Renner Springs, Newcastle Waters, Buchanan and Buntine Hwy bird photos

The drive between Renner Springs and Lajamanu is exciting for me as I live in Alice Springs so don't generally get to see some of the birdlife along this stretch. Apart from the Finches, there are lots of other amazing birds. Here is a sample of some of the photos I took recently.

Black-chinned Honeyeater

Common Bronzewing

Grey-fronted Honeyeater

Nankeen Night Heron

Juvenile Pied Butcherbird

Rainbow Bee-eater

Red-kneed Dotterel

White-faced heron

White-necked or Pacific Heron

Willie Wagtail

Black-breasted Buzzard

Varied Lorikeet

Early morning birding action at Nyirripi

Before the sun peeked through the shrubs, the Peregrine had taken station on top of a lamp post. 15 minutes after the sun broke through, the budgies started arriving. In the meantime, a really gutsy Willie Wagtail tried to hassle the Peregrine off the wires. Groups of 10, 20 and more, all checking out the water and building into larger and larger groups.

Throw in a water sampler and his dogs, a bull in the paddock and there was action aplenty, not least of which when the dogs started going the bull, the Peregrine decided that was a good time to do a swoop, and the budgies scattered. all very exciting to watch.

Peregrine Falcon

A really gutsy Willie Wagtail takes on the Peregrine

Budgerigars, noisy and colourful

Nankeen Kestrel decided to join in at one point

Rufous Whistler checked me out

Not sure if this was the brave one, but made for a lovely backdrop for the photo

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