Wild Bird Wednesday 380 - White-Plumed Honeyeater

The White-Plumed Honeyeater (Lichenostomus penicillatus) is a widespread and common Australian endemic.  It is also I bird that seems to have escaped my photographic pursuits until I went to central Australia a while ago.

Like many of my recent WBW posts this bird was living (wild) in the Desert Park in Alice Springs.  The White-Plumed Honeyeater has a wingspan of about 90mm and at its heaviest reaches about 24 grams.  So, its not really a big bird!

I really like the colour contrast in these pictures between the bird and the plant on which it is perched.

As ever, you can join in with WBW by clicking on the link below - and also as ever, please feel free to share the love for WBW with other bloggers!   SM

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Wild Bird Wednesday 379 - Australian Ringneck - aka Port Lincoln Parrot

This week's WBW is brought to you by the highly variable Australian Ringneck Parrot (Barnardius zonarius) which occurs in a number of sub-species.

These birds are examples of the subspecies Barnardius zonarius zonarius (dont you just love taxonomy!) - which is also know as the Port Lincoln Parrot.  This is the most widespread of the sub-species of this parrot.

These birds were photographed in the Desert Park in Alice Springs.  They are not an uncommon bird in Alice.  In fact, they can be found on the main street of the town, where they have become used to stealing packets of sugar from cafe tables!

These birds were a little more wild than that.

As ever, you can join in with WBW by clicking on the link below - and also as ever, please feel free to share the love for WBW with other bloggers!  

I have not been able to reply to comments from last week yet - after 378 weeks in a row I hope you can forgive this tardiness!

Cheers. SM

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Wild Bird Wednesday 378 - Emu

This week's WBW is brought to you by the number 378 and the letter Emu!

It's been really busy here: work, family birthdays, too much cake (if such a thing is possible) and other time consuming events!

So, for this week, here is an Emu (Dromaius novaehollandiae) having a breakfast of nice yellow flowers in the Alice Springs Desert Park.

As ever, you can join in with WBW by clicking on the link below - and also as ever, please feel free to share the love for WBW with other bloggers!  Cheers. SM

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Barrow Creek

Barrow Creek is almost 300km north of Alice Springs and has a current population of 11.

This ute was a bit of a local landmark.  When things go wrong here, they have a tendency to stay wrong.  The owner of the fuel station / shop / pub that makes up most of Barrow Creek told us he spends about $180 a day on diesel to run the electrical generators.

Its a strange kind of place.

As you may be able to tell from these pictures - it was hot here too!

You can find more shots from around the world at Our World Tuesday.  SM

Wild Bird Wednesday 377 - Western Bowerbird

The Western Bowerbird (Chlamydera guttata) is endemic to Australia, meaning it's not found in any other country.

This species is found in Central Australia (where I photographed it) and also in parts of Western Australia.  Interestingly there is a gap between these two areas, where as far as we know, the species is not known.  If you have much of a grasp of the geography of Australia, you may understand that the space between these two areas where the bird is found is pretty much the middle of nowhere.  So, this distribution could be as much a case of where people have looked, rather than where the bird lives.   Maybe a survey of that area could be a project for when I retire!

The bird itself has a wing span of about 140mm and is built much like a slight muscular thrush.  As you can see in a couple of the pictures, this species has a pink 'erectile nuchal crest' on its neck.  (Nechal means 'neck' - I had to look that up!)

You can see a black irrigation pipe in the background of the last picture.  These birds (and I think these are three different birds)  were all photographed at the Alice Springs Desert Park, but they are all wild bird that take advantage of the watering and abundance of plants.

As ever, you can join in with WBW by clicking on the link below - and also as ever, please feel free to share the love for WBW with other bloggers!  Cheers. SM

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Olive Pink Botanic Garden

The Olive Pink Botanic Garden is a 16ha reserve in Alice Springs, named after its founder, Olive Pink.

When we visited, it was very, very dry and you could see that there had been a fire in at least one part of the reserve.

The shots of Alice Springs from the high point of the Garden give a clear indication as to why this part of the world is called The Red Centre.   And just to add to the dryness, a small Willie Willie formed - this is when you get a small dust storm that looks like a hurricane.

While we were at the (rather good) cafe in the Garden, a female Black Footed Rock Wallaby, which is actually a threatened species, wandered in to see if she could find a snack!  After pausing in the sand-pit to check out the toys, she had to leave and take her Joey - baby - with her!

As you may be able to tell from these pictures - it was hot!

You can find more shots from around the world at Our World Tuesday.  SM

Wild Bird Wednesday 376 - Hooded Robin

The Hooded Robin (Melanodryas cucullata) is a widespread, but never abundant, medium sized robin that is found over much of Australia.

This bird was feeding from a fence post in a protected area of vegetation in Alice Springs.  In the guide books it is mentioned that this bird will often sit still on a lowish vantage point - and then 'pouncing to take food from the ground'.

And this is pretty much what this bird was doing!

This was the first bird I photographed during my recent trip to the Northern Territory - it was a great way to start an adventure!

As ever, you can join in with WBW by clicking on the link below - and also as ever, please feel free to share the love for WBW with other bloggers!  Cheers. SM

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Faces from the Festival

I have just come back from some time in the Northern Territory - which involved a stay in Alice Springs and then a road trip north to Darwin, via Kakadu.  There will be many pictures to follow.

The reason for the stay in Alice was that Sal (and her choir) were singing in a festival called The Desert Songs Festival which was based in and around Alice.  The last event of the festival was an open air performance by many of the choirs in Ormiston Gorge.  The gorge provided some rather wonderful natural acoustics, and the faces and costumes of the singers provided more than enough photo opportunities for me.

I don't really take many pictures of people, so I rather pleased with these.

Soul Harvest Choir - Vanuatu

Soul Harvest Choir - Vanuatu

Soul Harvest Choir - Vanuatu

Central Australian Aboriginal Women’s Choir

Central Australian Aboriginal Women’s Choir

Central Australian Aboriginal Women’s Choir 

CHIME - Sal's Choir

Mixed Choir - CHIME, Soul Harvest Choir, Soweto Gospel Choir

Mixed Choir - CHIME, Soweto Gospel Choir

Mixed Choir -Soul Harvest Choir, Soweto Gospel Choir

Soweto Gospel Choir

Soweto Gospel Choir

The Crowd.

 You can find more shots from around the world at Our World Tuesday.  SM