Barking owl - crowd pleaser!

This Barking owl turned up at the amenities block at Home Valley Station caravan park while we were there in August. My daughter Hannah wrote in her journal:

Last night during dinner we saw a large bird fly into a tree. It turned out to be a barking owl! It was amazing. We attracted a lot of attention. It was quite weird to be standing there surrounded by people right next to a bathroom. The owl was reddish-brown with a brown striped chest and the underside of its tail. It has white flecked wings. Its head is rather flat with yellow eyes.

Black kite, Home Valley Station, WA

Other hunting and scavenging birds were frequent including Whistling kite and Black kite. At the other end of the food chain it was good for me to finally compare Diamond dove and Peaceful dove "face to face" (I keep getting the names mixed up)!

Diamond dove (foreground) and Peaceful dove (rear)

Bar-shouldered dove not far away as well

Although not in the prolific numbers reported in parts of Australia recently it's always nice to have a budgerigar experience!

And it's always fun meeting new friends!

A somewhat shy Bar-breasted honeyeater, HomeValley Station

 Bird on!

Wedge-tailed eagle versus fishing line

In August this impressive and noble looking Wedge-tailed eagle was spotted roadside feasting on roadkill. When it had decided it was "over" being photographed (and covered in the dust from our car) it took off towards a better perch.

Nothing unusual there.

Wedge-tailed eagles are notoriously laboured in their take-off and when this bird sort of mucked up its landing I still didn't think much of it. We are very close and still in the car which means the following photos are totally out of focus and poorly captured.

However I invite the viewer to click for the enlargements and follow the slide show to see what I later discovered on the shots. The Kimberly dust adds an apocalyptic gloom.

The bird's next port of call was a nearby anthill. I am assuming that what we see here is fishing line (I also initially wondered if it may have been a tracking device).

At the time the bird's flight really did not seem impeded and I came away thinking that I had been viewing a healthy bird. This was the dry season in a remote part of Australia. My guess is that monitoring a wild bird's health in this situation would be an improbable possibility and I can only hope that this bird is doing OK.

For injured or orphaned wildlife that is able to be transported I have tonight come across a website for a Kununurra based service Kimberley Wildlife Rescue.

I was reminded of a pelican I photographed at Forster NSW.

The one about the Varied lorikeet and the Jigal tree

Stopped for a while where the Gibb River Rd crosses the Pentecost River in the Kimberley. This was late on the afternoon of 7th August this year. While my brother fished and watched for salties* I came across this familiar-looking tree. It was a Jigal tree in flower. A week or so earlier I had come across one at Katherine (Jigal tree - bird magnet) which was attracting a wide variety of birds.

This tree was similarly productive for me!

Varied lorikeet, flowering Jigal tree

Masked woodswallow

A few shots of the amazing countryside showing the Pentecost River crossing on the Gibb River Rd. The Cockburn Range provides the backdrop.

Bird on!

*Estuarine crocodiles

HV8 Finches put on a show!

HV8 is the cattle brand for the Home Valley Station located in the Kimberly region of Western Australia. In our brief stay there in August this year I was thrilled to meet several bird species for the first time including a few species of finches.

Photographing these Long-tailed finch was a buzz! I had not really studied in advance and didn't know their name nor anything about them .... except that they looked sensational!

Long-tailed finch, Home Valley Station

I had met Crimson finch back at Kununurra but the Home Valley birds were very accommodating. Finches do love poor plumbing!

Crimson finch, Home Valley Station

Finally, a small flock of Gouldian finches was worth getting up early for. They didn't allow me very close and disappeared after a single viewing but I at least got a couple of shots to remember the occasion!

Gouldian finch, Home Valley Station

Ahh the memories!

Bird on!