Finally, after 20 years working in Australia
I found someone silly enough to fly Lynda and myself
to Alice Springs to do a 25 minute show.
It was love at first sight with The Alice, but with
our busy Nov/Dec schedule it meant we could only
stay on for an extra two nights for a spot of birding.
And what does any self respecting birder do in this
tourist mecca? Of course head straight to the town
rubbish dump and sewrage treatment works.
The following day we hit the West Macdonald Ranges.
The birding was pretty tough going. Even the locals
were complaining of the heatwave and a huge percentage
of the Territory has recently been destoyed by fire.
We drove through still burning patches and if it hadn't
been for the tremendous storm the night before
probably would not have got through the area at all.
(How much rain? The Todd was running in places).
A few new birds for us and a burning desire, (pardon
the inapropriate language) to get back there asap.
Highlights included -
Dusky Grasswren - Standley Chasm
Spinifex Pigeon - Ormistion Gorge
Three Wedge Tailed Eagles rounding up a Wallaroo on the
hills behind the casino.
Black Falcon - Alice Rubbish Tip/& Near Standley
Lunch on the verandah at Glen Helen - Looking out over
the mighty Fink river - Grey Crowned Babbler
Breakfasts at Nthaba Cottage - Great bird garden & accomodation
and big thanks to Will Cormack for taking time out on his Sunday
to show us around "The Ponds"
Ponds Birds included - Ruff, Pink Ears, Freckled Ducks, Wood SP,
Greenshanks, Black Tailed Native Hen, White Winged Wren,
Red-Capped Plover and many more
Incidently, we were performing at the NT Tourism Awards
night, which are the "Brolga Awards". Managed to slip
in a mention of Newhaven and Birds Australia and how
this will lead to an increase in the stream of bird watching
tourists into the Territory, which got a nice
acknowledgement from the industry crowd.
Back in Blue Mountains now, itching to get out to
Capertee as we seem to be missing all the excitement
there as posted recently by Carol Probets. Our last
dam went dry a few weeks ago, ("we'll all be rooned")
but hopefully we collected a bit of last weekends big dump.
happy birding
Timothy Hyde & Lynda Holmes
Blue Mountains / Capertee Valley
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