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

Wild Bird Wednesday 375 - Little Corella

These pictures were taken a while ago - but I have been saving them.

In autumn large (and sometimes very large) flocks of Little Corellas (Cacatua sanguinea) appear in Melbourne.  The feed on the seeds of many of the street trees, and also dig for roots on sports fields and ovals.

This pair of birds were part of a flock that appeared at a sports oval near to my house.  Little Corellas, like most of the broader family of parrots, seem to be smarter than the average bear bird.  I am not really sure of the significance of the 'fights' that occur between pairs of birds - but the battles do seem rather playful.  My parrot books suggest that they are in fact playing.

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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Wild Bird Wednesday 374 - Crimson Rosella

The Crimson Rosella (Platycercus elegans) is a wonderfully coloured bird found in eastern and south eastern Australia.  We sometimes get them in out garden, which is a bit of a treat.  These birds were feeding on some short grass at Wilsons Promontory National Park.

The males and females of this species are fairly similar (identical to me!) - but the greener birds in these pictures are immature birds.

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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Wild Bird Wednesday 373 - Little Pied Cormorant

The Little Pied Cormorant (Microcarbo melanoleucos) is a common enough bird in Australia, but I was a little surprised to find one on my local patch last weekend.  It seemed to be a common bird in an uncommon place.

I though I would try something at little different this week, and a pied bird make me think of black and white.

So, here is a Little Pied Cormorant rendered as black and white.

I may sound like a bit of a stuck record here, but I am about to start a very busy three weeks with a combination of work, travel and family events making for a bit of a full calendar.  So, WBW will roll on, but I may be less than prompt in replies etc.

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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Wild Bird Wednesday 372 - Superb Fairy-Wren

Over the last couple of weekends I have managed to track down my local family of Superb Fairy-Wrens (Malurus cyaneus).  This group of birds live near a local wetland, with associated scrubby woodland and a freeway.  I am not sure that they choose the location because of the proximity to the freeway!

These birds are (in my opinion) pretty hard to photograph - the combination of unpredictable high speed movement, small size and very contrasty colours makes for a bit of a challenge.  The group of birds is not quite reliable enough for me to sit and wait with a long lens and tripod, so 'stalking' is more the approach I use.  Maybe next time I should just stake out the wooden post as just see who turns up!

The bird in this picture may always be the same male bird - the females were even faster than he was!

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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Mount Sonder

Mount Sonder is the forth highest mountain in the Northern Territory (1,380 metres (4,530 ft)).  The (very) early climb up it to see the sunrise was a bit of a highlight of my recent trip to the NT.

We were walking by just after 3am and arrived at the 'summit' in time for dawn after an 8 km walk.  I say 'summit' as the real summit of Mount Sonder is not reached on this walk - which is about 3/4 of a kilometre further on.  The path does not extend to that point due to safety concerns.

It was a great walk up, illuminated in some places by the pale glow of a head torch - but for much of the walk by moon light.  Its been a while since I have been up that early.

The views from the summit were wonderful.

It was remarkable to watch the light change over the course of an hour or so.  In the two pictures above you can see the shadow of the mountain being cast over the landscape by the low Sun.  It was a special morning.

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