Sometimes you get no peace in the natural world even if you outnumber the protagonist(s) 50 to 1

The Grey Teals at Papunya number over 50 at the moment. For the past week or so I have watched them take off, circle wildly and loudly then settle back onto the water. They were joined by Pink-eared Ducks (were 5 the other day, now seemingly back to 4) and Pacific Black Ducks (3 which have now either taken off to their next stop, or been taken off by something else). Mostly, I thought my human intervention via the car was the reason for their flightiness. Late this afternoon it was a Black-breasted Buzzard, human, Little Crow, and they even seemed disturbed by the Whiskered Tern at times. I wished I was closer to the action but the area is enclosed by a cyclone fence, so some of the images, especially the Buzzard were unfortunately not as crisp as I would have liked.

Black-breasted Buzzard

Grey Teals off to the skies then returning to their water haven

Little Crow

Pink-eared Ducks

Whiskered Tern

(I know why it is here now, but why would it come here in the first place? Maybe a regular stopover)

Willie Wagtail with one of those lovely Central Australian backdrops

A cute Pink-eared Duckling along with mum, and others from the Alice Springs Water Treatment Plant

It has been a while since I visited our local ponds, and the birdlife seem to be enjoying the refuge as the outlying areas dry out. A surprise camein the form of a fluffy little Pink-eared Duckling. I walked up to a corner of a pond and was surprised by the slow movement of an adult Pink-eared Duck. Soon I realised why when this ball of fluff sauntered out from the protection of the bank, chasing the adult. It was curious to watch how the adult kept its distance until both were well into the middle of a rather large pond. I was glad there were no raptors hanging around during those minutes as it would have been awful to see this little one be taken.

Pink-eared Duckling

 Pink eared Duck

White-winged Fairy-wren

Fairy Martin followed by Tree Martin

nice of them to sit in the same position - makes it easy to identify and compare

Another pairing, Little Corella followed by Long-billed Corella

Yellow-rumped Thornbill

Honeyeaters, Chats and Ducks not to mention the wildflowers around Areyonga

As the weather heats up around Central Australia (could we have seen the last of winter?), the trees are starting to flower, the wildflowers are out in force, and the honeyeaters are turning up in flocks.

The Black Honeyeaters and the Pied Honeyeaters are quite similar to look at from a distance, and they both have high pitched piping sounds. I managed to get quite close to some Pied Honeyeaters at Papunya a little while ago, but the Black Honeyeaters have been too shy until now. Finally a couple of them showed their favourite perch and I squatted under a prickly shrub, getting harassed by normal flies and what I call Donkey Flies (as opposed to horse flies as they are huge, they bite, and there are a lot of donkeys around Areyonga). I waited for about half an hour, watching which branch it normally landed on, and then positioned the camera, waiting. Eventually it returned and started behind one of the branches, and then hopped out obligingly onto an exposed branch. I was pretty happy with the results.

Black Honeyeater

As I mentioned, the Pied Honeyeaters were also out in force

Pied Honeyeater

and a Brown Honeyeater

Crimson Chats are a constant noise around the ground and shrubs near the wildflowers

Crimson Chat

Areyonga has a very well maintained Water Treatment Plant area and the ducks have been slowly building in number over the past couple of weeks. Grey Teals, Pacific Black Ducks, Hardheads and Australasian Grebe have all been there this week as previously, but the new arrivals, the Pink-eared Ducks displayed the best plumage and activity nearest the camera.

Pink-eared Duck

But by far the most impressive sight near Areyonga at the moment is the wildflowers. Here is a sample: