North West Tablelands and beyond

As we are moving into spring and the dry in the interior continues to bite we headed off to try and find some dry country specialities that were being pushed East. It was ironic that on the trip we actually had pretty poor weather - strong winds and rain which made finding some of these specialities very difficult - coupled with the fact that the one river crossing we found with water in had a road crew carrying out repairs meant that birds were quite hard to find.
A few of the Melaleuca's were in flower and these certainly concentrated the Honeyeaters in particular - although it was still very hard work getting decent views of anything. Rather disappointingly we failed to find Banded Honeyeater but I think this was due in part to the viewing conditions. In addition where we did find shelter and birds the light conditions were too poor for photography. Trips like this though always throw up some goodies and this was no exception.
In one stream bed we found three Shining Bronze-Cuckoos feeding very actively

We also found a single Pallid Cuckoo but it was far to flighty and we were never able to get any pictures of it.

The one dry country migrant that we found in good numbers was the Diamond Dove. This diminutive dove is normally found further west in arid  or semi arid woodlands with the occasional bird pushed east as their habitat dries out. During the day in addition to several widely scattered individuals we also found one flock of over 100 birds

The flock was feeding beside the road and was very jumpy, but with patience we got some great views of this exceedingly attractive bird

One of the features of the pasture land in the N W Tablelands are the Australian Bustards. We are lucky in this region that our population seems to be stable and they are still a feature in our landscape but as you move south they become progressively scarcer due to among other things habitat loss and the introduction of intensive grazing.

Watching these magnificent birds is a highlight of any trip particularly if the males are displaying. At least two of the males that we found were "warming up" by puffing up their throat and neck feathers but I think it was just too cold and windy for them to get into full swing

Due to the weather there were fewer raptors on the wing than we had hoped for but it did give us the opportunity to get some brilliant views such as this Nankeen (or Australian) Kestrel

A very interesting trip to an area that holds huge potential, and one that we hope to repeat again soon