joined the Woodswallow on the same tree

Budgerigar juvenile

further down the road I came across a bird that I just couldn't finger for an ID. Eventually I decided it was a young Rufous Songlark

There were a few of the smaller birds around, they can be noisy and cheeky. One of them was a Chestnut-rumped Thornbill

Chestnut-rumped Thornbill

Another small bird that is enjoyable to watch is the Australasian or Richard's Pipit

and I couldn't have a small bird post without putting in the Zebra Finch. They have such character and even though I see these a lot, I could watch their playful shananagans all day.

Zebra Finch

Fledglings, juveniles and small bird photos

There seem to be a lot of young birds around at the moment in Central Australia. On my way to and from Santa Teresa today, I stopped for a couple of birds which turned out to be Australasian Pipits. As I was sitting in the car, windows down, I could hear some high pitched squeaks, and noticed a few small birds on the roadside. They didn't seem to mind the car, and came quite close. At first I thought the small birds were grey-headed honeyeaters, then I thought they could be yellow-tinted honeyeaters, although that would be a long way from their range. Turns out, they were grey-fronted honeyeater, not birds I see a lot in Central Australia.

Grey-fronted Honeyeater

Over the past couple of days I have also seen a lot of small birds, or juveile birds on the way to Santa Teresa and around Alice Springs.

Young Crimson Chat with grub

Young Fairy Martin giving me the eye as it flew off

Australian or Clamorous Reed Warbler - should just be called Chatterbox!

Little Grassbird

A pair of Australian Spotted Crakes

I'm fairly sure this is a young Masked Woodswallow, please correct me if I am wrong

A moulting or juvenile Hooded Robin

Inland Thornbill

Yellow-rumped Thornbills nesting, Pied Honeyeaters, Crimson Chats and other photos - Alice Springs to Papunya

I drove out to Papunya today to return to work after an exciting long weekend in Melbourne watching the footy with one of my sons. Along the road I came across some Yellow-rumped Thornbills busily preparing a nest.

Yellow-rumped Thornbill's nesting

I also came across a lot of Pied Honeyeaters near Papunya. They enjoyed keeping their distance.

Female Pied Honeyeater on left, Singing Honeyeater on the right

Female above the male Pied Honeyeaters

Male (right) chasing the female on the left

A couple of males

The Crimson Chats were in the same area as the Pied Honeyeaters

Just to make things slightly confusing for the observer, a few Hooded Robins were around, and the female White-winged Triller (not unlike the female Pied Honeyeater at first glance:

Hooded Robin

The Zebra Finches are starting to gather in certain spots as well as the recent rains dry out.

Zebra Finch

and the Masked Woodswallows were hanging around with the Pied Honeyeaters as well

after a short period where the birds seemed to have hibernated for the winter, I was glad to see them out in force today.

Birds on the road from Yuendumu to Nyirripi

Yesterday I went for a drive to check out the road to Nyirripi as I will be heading there in the near future. I was a little surprised by the lack of birds fluttering about along the road as has been the case all year. It is certainly drying out in Central Australia, Alice Springs hasn't had a drop of rain for 140 days.

About half way along the road I finally spotted some bird activity and stopped. Masked Woodswallows were busily feeding on orange flowers, accompanied by some Singing Honeyeaters and a couple of Grey-headed Honeyeaters. The Masked Woodswallows were quite comical, heading from one bush to the next in waves, and at one stage there were about a dozen on one skinny bush with flowers all the way up, the bush swayed as they clung on.

Masked Woodswallows

At another point along the road I spotted a Brown Falcon sitting high above the shrubs in a dead tree. I pulled over before I was at the tree to try to keep the dust down. 

Brown Falcon

As I got out, I was surprised by the amount of chatter happening in the undergrowth right beneath the falcon. I played a bit of hide and seek with a Mistletoebird, but again this species proved how inquisitive they can be by staying around the trees immediately surrounding me for the majority of the time I was there.

 Mistletoebird

I could hear the Rufous Whistler deep in the scrub, but thought my chances of seeing it and getting a photo were limited. I was pretty happy when it popped out into a tree not far from where I was standing and just in case it thought I would miss it, whistled heartily.

Rufous Whistler

The road itself was ok with a few rough spots both sandy and rocky, but generally quite ok to drive. Without any road signs, occasionally I wondered if I was on the right road, but there was the occasional car coming the other way so I felt fairly confident it was the right road. 

Along the road there were a few other birds, every now and then Zebra Finches would burst from the ground next to the road to sit in a tree away from the dust, Rainbow Bee-eaters would flutter about 20 metres off the road, busily catching insects. Crimson Chats would saunter in front of the car before diving off into the ground cover as the car past. And Willie Wagtails are constant along the road, busily catching insects and then zipping off into a nearby tree, tail wagging as it perched. There were very few birds of prey in the air, in fact the Brown Falcon above was only one of two I saw on the road. A Nankeen Kestrel fluttered in the air near Nyirripi, but much quieter birding in general. The drive was enjoyable though.

Enjoy your Bird-watching!