Brown Goshawk

Normally a bird of prey will stay away from me if I am camped by a water source. Rarely will they come and have a drink. This female Brown Goshawk was unusual because it flew around the small waterhole, saw me, perched across the other side, flew down then flew off, but returned not long after. And she gave me some lovely photos. How do I know it was a female? Because the male is a lot smaller and he came by about an hour later, but he did do the normal bird of prey behaviour and flew in then flew off.

Brown Goshawk

"OK Pretty Boy, Let's Dance" said the frog to the Kookaburra

Recently I had camped for the night and there were some pine log barriers nearby. After I had finished putting up the table chairs etc., I became aware of a whacking noise, and looked over to see a Blue-winged Kookaburra hitting something against the pine log. Turned out to be an unfortunate frog. But, such is the way of the natural world, prey and hunters. So, I took photos (there's a surprise) and the first one I am putting up reminded me a bit of a gangster, or a Monty Python sketch.

Blue-winged Kookaburra

White-browed Treecreeper with chick

I went birding with Mark Carter of Mark Carter Birding and Wildlife (best guide and bird-watcher in Alice Springs) as he wanted to try to find some White-browed Treecreepers as he suspected they had chicks. He didn't disappoint.

It took a little while to locate them, firstly by call, and then by sight.

we noticed first one, then three Treecreepers flitting from Ironwood to Ironwood, one fairly consistently calling/begging. We stayed on the roadside of the brabed-wire fenceline, and the birds slowly came closer. We took quite a few shots of the birds at distance, and then,they came a lot closer to where we had thought/hoped they would come. We were ready with the cameras and managed to get some decent photos.

These birds are common further south in South Australia, but can be tricky to find in the NT so it was wonderful to see they are breeding locally.

A huge thank you to Mark for allowing me to see and capture these birds.

White-browed Treecreeper

Rufous-crowned Emu-wrens - one of the iconic birds of Central Australia

The Rufous-crowned Emu-wren must be one of the birds most Australian photographers and bird-listers would love to see and photograph. For a long time, I have been trying to get better photos of this tiny bird. Pizzey and Knight list it as 12-13 cms including the tail which can be 6.5 - 7.5 cms, meaning the bird itself without the tail is only 6 cms or so. In anyone's estimation, that is a small bird! Previously I have managed photos of the bird hidden behind many spinifex strands, and at a distance. Recently, however, I managed to finally enjoy some close up views, and delighted in their playful jumping, diving and disappearing act amongst the spinifex.

Their call is fairly high-pitched and quite short, with a few exciting squeaks from within the spinifex. It is almost as though they are saying "found an insect!" The males are more colourful than the females, but both birds are beautiful to see.

They seem to enjoy early morning, in full voice before the sun rises, then jump and hop around the spinifex for the first hour or so after sun rise. On the morning the photos were taken, there was a spectacular sunrise with cloud cover.

They are quite widespread through inland Australia, and I am very glad they are found only a short distance from my home. Hope you enjoy the photos.

Rufous-crowned Emu-wren

Male

Female

Sunrise

Habitat

A few photos of Major Mitchell Cockatoos

I came across three Major Mitchell Cockatoos near Alice Springs recently. Their unmistakable squawk gave their position on the power lines away. Their squawks continued after I arrived at the spot, and they were behaving like three children, just mucking around, Eventually they all flew off, but managed to capture some of the silly moments and in flight shots.

 Major Mitchell Cockatoo

A second Black Bittern experience.

Sometimes birding is weird. Even though the sighting of one bird might suggest a second sighting in a reasonable proximity is possible, or even likely, over 400 kms away is stretching things. However, that is what happened to me.

I'd never seen a Black Bittern before Saturday. I wrote about my first experience here. Today was sighting number 2. By road more than 420 kms to the south, at Lajamanu. I had already scared off 2 White-faced Herons, and a Pacific Heron stayed a lot further down the creek. There were Double-barred Finches coming down to drink, Grey-fronted, White-plumed, Yellow-tinted and Brown Honeyeaters flitting around, as well as Striated Pardalotes piping from the treetops, and the mournful cries of 5 or 6 Red-tailed Black Cockatoos. A pair of Pied Butcherbirds seemed to completely ignore the alarmist honeyeaters, Willie Wagtails chatted away and a lizard went for a dunk in the creek before clambering up and scurrying away. All a pretty normal afternoon at Hooker Creek.

Settling in to my chair, compiling my e-bird list, a bird, a largish bird, appeared on my left side in my peripheral vision. The camera snapped into position and I stupidly fired off four or five shots before I even had a chance to focus. The last photo in the sequence was pretty much in focus and I could tell straight away it was yet another Black Bittern. Fully expecting it to continue on down the creek, I was ecstatic when it pulled up not far from me and landed in sight about half way up the tree. Unfortunately there were some pesky sticks in the way but I could see the bird clearly. At first it was fairly hunched over, then it straightened in a manner reminiscent of an emu, A weird sight. Hoping it would fly back from whence it came, I was overjoyed when it flew virtually across the river from me, alas via the backs of trees, butlanded in some tall grass. It slowly came out of the grass, very shyly, but standing quite upright. More photos, these ones even better than any from today or Saturday. I think I started to tremble. I always get excited when opportunities like this arise. The camera was having trouble focusing as the grass behind moved in the breeze. Then the Bittern squatted and flew up into the nearest very bushy tree. It stayed there for 10 or so minutes, before again flying to the ground, this time stalking behind the grass and a tree, until it flew up to the back of the trunk of the tree directly opposite me. After 30 seconds, it decided it would head back to its original location, and it disappeared from view.

I originally thought it was a male, but shadows can play tricks with both your eyes and the camera. Once I downloaded the photos it is obviously a female. A truly weird and wonderful experience. Hope you enjoy the photos. Make sure you check out photos 4 and 5. The two stances on the bough, and 1 and 2, the stances on the ground.

Black Bittern

Black-breasted Buzzard family saga

The fluffy white ball that was first spotted in the nest is now almost full size. Beautiful white feet, stunning feather colours, and a well-formed beak ready to make nice little mouthfuls of much larger prey. Recently I managed to get some lovely close-ups of what can no longer be called a "chick". With mum and dad close by keeping an eye on their pride and joy, the young Black-breasted Buzzard stood, sat, and yawned its way through another warm Central Australian afternoon.

Black-breasted Buzzard