Took the kids to a mates farm for the afternoon to get them out of the house! while they kept themselves busy riding bikes and so on, I managed to go for a walk into a small mallee scrub and sand quarry that is on this farm to see what was around. I had never birded this spot and was expecting the usual mallee species, but hoping for something unusual. I was not to be disappointed as you will see below by some of the photos! White-backed Swallows were the highlight as I have only ever seen them much further north than here and didn't know they came down this far! so as you can imagine I was pretty happy with that! also in the unexpected category was around 12 Blue-winged Parrots and 4 Brown Quail! I expected Elegant Parrots but only found one and not the BWP but there you go! the Brown Quails were also something of a surprise as this place usually only turns up Stubble Quails in the surrounding cereal crops. I heard their distinct call from at least four birds and flushed a couple of these as well.
All up a great little session and topped off with a lovely Barn Owl on the way home!
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| White-backed Swallow |
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| Pair of White-backed Swallows |
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| This single Elegant Parrot was loosely associating with the Blue-wings! |
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| Blue-winged parrot adult, there were a few juveniles around too |
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| Spectacular birds Rainbow Bee-eaters |
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| Rainbow Bee-eater |
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| Dusky Woodswallow |
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| Four little cuties! Australian Kestrels. |
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| Welcome Swallow, common bird but I had to add this photo as it is probably the best photo I took for the day! |
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| Rufous Songlarks were constantly calling |
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| The most familiar night time bird in these parts, Barn Owls are about in good numbers at the moment! This bird allowed me to aim the car headlights on it and get out and photograph it, all the time it just kept on scanning the ground looking for a rodent meal! |
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