A day well spent around Victoria River Roadhouse

For a change I decided not too stray too far from the campground at Victoria River Roadhouse on the weekend. Normally it would be up early, drive off somewhere, stop at any roadside water - pools of water, creeks, dams etc. and get to the end of the day exhausted from concentrating on both driving and bird-watching. So it was nice just to enjoy the surrounds of the area with only a short 5 minute drive to and from the boat ramp.

The scenery I find just stunning. I still got up early and walked along the "old" bridge, amazed at the lack of people doing the same. The escarpment lit up with the morning sun and the Victoria River is hardly flowing, allowing for wonderful photo opportunities with the cliffs and the water reflections.

Incredibly, my first bird noise whilst I was under the bridge was the Purple-crowned Fairy-wren. Even beat the Crimson Finches which is not easy to do. There were a host of small birds flitting around. Golden-headed Cisticola (still love the name), White-throated Honeyeaters, Willie Wagtails, Weebills, as well as the other aforementioned fairy-wrens and finches. Rainbow Bee-eaters constantly swooped and then sat on branches whacking the caught insect. Great Egrets and White-faced Herons sat in the shadows on the banks of the river, while Blue-winged Kookaburras called through the bush from somewhere beyond sight.
After an hour or so, still  untroubled by another human, I sauntered back to camp, moved to what I thought was a nicer area under a tree near the speargrasses and saw the Brown Quails mentioned in the previous post.
I headed down to the boatramp after the quail experience and found a few things along the road on the way in. A Nankeen Kestrel munching on a (now) dead lizard, a Rainbow Bee-eater perched beautifully on the barbed wire, Red-backed Kingfisher flying just in front of the car on the roadside, and eventually made it to the car park area at the boat ramp to be greeted by another Blue-winged Kookaburra, and the now familiar sound of the Purple-crowned Fairy-wren. I walked down to the ramp itself and glimpsed a Striated Pardalote nest. These are small holes in the dirt bank just before the ramp. As I was watching I saw one of the birds disappear into the hole. Within a minute it had come out again and flown off. I decided to sit and watch from a distance and see if this was a regular occurrence. I saw a flash of yellow black etc. zip into the hole. Camera at the ready, I was amazed to see what re-appeared:

Striated Pardalote

It was a very special thing to see, along with all of the other wonderful sights. I'd recommend spending a day exploring to anyone, and it was nice to spend a bit of time chatting with a few people I met, very interesting people and some very enjoyable chats.

Here are some scenery shots followed by some more bird shots.

Golden-headed Cisticola

Great Egret

Nankeen Kestrel with prey

Rainbow Bee-eater

Red-backed Kingfisher

White-throated Honeyeater

Brown Quails come out for a feed

Brown Quails are one of those birds that can either give you a fleeting glimpse, or do as these ones did and come and put on a show.

I first noticed them scurrying about in the shadows of the speargrass at the edge of the campground. About 30 minutes later they came back to about the same spot, but I was ready with the camera this time.

There were at least four of them, possibly seven in the original group, but only four returned for the second showing. I was hoping they would come out and stand up in the sun, so I was pretty happy with some of the shots, and they were quite close to my camp, a fortunate bit of positioning.

Hope you enjoy the photos.

Brown Quail

When Purple-crowned Fairy-wrens want to jump into your lens!

I've always found Purple-crowned Fairy-wrens to be secretive little birds, who like to play hide and seek in the pandanas and make life for a bird-watcher totally frustrating.

That was until this weekend.

I pulled the car up along the roadside near where I had seen the birds 4 years ago and again earlier in the week. To make sure I had the call figured, while I was grabbing the chair, camera water etc. I played the call twice on my iPad. It was in the car. I walked the 15 or so metres to the riverbank and heard a quiet little "zzzittt" "zzzittt" and looked up to one of the nearby pandanas and there was a female Purple-crowned Fairy-wren. I hadn't even put the chair down! I watched, listened and was a little dismayed to hear and see nothing else. I set up the chair and commenced what I hoped to be a short wait for the wren family to re-appear.

45 minutes later, I heard not one or two, but three birds heading along the water side of the pandanas. Now I don't use playback to call birds in, and even though I understand why some people do, I prefer not to confuse the birds. However, I did wonder whether my short playback in the car may have sent Mrs Wren off to get the family and introduce themselves to these "others".

I sat quietly, waiting for them to get closer, I was particularly keen to get photos of the male. It was nearly an hour after the first sighting that I took the photos below. As the blogpost title suggests, I really felt as though they wanted to jump down the lens at me. Absolutely astonishing considering my previous efforts.

After having such a close and noisy encounter (they really did call quite a lot, I'm not sure the "alarm call" in Pizzey and Knight app is totally accurate as they were really just calling to each other, and not really alarmed as they kept hanging around, almost like Superb Fairy-wrens do in Victoria.), I then found the PCFWs almost everywhere I went at Victoria River Roadhouse, not quite as close, but easily recognisable by the call, and occasionally coming out for a photo, albeit more distant.

Hope you enjoy the photos.

Purple-crowned Fairy-wren