Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Parry Creek Nature Reserve

Warning: Bird photos!
Those of you “in the know” would have been very surprised if there was not a blog entry about Parry Creek Reserve. I don’t like to disappoint so…
Our trip to Parry’s was a late afternoon day trip from Kununurra. We mucked around determining the best track in from the Great Northern Highway as we were getting close to Wyndham. We had two sightings of brolga in the surrounding bush as we approached. The trip was also punctuated by some close range experience of the Kimberley on fire.
All the pictures are at Marlgu Billabong which has boardwalks and a bird hide. There was a steady trickle of visitors – there was always one or two other cars with us.
IMG_6041
IMG_6037IMG_6039
IMG_6040IMG_1507 edit
Fancy not having enough binoculars to go around. Ellen is clearly disappointed! Well not everyone can have a huge camera lens and a funny hat!
Birding highlights seen here were seeing pied heron and pygmy goose for the first time among several other “lifers” – four lifers in four seconds without even turning  the car engine off doesn’t happen often! This handsome pelican  fed right in front of us – getting down low then dipping his whole top half under the water then sorting out the muck from the dinner. Jacanas looked great walking around on the lily pads.
IMG_0661IMG_0602
IMG_0608IMG_0617
IMG_0688IMG_0695
There was a huge flock of plumed whistling-duck as well. After Marlgu we explored locally looking for the other Parry Creek lagoons but these turned out to be dry.
IMG_6036
This shot taken from the car window as we drove along the highway north-west of Kununurra. The impression was of a controlled “cool burn” but there was no overt supervision. When we returned to Kununurra it was dark and the rows of flame made for a dramatic scene.
IMG_3065IMG_3071
We were treated to a typical east Kimberley sunset as we drove past the ruins of a telegraph station near Marlgu Billabong.
IMG_3067IMG_3068
IMG_1514
Another memorable afternoon!

No comments:

Post a Comment