February

Full moons in the in the far south west of Queensland can be spectacular.

I almost trod on this female Beared Dragon, and she was not impressed.

 

As I was driving to camp late in the day after a long day in the field, I noticed a cow laying in an unusual spot by herself, out on the gently undulating gibber plain. I had seen her there on my way in the morning, and I knew something was up when she was still there in the afternoon, not long before dark.

As I turned the car around and pulled over, a Wedge-tailed eagle flew across the bonnet heading towards the cow. At that moment I noticed the cow was not alone, with two eagles on the ground next to her. It was fairly obvious to me, that not far from her would be her dead calf. Sure enough the eagle that had flown over the front of my car landed about thirty metres from the cow, and mantled over what I presume was the calf. Instantly a Dingo I had not seen jumped up from lying position in the grass and hurriedly ran towards the eagle and won back the carcass. The cow though had done the same, and was now running towards the Dingo.  It was then that I started to take the series below.

 

Cow runs in vein toward the dingo to scare it from her calf.

 

Dingo casually walks away, to continue the waiting game. The three eagles remain on standby.



The dingo lies back down to wait it out, knowing eventually the cow will have to move on.

The dingo sitting up to check me out.


I caught up with the regular Wedgie pair near my camp.

About to take off, and join its partner

Reunited on the next dune.

Just below where the Wedgie was perched in the tree was a fresh snake slide in the red sand. I had a fun time following it, as it weaved in and around the dunes, sometimes looping back in the opposite direction. Eventually I caught up with the culprit who was perfectly aligned in the shade of a Beefwood tree. I went to change lenses, but in the process the long and thin Common Brown slipped down a whole.

As I drove down a relatively disused track, I noticed a bird flapping on the ground in distress near the left hand side of the car.
As I walked over to the bird, a Black-fronted Dotterel,  it performed again by running around on the road erratically with one wing drooped low, acting injured.  I then spotted the small eggs camouflaged on the gravel road.  I backed out watching her sit back on her eggs, and hoped I was the last car that would come past for some time.

 

 

 

I didn't get anywhere near it, but I enjoyed catching up with a very good looking Black Falcon.

January 2015

Wow.. where did the first HALF of this year go?! Work and family life has been very very busy this year. I have been meaning to whack photos up so many times but something else always seems to take over. Anyway enough excuses for being slack... I have some serious catch up to do.

Summer storm off in the distance over the gibber plains.

Its amazing what technology has done to the social aspects of remote work life. Before me in this selfie, is one of the most remote cricket fields in Qld. The pitch is cement and the outfield consists of gibber stones. It is unused, a remnant of the social side of remote work in the 80's and 90's before Wi-Fi internet access, and everyone had a smart phone. Still the old two tiered seat provided a good spot to watch the distant storms.

The storms were pretty minimal in my area, but better rains to the north, meant the Cooper flowed again. I managed to get down into a little creek to watch the water pour down it and fill the soil cracks beneath m feet. The next day I would have been under water standing in the same spot.

Soon as you went out of the channel and onto the flats, conditions were still very dry.

Still plenty of Bourke's parrots hanging in the 'Minnieritchie', or Red Mulga, trees.

It doesn't take much water to fire up the Budgies though

Big fella putting the moves on his girl.

I actually climbed up and sat in a Bloodwood tree  next to a small drying waterhole, when I was taking these budgie photos. A White-winged triller came in to see what I was. Most of the time it was way too close for my telephoto lens.

Even the Corellas had no idea what I was

I caught this nice looking Common brown snake with dark flecking, entering a soil crack.