Birds, animals and planes

 

Wednesday 27 July 2022 – Birds, animals and planes

Very chilly overnight – hovering around zero degrees but it was a dry cold with no frost or condensation outside when we dared to poke our noses outside of the van.  We rugged up warmly and were in the car by 8am and off the Alice Springs Desert Park.  We were in time for the 8.30am keeper talk/feeding in the giant aviary and it was lovely to see the birds fluttering around our heads for the dried insects the ranger tossed about.  A few of the silly finches were making nests in the information boards so that they have to keep fluttering away and leave the eggs cold when anyone comes near to read the boards – oh well, survival of the fittest/smartest I guess!

Larry liked the Australasian Grebes which are like miniature ducks (but without the small dog complex).  They have incredibly big feet and are very ungainly on land - rather like us when we put our flippers on the beach and then have to try and walk to enter the water.  They actually can’t take off from land and must be on water to take flight.

From there we wandered through the sand plain/clay pan portion of the park with not much to see and it was still too early and far too cold for any lizards or perenties to be sunning themselves on their paths which H&M remember from their last visit here.  We made our way around to the dingo enclosure by 9.30am where the keeper told us all about their nature and habitat.  Interesting that thylacines ranged right up into the Territory about 6000 years ago (as evidenced by rock paintings etc) but slowly disappeared as the dingoes became the apex predator.   As the dingoes didn’t get to Tasmania before the island broke off, thylacines remained there until more recent times hence why they are now mainly known as Tasmanian Tigers!

We left that interesting talk and headed straight to the birds of flight display and took up our position behind about 50 pre-primary kids from the nearby Bradshaw Primary School.  They we very good and all sat quietly when required to and all obeyed the strict instruction not to stand up or move about while the birds were flying about.  The show was very good with everything from a magpie to an eagle coming out and flying over out heads and dive bombing the keeper for bits of food.  The star of the show, however was a little willy wag tail who shadowed the keeper up and down the steps and danced around his feet demanding attention only tactfully disappearing to the sidelines when a big hawk or falcon flew through!  Very enjoyable.

                                                        

                                                         

We wandered on through the park and got to the nocturnal house while H&M decided to go on to a cultural talk about bush foods etc.  L&J had only been in the dark for about 5 minutes before all hell broke loose with 50 small bodies hurtling through the dark shouting at each other to look in all the displays.  We hugged the edge of the display in order not to trip or be tripped by small children and it was interesting that the vibrations they caused did actually make some of the pythons move around a bit although most animals had the good sense to find a rock or branch to hide behind.  We left the kids at the exit but were joined by H&M who had found the talk a little too ‘lectury’ and judgmental for their liking so we turned around and headed back through the nocturnal house, this time in a much more serene way and thus spotting quite a few more animals darting around on the sound.  I particularly like the plains mice with one climbing up on a branch and coming right to the glass next to me to say hello.

We finished the circuit of the park by heading past an empty perentie enclosure (that or they are very good at playing hide and seek) and then past the bustard aviary – they really are huge birds.  By this time we had shed jackets and gloves and our tummies were starting to rumble so it was time to head back to camp.  Whilst jackets and gloves had come off, jumpers were still on and it was definitely cold enough to have hot soup and bread for lunch.

H&M did a bit of pack up and lock up of their van and changed into their flight clothes and then we drove them out to the airport as they are doing a quick trip back to Perth for Tom’s graduation ceremony.  We left for the airport a little early so that we had time to stop and look at all the planes parked up in a corner.  There must be about 50-60 planes waiting out Covid limited travel in the dry desert air – a lot of planes from Asia such as Cathay Pacific and Singapore airlines as well as quite a few Scoot as well as some others that none of us recognised the logos for.

                                            

Having dropped H&M at the terminal (we felt a bit like locals dropping off visitors!) we headed into town to do a grocery shop and replenish supplies.  That was all then taken back to the van where homes had to be found for it all.  A load of washing done and now we are ensconced in the van in the warmth after a yummy dinner of chicken katsudon.