Photo Gallery
Photos: David Fisher, Jim Bangma, David Stevens and Trevor Quested
Our tour starts in Adelaide, capital of South Australia. We visit the world famous St. Kilda saltfields, where vast tanks are the non-breeding home of thousands of Banded Stilts, that are dotted across the water like giant phalaropes, and….
….also to beautiful Red-necked Avocets and….
….graceful Fairy Terns - our only site for this species.
Then we move inland to the ‘Mallee’, a habitat named after a species of tree that used to dominate the landscape before most of them were cut down and the land converted to agriculture.
Fortunately, some tracts of mallee are protected in nature reserves and national parks, and here we’ll search for special birds including….
….the Malleefowl, a megapode that incubates its eggs in enormous mounds of mallee vegetation – this female is scraping off leaf litter to reduce the temperature in the mound,….
….Regent Parrots, most often seen as a flock of golden streaks flashing through the bush, but occasionally perching to give good views,….
….White-browed Treecreeper, an attractive inland bird of limited distribution,….
….and gorgeous Variegated Fairy-Wren.
From Adelaide we’ll fly to Alice Springs, no longer anything like the place described in A Town called Alice, but the bustling modern center of the vast interior.
Among a spectacular landscape of gorges and ravines around the town we’ll search for a range of semi-desert species such as….
….the much sought-after Pink or Major Mitchell’s Cockatoo,…
….the Western Bowerbird, here at it’s bower, and….
….local marsupials such as this Black-tailed Rock-Wallaby.
One day we take a trip by air to Uluru Kata_Tjuta National Park to visit probably the most well-known geological features in Australia. Uluru (Ayer’s Rock) is a single massive monolith that dominates the surrounding flat desert.
Kata_Tjuta (the Olgas) are a mass of domes that some people find equally as impressive as the Rock.
Birds are fairly scarce around Uluru, but do sometimes include the stunning Crimson Chat.
We stay on until sunset to watch the colors change on Uluru….
….the tones of which vary tremendously from day to day depending upon the weather conditions.
Next we move north to the hot and humid tropics of the ‘Top End’ – the Northern Territories around Darwin – where multicolored birds such as the Blue-faced Honeyeater are commonplace in almost every garden.
In local nature reserves gorgeous Rainbow Pittas via for our attention with….
….the likes of the bizarre Tawny Frogmouth and….
….the enormous Rufous Owl.
Local wetlands hold vast numbers of waterbirds, with Magpie Geese being the most numerous….
….but not necessarily the most beautiful, black-and-white bird - as this Black-necked Stork attests.
From Darwin we visit Kakadu National Park – a vast World Heritage Site famous for both its wildlife and its Aboriginal cultural sites. Perhaps the highlight is our boat trip on the Yellow Water billabong….
….where the giant Saltwater Crocodiles that are the main attraction for most tourists….
….play second fiddle for us, due to the abundant bird life including White-breasted Sea-eagle,…
….Australasian Darter,….
….and Azure Kingfisher.
And to experience the cultural side of things we’ll visit Nourlangie Rock, part of an impressive sandstone escarpment,….
….where many rock paintings tell tales of dreamtime and other aboriginal beliefs….
….though even here there are birds to look for, such as this Great Bowerbird.