This morning I got on the road fairly early as planned and headed towards the Barkly Tableland in search of Flock Bronzewings. The morning started off uneventful under the never ending cloud cover. About midmorning I found myself slamming on the breaks and doing a quick U-Turn to verify that I had just seen a pair of Ground Cuckoo-shrikes. Sure enough, Irefound the birds though only got a view of the birds in flight but it was good enough to confirm the ID. A little while later Ifound another flock of four birds where I was able to get great views as they fed along the side of the road. These birds can be difficult to find as they go where conditions are good and they can be a bit irregular in their distribution so I was quite pleased with seeing them.
About midday Ireached the bore where I was hoping to see the Flock Bronzewings. Due to all of the recent rain, the track out to the bore was extremely muddy so I decided to not risk driving out there and walked on out. About 2:00, I headed out with chair and book and was prepared to wait for the birds to come in to drink near sunset. To my surprise, as I approached the bore, a flock of 20 pigeons flew over. I quickly realized that they were something I hadn't seen before. As I got closer it was quite obvious that they were in fact Flock Bronzewings. They were a lot more colorful than the images in the fieldguides and were actually quite beautiful. Like most flocks of birds, I couldn't get close to them so decided photographing them wasn't going to happen.
By about 3:00, I was back at the car having seen the birds I was after and since I didn't think I would be able to photograph them, I decided to get on the road and head on south and get a head of schedule a bit. I didn't make it all the way to Tennant Creek but I should get in there early tomorrow and I think that the clouds are starting to break up a bit!
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