Driving back from Yulara yesterday I stopped off at the Mt Connor Lookout on the Lasseter Highway. I didn't intend to initially but as I drove past a tree about 500 metres before the Lookout, it burst into life as over 100 budgies flew off. The tree turned from green back to brown and the air was suddenly specks of green. I had remembered seeing parts of Lake Amadeus away from the road had water in it so I decided to stop and head over the sand dune and take a look. I had numerous flybys by groups of budgies:
and was a little disappointed to see the lack of water in the lake as it had looked like it would have much more water from my earlier sighting, but still, this was the first time I had seen any water in the lake:
Mt Connor itself was showing for the first time I had seen it in 4 attempts (down to Yulara and back twice) as the first two of these sightings the mountain was covered by a thick cloud of smoke back in November, and my trip down earlier in the week it had been covered by a low misty rain cloud, but this tie it was clear:
The stop itself isn't normally much chop for bird-watching, crested pigeons, yellow-throated miners and white-plumed honeyeaters the mainstays, so I continued on, keen to get a photo of the incessantly calling chiming wedgebill I had heard earlier in the week on the Erldunda side of Mt Ebenezer roadhouse. I stopped there again, and could hear it again, but couldn't see it at all and thus no photo. The Brown Songlark was there again though, and I realised that I hadn't heard a Rufous Songlark since I had left the Stuart Highway on the Monday. I have noticed this before. Although their range does overlap, I can't recall actually seeing the two of them in the one location. I continued on my drive back home and as I drove past a puddle recalled that I had seen a Rufous Songlark having a bath out at Ilparpa Road last week.Below are some of the photos:
