Spring has definitely arrived early this year in Alice Springs. Everywhere you look, native shrubs are in flower, the birds are building nests and the hills still have a greenish tinge after consistent rainfall all this year. It is gorgeous. We are even getting a few days now above 20 degrees, although the nights remain cool. Who would be anywhere else?!
Owls and Nightjars are more common in the Australian bush than most of us realise. Most are nocturnal – active at night – so we are largely unaware of their presence. We may hear the hooting of an owl in the early hours of the morning, or see a dark shape fly silently overhead if we are outside at night, but otherwise we are unlikely to see them.
If my memory serves me correctly, Australia has around 60 species of Honeyeater, native Miner and Spinebill. And that’s not even counting the Wattlebirds and Friarbirds. Needless to say, we have struggled with our identification of the many and varied Honeyeaters encountered during our adventures. We have both been heard to comment at times that “these Honeyeaters are doing my head in”.
To make the task more difficult, Honeyeaters are supercharged on a diet consisting mainly of nectar. Like five year olds on too much red cordial, Honeyeaters don’t stay still for very long, making the task of identifying their species, or of taking a half decent photo, all the more challenging.
Birds of prey hold a special fascination for us humans, and Australia’s birds of prey are no exception. We gaze in wonder at them as they soar high above the earth, effortlessly riding the wind thermals, searching the ground far below for food using their exceptional vision.
In many cultures they symbolize spiritual attainment; their high soaring habit representing a capacity to rise above earthly concerns and to view issues from a dispassionate position, a place of wisdom. We use the expression ‘eagle-eyed’ for people of keen vision and insight.
THE LAUGHING KOOKABURRA
Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree,
Merry, merry king of the bush is he,
Laugh, Kookaburra, laugh, Kookaburra,
Gay your life must be!
The Woodswallows are not particularly well known birds, even though they are widespread across Australia. They are skillful fliers, catching their insect prey on the wing. In the case of the Little Woodswallow, they are often seen soaring high above mountaintops or rocky outcrops to feed. Many times during our travels they have been companions to us, of sorts, as we have taken in the view after a strenuous climb, and notice these little birds zooming around nearby. Their clever aerobatics seem almost mocking of our clumsy, earthbound ways.
Nirbeeja grew up on a ginger and produce farm in Buderim, in south-eastern Queensland. It was an idyllic existence, in a beautiful part of our country before the area was over-developed. During the stormy summer months she would often hear an unusual bird call, and was informed by her father that it was made by the Storm Bird, and heralded the coming rains. She often heard the call but doesn’t recall seeing the bird.
She was therefore very excited to hear the same call here in Alice Springs, during our stormy weather last summer. She was even more excited to see the bird making the call. At last! After much consulting of our bird-books, she decided that the so-called Storm Bird was none other than the Channel-Billed Cuckoo. Interestingly, the local Aboriginal people say that when the Channel-Billed Cuckoo is seen in this area, it means big rains are coming. And they are right, for the Todd River has flowed three times this year after consistent heavy falls.
At first glimpse, most of our native pigeons and doves are unspectacular. They are not especially colourful or large, nor do they entertain us with beautiful songs. Indeed, the songs of many of the pigeons and doves border on the mournful. There is, however, a wonderful range of native pigeons and doves spread across the country.
We all know plenty of waterbirds, don’t we? Ducks, swans, seagulls………and those other ones. In fact, the term waterbird is incredibly broad and somewhat misleading; after all, every bird needs water to survive.
What’s going on here? We’re running a website called brolgahealingjourneys, and we don’t have any pictures of Brolgas on the site. To tell the truth, we had a really frustrating time waiting to see our first Brolgas on our travels. We had seen plenty of Brolgas on a previous trip, in 2002, to the Kimberley. In fact, the huge flocks of Brolgas we saw at that time, on the shores of Lake Gregory, itself on the edge of the Great Sandy Desert, provided the inspiration for this website’s name.
But this time around things were different. We commenced our travels in July 2007 and it wasn’t until late June 2009 that we had our first sighting. It was with a mixture of excitement and blessed relief that we watched a small flock of Brolgas jump and dance on the far edge of a pond at Cape Keraudren, on the southern tip of Eighty Mile Beach in WA. We too jumped and danced, to see Brolgas again. The Brolgas were a long way off, the sun was in our eyes, we only managed a few grainy photos and a short blurry video, but we didn’t care. At long last we had seen some Brolgas!!
